It's been a while since I've done anything due to broken bones and 'the fear' but I'm looking for a big F climb in either Mont Blanc area, Valais or southern Bernese alps. I know there must be loads to find, but I've done the easy ones from Zermatt already and I've heard some unpleasant stories from Mont Blanc gouter route so it'd be nice to find something a little less trodden. I'm not hung up on it being 4000 metres, even a nice col would do as long as it was exposed at the top...........I also can't spare more than two days, possibly 2 an a half. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated because many hours of internet research hasn't helped to make my mind up. Thanks folks.

Im going to Geneva in July and looking at doing some climbing. Although I must admit, im a slow acclimitiser and was hoping to spend a bit of time high before tackling some peaks.

Try the Lagginhorn, you can take the glacierroute, or if you want to go solo take the ridgeroute, easy and still 4000 m

Allalinhorn or Breithorn

So many:

Lagginhorn, Allalinhorn, Weissmies, Mönch, Breithorn, Castor and Pollux.

Then there are little ones that are way fun and not hard: Diechterhorn, Müttenhorn, Schwarzhorn near Grindelwald, Weisshorn in the Engadin, Schwarzhorn in the Engadin

You'll have to cruise the SP mountain pages to get ideas.

BTW, I think that neither of the Alps 4000ers is only graded F.

PD-/F, height gain:

Gran Paradiso, 1350 m
Allalinhorn (W ridge), 580m
Bishorn, 900 m
Breithorn, 350 m
Mont Blanc (Grans Mulets route), 1776 m

PD with low height gain:

Mönch 500m
Hinter-Fiescherhorn - 750 m
Piramide Vincent - 600 m
Castor - 650 m
Pollux - 600 m
Mont Blanc du Tacul - 730 m

I think the PD rating comes mainly from the glacier travel involved.

Well, you have to cross a glacier in both Breithorn and Mönch but the second is steeper than the first. Isn't it

Thanks for the suggestions, I've already done Zermatt to death and Grindlewald is just a little too far to drive to on a friday eve or Saturday morn and then get back from by Sunday night. I'm not a big fan of mont Blanc du Tacul either, unless we go in May it'll be too crowded, it'd be totally worth it if we were going to push on to the summit of mont blanc but I don't think either me or the missus have the fitness for that at the moment. I've found Breithorn and it's neighbours to be very much F, too much so, nice views, no challenge. The book of classic 4000metre alpine routes classes them as F, Gran P also I believe, but that's also a tad too far away, or too expensive if we use the tunnel DuMB. What I'm looking for as I'm out of practice is somewhere that will get us as much time in crampons as possible, can be summited and descended in a day either from a hut, base or cable car station and will give us some nice scary exposure, again doesn't matter if it's not a peak. So i guess maybe PD isn't a problem either if it's relatively short and doesn't involve rock beyond the extent of scrambling. Sorry if I sound kinda fussy, that's the kind of person who has trouble deciding such things!! If I lived near the Ecrins there'd be a multitude of options but I don't know this area as well as I know there.

Bishorn looks nice, and 50degree slopes would help get us back into practice.
Can anyone tell me how much of a bitch the hut climb is?? 1600 metres gain on the day before summiting is alot for two people who haven't even walked up a hill since last summer, but if it's a steady walk it might be do-able. Thanks again!!

Diego Sahagún wrote:Well, you have to cross a glacier in both Breithorn and Mönch but the second is steeper than the first. Isn't it

A little bit so, but crevasses are just as steep, regardless of the rest of the route.

From Geneva, you might also consider southern Germany. The Garmisch area has some fine stuff. Since I live in the PNW, I wouldn't think Grindelwald all that far away - leave Friday eve and return Sunday eve. No big deal. Blümlisalphoen and its neighbors, Doldenhorn, Hockenhorm, Balmhorn, Muttenhorn, Gespaltenhorn in the Kandersteg/Leukerbad area might be worth investigating.

Moni wrote:

Diego Sahagún wrote:Well, you have to cross a glacier in both Breithorn and Mönch but the second is steeper than the first. Isn't it

A little bit so, but crevasses are just as steep, regardless of the rest of the route.

Yep, Goedeke (The Alpine 4000m Peaks) says that Breithorn has 35º slopes and Mönch 45º. The last also has rocks graded as II.

BTW, I wouldn't go to Bavaria having Valais and Oberland so near. Anyway, I love those German mountains as well. You might consider on looking for some easy 3000ers mountains in Mont Blanc Massif. That's the nearest and highest range from Geneve

Bishorn looks nice, and 50degree slopes would help get us back into practice.
Can anyone tell me how much of a bitch the hut climb is?? 1600 metres gain on the day before summiting is alot for two people who haven't even walked up a hill since last summer, but if it's a steady walk it might be do-able. Thanks again!![/quote]

The walk up to the Tracuit hut is a bit of a slog. I started too late, walked up in the heat of the day and got dehydrated. For fit people it shouldn't be a problem.

Have you thought about the Arolla peaks? M-B de Cheilon, Pigne d'Arolla etc? They don't make the magic 4000m number but they are fine mountains, and the lack of uplift gives a traditional alpine flavour to the ascents.

Arolla looks fantastic, and not too far from geneva. I don't really know the area at all, my eyes used to skip across the map from combin to zermatt without stopping. Thanks for that. I think you may have just made up our minds! We're not fussed on height, somewhere fairly quiet with alot of ice were the main focuses and it looks like this is it!! Thanks!

A couple of years ago i did the crossing from the vignetteshut across the Pigne over the east- ridge towards the Cheilon, great tour, not too hard, very rewarding.
After the summit of Cheilon take the normal route down to the Dixhut.

The're plenty of great mountains to climb in de Arollavalley
This year i will come back for the Perroc.
Good luck