An Early Spring in Diemtigtal

At last we can make a long weekend, allowing to drive further towards the snow. The destination is our favourite ski-touring area: Diemtigtal.

Check the video impression of this trip on YouTube.

There is plenty of snow there, but we need to start the tours high enough, at about 1200m.
We left on Wednesday early afternoon and decided to approach from the Fribourg side to do the first tour from the Jaunpass. As we arriving to Bulle the snow really started chucking down.

Thursday, 27th of February: Warm-up tour to Bäderhore from Jaunpass

View of Le Moléson on the drive up to Jaun pass.

From the hotel in Bulle it was a short drive up to the Jaun pass (1510m). There were several groups preparing to start ski or snowshoe tours, but all went S towards the Hundsrügg. To the North the Bäderhore looked inviting.
The first part of the way up is easy going along the groomed winter walking path. At Bäderegg we left the path and had to lay tracks on the 30 cm of fresh snow that had fallen over night. With my poles I could feel below this a couple of cm of hard crust from last week's sunny weather and below older, mushy snow. Not a very reassuring snow pack.
From the joch we climbed to the W side of the mountain (to the phone mast); from there it gets much steeper through the trees up to the summit ridge. First-Mate took the lead and did a great job of finding the best route.

Approaching the climb through the trees to the reach the summit ridge. Soon after this photo First-Mate took the lead.

Once out of the woods, we found new difficulties on the summit ridge: the N side is steep rock, the S side was covered with very unstable wind-pack, and on the sharp ridge a series of rock and snow steps that made progress difficult.

View from the Bäderhore shoulder, just below 1900m. The mountain decided this was as far as we were allowed to go.

View towards Simmental with Berner Oberland in the background.

Anyway, the upper part of the descent from the summit is too demanding to be enjoyable for us, so just before 1900m we decided to start the descent. First, came a long traverse across the mountain face, with long distance between us and nervously watching for any movement of the snow. Then on safe terrain enjoying a few turns on perfect snow.

Descent route: first a long, fast traverse, then great skiing on perfect and safe snow.

After a lunch-break in the sunshine, we just had to make our way back to the car park, finishing the descent on the pistes.

Spring in February at Bäderegg.

Friday, 28th of February: Meniggrat (1930m) from Diemtigtal

After a night at the guesthouse Rössli in Oey we drove up Diemtigtal for a tour to Meniggrat. We found a snow-cleared, free parking at Anger and started up the path towards Schwand, first walking, than on skis.

Looking at the E face of the Meniggraat you would never guess that the W side is an easy ski tour.

After nearly one-hour we arrived to the road from Zwischenfluh which was clear, and found several cars parked at Schwand where the real tour starts. Duh! I later checked my notes from 2010: I had written that this road is clear.
Anyway, we finally started up the well traced path, encountered a few groups and shortly after one pm we were standing at the summit in bright sunshine with a great view.

Meniggraat summit.

Then came a great descent in powder snow.

Descent in fresh powder.

Saturday, 1st of March: Puntel (1949m) from Rossberg, our "Monte Perdido"

In order to escape the weekend crowds, we had planned a tour more off the beaten track, but more snow and wind overnight (increased avalanche risk) combined with poor visibility made us opt for an easier, safer alternative: Puntel.
In 2010, in a long tour we crossed from Diemtigtal to Simmental via Turne and Puntel. Then in 2012 we tried to climb Puntel via the easier route from Rossberg but made a mistake and ended-up on Obere Buufal instead. Last year we tried again but chose the wrong approach, found ourselves in steep forest and had to turn back. We started to call this mountain our "Monte Perdido".
This time we were more careful in the approach and there were clear tracks going in the right direction, so we had no trouble in finding the right way.

Puntel, our "Monte Perdido" found again.

Our effort was rewarded with another great descent in fluffy stuff.

Descent from Puntel.

Sunday, 2nd of March: Crowded Rauflihorn (2322m)... by mistake

Overnight there was a bit more fresh snow, and in the morning it was still falling lightly (as drizzle in the valley), but the weather forecast guaranteed that it would soon turn into a bright, sunny day. So, we decided to try to get to Ankestock (2155m) also known as Mariannehubel. From the map, the route seems to involve a steep section through forest to find a passage between cliffs, and a summit approach that although not steep looks likely to be filled with wind-blown snow. Good visibility will be essential.

The car park at Grimmialp was crowded with groups preparing for the many tours that start from there. The weather was still not clearing, so instead of taking a shortcut by using a ski-lift for part of the way, we decided to skin the whole way up. The route was very well trodden, and as it started winding-up through the forest we were surprised how much easier it seemed than what we expected from the map. We were expecting to come out of the trees soon and find a spot for a tea-break at a chalet, but our altimeters seemed to be a bit off, because they were telling that we were higher than we thought. "The pressure must be changing", we thought. Only when we reached the chalet, stopped for some tea and studied the map did we realise our mistake: we were not on the difficult-to-find route to Ankestock, we were on the crowded route to Rauflihore! Moreover, we had got out of the map we were carrying and the visibility was still poor. But there was such a crowd going up that neither map nor good visibility were necessary; just follow the ant-trail.
And so it was that two hours later we were standing on the summit, with lots of other people and in poor visibility.

Wrong mountain, poor visibility, crowded, and bad snow.  Why is the Rauflihore so popular?

The descent was not as much fun as in previous days: poor visibility, heavy snow, and too may traces. The only fun part was the bit through the forest, which was like a snow-park.

We'll have to climb this mountain again, but not in a weekend, in better weather, and by the Arblihore route.

Epilogue

Eleven hours after standing on Rauflihore we were back home, with our minds still full with the beauty of the mountains. This trip more than compensated for the poor winter. Unfortunately, this was probably the last alpine tour of the season.
But we are still hoping for a ski tour in the far North. Maybe we'll finally dare the Hardangervidda crossing, following in the tracks of Nansen and Amudsen.