UKH

Sitting in wet and windy Wolverhampton and thinking of my next trip to the Alps. Anyone got any input into the Taschhorn - Dom traverse?

In reply to Gone for good: I take it thats a no then.

In reply to Gone for good:

Have a look at this:

http://www.camptocamp.org/routes/56904/fr/taschhorn-traversee-taschhorn-dom

In reply to jon: Thanks for the link. What I dont understand is why freeclimb at 3c - difficulty D and commitment iv? Thats three very different gradings for an alpine route. I thought it was a AD +.

In reply to Gone for good:

I imagine they think the alpine grade is D and not AD+. 3c is the technical difficulty of the rock climbing you are going to encounter. maybe IV is a camptocamp rating for commitment.

In reply to jon: Are you based in the Alps? I was in the Zermatt valley earlier this year with a friend and we climbed a few of the easier 4000 metre alps in the region. I am definitely going back next July. I thought about going up the Taschhorn via the Mischabel bivi and then doing the traverse over to the Dom and back down to Randa. Is this a 3 day exped?
Any idea what would a guide charge for a party of 2?

In reply to Gone for good:

I am based in the alps. The reason I noticed your post is that the Taschorn and the Dom are the only Zermatt 4000s that I have so far not done, and was thinking of trying next week. I went to the bivvy hut a few years back with a good forecast - it snowed 30cms at the hut during the night. We bailed down towards Saas (we approached the hut via the Alphubel, which is the easiest way) and a Saas guide in front of us was avalanched...

It's a day to the hut whichever way you go. Then it depends how long you take to do the traverse as to whether you get down to Randa or to the Dom hutte. If you click on the 'sortie' for 9 July 2009 at the bottom of the camptocamp page you'll see that the guys left the bivvy at 4:15 and arrived at the Dom hutte at 15:15, so I imagine they'd have carried on down. I know a very well known British guide who regularly gets mentioned on here who took 16 or 17 hours, so I think conditions are all important. A guided team may take longer and have to stay at the hut. Don't know what the tarif is - you'd have to ask at Zermatt or Saas. It maybe that they'd only do it 1:1, but really I have no idea, sorry.

In reply to jon: Thanks for your input jon. I hope the conditions are good for you next Week andthat you have a successful climb.

In reply to Gone for good:

Me too!

In reply to Gone for good:

My wife and I did it in about 1996. We walked up to the Tasch Hut at lunchtime, left it about 4pm and climbed a rocky ridge (can't remember its name, about 4+) to the Alphubel. Descended to the bivvy hut hut very late. Climbed the Taschorn easily the next morning and then had an epic descending to the Taschorn-Dom col. It said PD in our old guide so we only had 30m of half rope, one axe each and a minimal rack. 7 hours later we reached the col. Then climbed easily to the Dom and got most of the way to the Dom hut before it got dark and we bivvied. Folk told us it was normally done in the other direction, which makes a lot of sense. I would get a second opinion on that, but worth considering.

In reply to Andy Nisbet:

Hi Andy, I've always heard of it in the direction that you did it... I thought that was the normal direction.

In reply to Andy Nisbet: Thanks for the info...what made it such a difficult and long descent to the col? was it steep rock and abseiling all the way down?

In reply to Gone for good:

No it was ice, quite hard and old, plus some abseiling (15m obviously). We didn't have any ice screws. It would have been easier on snow, but still quite steep - I can't see how it would ever have been PD. Conditions were quite dry, so the up ridges were mostly rubble

In reply to Andy Nisbet:

... or maybe I'll just go cragging!

In reply to jon:

It was a memorable day. It would have been fine if we hadn't tried to rush, do it a day quicker than the original plan (because of a weather forecast for bad weather which didn't come), and therefore go too light. Gill wrote an article about it in one of the climbing mags

In reply to Andy Nisbet:

I actually remember you telling me about it.

In reply to Andy Nisbet: What do you think, earlier or later in the season?

In reply to Gone for good: I climbed the Rotgrat on Alphubel last week ( I think this is the rocky ridge Andy climbed from the Tasch hut)
http://www.frostguiding.co.uk/blog/136/Alphubel_Rotgrat.html

Met a Swiss guide setting off Alphubel-Taschhorn-Dom who said he would only guide it 1:1.

I think later season is better - you need dry rock and no cornice problems.

In reply to Gone for good:

I don't really know. Ideally you want good snow and dry rock, but so do many alpine routes

In reply to graham F:

Yes the Rotgrat. It was unusual climbing it in the evening and reaching the summit just as it got dark. It felt adventurous but probably wasn't. In the same way once guiding Mont Blanc from the Gouter Hut in the afternoon and returning to the hut as the sun set in the afternoon (on the recommendation of a local French guide; it was coldish weather). I'd be really surprised if anyone guided Alphubel-Taschhorn-Dom at more than 1:1. It's a route to be taken seriously, but not really technically hard. D sounds about right. I said double 50m ropes before, but changed my mind. That was for abseiling. Two tools each and two or three ice screws would be lighter.

In reply to Gone for good: Went up to do it twice in mid August, near perfect conditions. However .... attempt #1 was to be via Alphubel Rotgrat. Partner hurt his back picking his sack up in the car park and was unable to move at 3.30 am in the hut. So I did the Rotgrat alone and we returned to the valley. Excellent route - quite steep. Good to get the right line - ignoring the parties above! 3 days later, attempt #2, driving back up to Taschalp - my back started to feel unstable, confirmed when I couldn't even get my socks on! Still struggling 2 weeks on. And the good weather continued .....
Not had a lot of luck at Taschalp - 2 years ago we had 2 ft of snow there in mid August.