Hi everyone. I'm just starting to make the progression from hiking to mountaineering. In January I did a winter course up in Scotland involving all the basics and a decent walk including a Grade I winter scramble. Having done Tour du Mont Blanc last year I'd love to go back to the alps and actually start doing some peaks. I'm going with another friend who also did the Scotland trip and is keen but novice.

Does anyone have any suggestions for peaks or alpine routes that would be good for us as beginners. Preferably not involving cable cars. I quite like walking up from the bottom. Anywhere around Mont Blanc or the Swiss alps would be good. Or maybe even the Dolomites if its a good route.

Cheers

riven wrote:Hi everyone. I'm just starting to make the progression from hiking to mountaineering. In January I did a winter course up in Scotland involving all the basics and a decent walk including a Grade I winter scramble. Having done Tour du Mont Blanc last year I'd love to go back to the alps and actually start doing some peaks. I'm going with another friend who also did the Scotland trip and is keen but novice.

Does anyone have any suggestions for peaks or alpine routes that would be good for us as beginners. Preferably not involving cable cars. I quite like walking up from the bottom. Anywhere around Mont Blanc or the Swiss alps would be good. Or maybe even the Dolomites if its a good route.

Cheers

First of all, congrats on catching the bug to be in the mountains. It sounds like you are off to a good start. For a first alpine season (and since you want to avoid cable cars), I strongly recommend heading for the Stubai Alps where you can hone your navigation, glacier travel, and climbing/scrambling skills without ever being too far from a hut. If you have a few weeks, you can do one of several loops between huts ascending and descending peaks all day.

Not sure what your wintercourse in Scotland involved and what your objectives are (glacier walks, alpine rock, ...), but as mountaindog says, a good first experience would be the Austrian Alps. Not as high as the Swiss alps, in general shorter climbs to the huts and enough stuff to do.

Check out mountains/routes in the Otztal, Zillertal and Stubai alps in Tirol (plenty of info here on summitpost). There are plenty of nice hut to hut glacier routes with nice climbs along the way. Good practising ground for glacier walking techniques, crevasse rescue and rope handling.

Also the northern part of the Mt Blanc region (for ex. Aiguille du tour) is an ok practising ground.

For alpine rock climbing the region around Furka-, Grimsel- and Sustenpass in Switzerland will offer plenty of possibilities.

Have fun and go safe!
Koen

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm only just getting into climbing, so I don't intend to do any alpine climbing this trip, but some glacial travel would be good.

The course in Scotland covered:
weather conditions
snow conditions
avalanche awareness
walking in crampons
walking in snow
walking roped up
self arrest
basic navigation (my navigation is already pretty good from years of scouts)

I've got Freedom of the Hills to try and learn more. I'm a little bit worried about practicing cravass rescue with just two of us, but I guess it has to be done!

riven wrote:Thanks for the advice guys. I'm only just getting into climbing, so I don't intend to do any alpine climbing this trip, but some glacial travel would be good.

The course in Scotland covered:
weather conditions
snow conditions
avalanche awareness
walking in crampons
walking in snow
walking roped up
self arrest
basic navigation (my navigation is already pretty good from years of scouts)

I've got Freedom of the Hills to try and learn more. I'm a little bit worried about practicing cravass rescue with just two of us, but I guess it has to be done!

Riven,
Again, it sounds like you are taking the right approach. Mountain navigation seems like a snap with so many terrain features to guide you - until the mist comes... The goals for your first alpine trip should be to practice the skills above in a more forgiving environment where you can summit some great peaks, come back in one piece, and above all; have fun. For that the Stubai are hard to beat.

you might checkout the BMC website to see if Conville Course places are still available; they offer young people training in alpine skills. The deadline may however just have passed.

Hello,

Similarly to you, I've started to make the progression from hiking to mountaineering. What really sorted me out was the International School of Mountaineering, which is based in Leysin.

They do two student week long courses (around £500 each) and they are great for teaching basic skills as well as getting up some peaks. I suggest you check out the Student Alpine Ascents course.

Cheers,
Carl.

If there are really good conditions you could stay 2 days at the Weissmies hut in the Saas valley in Switzerland and 1 day at the Almageller hut. Then you could make the Jägihorn (beautiful via ferrata for acclimatisation) then Lagginhorn (you need good and sunny conditions that the rocks are not iced). Then hike to the Almageller hut (beautiful trail) and the next day to Weissmies via the SSE-ridge (same way back). Mostly rock, only at the end a sharp ridge of maybe 100 m but you could secure this passage.
Then if you like you could make Allalinhorn normal route from Saas Fee (but normally people start at Mittelallalin and use the ropeway).

There are plenty of really nice peaks that do not involve big glaciers, so pick those until your skills improve.

Look at some of the stuff in SE Switzerland like Casnil and Piz da la Margna or in the Uri Alps, such as Diechterhorn (very benign glacier), Krönten, Gross Furkahorn, and Muttenhorn. All these have SP pages.