Schrattenfluh traverse

Even just looking at a map, the Schrattenfluh is one of the most eye-catching features in the Emmentaler Alps. With its vertical walls to the north-west and its limestone slopes to the south-east, the Schrattenfluh looks pretty wild from any direction. Up close, the mountain is surprisingly accessible to hikers with several marked hiking paths. A traverse of the Schrattenfluh can be done in many different variations of different difficulty (see e.g. Tobi, Bergamotte or Delta for the more extreme variations).

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We park at Alp Schlund and start heading south. At P. 1762, a little beyond Alp Schlund an unmarked but obvious path heads steeply up towards the Schibegütsch east ridge (T3+; a few vague old white-red-white markings). It ends up at an interesting military bunker. You can climb up through a cave using some ladders, one of which has its rungs quite far apart. The top exit of the cave is not far below the Schibegütsch summit. Don't miss the beautiful natural rock window just south of the path.

There's a marked hiking path all the way from Schibegütsch to Hengst. A few interesting diversions are possible:

• P. 1991 can be climbed from the south (four metres of T5 / I). The north ridge looks more difficult, so we head back down the way we came.
• The interestingly shaped Türstenhäuptli is considerably more worthwhile. From the south, after a brief scramble onto a grassy ridge, we traverse west of the summit crag and subsequently reach the summit using the north ridge (a pleasant T4+ / I). There are surprisingly few entries in the log book here, though that might also be because you almost need blacksmith tools to force its container open.

It's really busy on the Hengst (ex-aequo with Hächle for highest Schrattenfluh summit) and still more people are arriving. We continue on, looking forward to a quieter atmosphere on the Hächle, where no hiking paths lead to the summit. Just after passing a spectacular chasm in the ridge, the marked hiking path heads into the east face, but we stay on the ridge. There are a few bits of limestone scrambling, but the ascent onto the Hächle is generally straight-forward (T4). Immediately after the summit, someone seems to have taken a big bite out of the mountain. We scramble steeply down into and back out of the surprising gap and onto the north summit (T5 / II; very steep but with excellent limestone rock; best route not obvious).

From the Hächle north summit, we more or less follow the ridge towards the Hächlezänd. Since these teeth are exclusively for climbers, we descend down into the east face just north of the Turm (some steep Schrofen, T4) towards the marked hiking path. This path almost immediately brings us to a spectacular little cabin called Heftihütte.

We rejoin the ridge towards our final summit, Strick. The south ridge (T4+ / I) is not a difficult as it looks. There's a fixed chain to help with a bit of down-climbing, but it's just as easy to just use the rock. On the north-side of the Strick, we follow the white-blue-white marked path (only briefly T4) towards Ober Gummenegg. From here, it's back to Alp Schlund on easy hiking paths, with some 130m of additional ascent between Bodenhütten and Silwängen.

The Alp Schlund is still open for business, though when we arrive, they are out of milk and cake already. Obviously they were overwhelmed as well by the number of people that had come up to enjoy the glorious autumn sun today.

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I had imagined the Schrattenfluh to be a bit wilder and rougher, but on the other hand I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of scenery and terrain. There's something here for everybody. A traverse of the whole mountain is an excellent way to pack many experiences in one day.