UKC

Heading out to the Saas Fee valley for a week.  I have one hut booking and will probably make another one but am interested in the possibility of any bivvy spots, in order to link one or two things together.  I don't want to head off though and find that I am having to hack ledges out of ice, as per the Fowlers and Kirkpatricks of this world!  Are there any spots that people can recommend, where it is flat, sheltered etc and might enable a more extended journey away from the valley?

I really appreciate your help.

Surely you need to bivvy at, or near, a particular location, that it is useful for your trip?

I've done it various times there in various places, depending upon where we were going.

More recently though, I think bivvying is not as acceptable as is France.  So you would need to be extremely discrete.  Which we always are anyway.

Thanks Bruce.

Yes I agree it seems that I am going about this in the wrong direction.  However, I have got the guidebooks so we have plenty of routes to pick from but we lack ideas about where would be a good bivvy spot.  I was hoping to choose some suitable routes to link up between an overnight in a hut and or bivvy spot.

Thinking about it, all of our bivvy sites in that valley were on the Weissmies side: beneath Lagginhorn, high up well beyond Almagellerhütte, and finally up beneath the Sonnighorn.  The other side of the valley is all a bit busy.  Have only had one emergency bivvy on that side

Happy planning.

Head east over to the Italian side. Lots of options and even a few bivi huts. Much wilder feeling than the rather sanitised Swiss side, though there is a fair bit of hydro infrastructure.

One easyish circuit is: Mattmark dam to Ofental Pass; descend to Lago Cingino; and back over the Antronapass. Or the other way round. Its doable as a longish day trip but would be much pleasanter with a bivi at the Lake.

I used a really good bivvy spot immediately above the Hohsaas cable car/station last year.

Really obvious to find (follow trail signs between cable car and cafe), with lots of options in a well used location, with lots of running water.

Good access to Jagihorn, Lagginhorn, and Weissmeis.

John C

There is the Bivouac Antigine at 2855 meters at the head of the Ofenthal pass between Saas and Italy.  On the B2 (CH) Saas to Gabi.

I think this is a pic of it.

Best of luck.

p.s. the Mattmark dam to Ofenthal Pass is a lovely walk in a very beautiful valley.  I agree, there is a much wilder feel up there.  Clouds from Italy make their way up to the frontier with Switzerland there, but often never descend into Saas.

This isnt Bivacco Antigone, but a swiss bivak in the neighbouring valley (Cresta Biwak SAC). Bivacco Antigone is a really nice biwak, with wooden inside, table, panoramic big window, lights and usb.

Also i bivyed multiple times in the valley near saas-almagel, next to the road(that goes to mattmark) there is a nice picnic place with running water, and WC. And just above saas-fee just behind a big rock. Of course both times i wake up early as its illegal below 2k meters.

There are also some "rock-fence" type spots on lagginhorn (new) normal route around 3000m and in weismiess sse ridge route at the pass where the ridge starts. Near weismiess sse ridge but on the italian side there is a bivacco citta di varese. unfortunately i dont know the other side of the valley, but there is a biwak called Mischabeljoch biwak.

Bivouac Citta di Varese on the Italian side.

Thank you everyone who contributed to this.

I returned a couple of weeks ago, having had a great time.

We didn't have an opportunity or need for a bivy in the end but in case anyone has a look at this thread in future, I can add that there were bivy spots around the Almageller Hut and also the Mischabel Hut.

For the Almageller, there are actually signs saying that wild camping is banned or something but people could discretely find spots away from the hut.  In the case of the Mischabel, if one carries on up the rock rib that the hut is on, there are two or at a pinch three spots about 100 m further up where you could see that people had bivied.  On one of them, there was space to easily pitch a tent.