Chammhalde - Öhrli – Hüenerberg – Girenspitz – Säntis

Ever since I bought the SAC guide “Säntis – Churfirsten” I wanted to climb the Öhrli. Those of you who own this book probably know why. On the cover of the guide there is a beautiful picture of the Öhrli which really invites you to go up there:

But how should I go up to the Öhrli? About a month ago Omega3 published an interesting route up to the Säntis which included the Öhrli. I particularly liked the part how he went up to the Säntis from the Öhrli via the Hüenerberg. Another project which I wanted to do at some point was to climb the Säntis via the Chammhalde according to quite a few hikrs a very beautiful, lonely and demanding route up to the Säntis (for example Delta says: Die Chammhaldenrroute ist wohl der schönste Aufstieg auf den Säntis von der Schwägalpseite or ossi thinks: Die Chammhaldenroute ist wohl die einsamste und anspruchsvollste Möglichkeit, auf den Säntis zu gelangen. So I combined the Chammhalden route with Omega3’s route from the Öhrli via Hüenerchopf to Säntis and was delighted about the beauty of it all.

The Chammhalden route from Schwägalp to the Hüenerbergsattel is very well described in the SAC guide and in ossi’s report here and doesn’t really need any further explanation. In addition the route is extremely well marked with orange spray-paint. If you don’t see these marks for 20 meters, chances are high you’re somehow wrong.

From the Hüenerbergsattel I then walked down towards Blau Schnee and traversed to the saddle at P. 2121 in the south flank of the Hüenerberg and from there up to the beautiful Öhrli. Climbing the Öhrli is not as difficult as you might think when you look at the cover picture of the SAC guide but only a T4.

After a short break I then went back down to the saddle and then along the beautiful ridge to Höch Nideri further to the Hüenerberg back to the Hüenerbergsattel (where I came up via Chammhalde). This part is nicely described by Omega3 in his repot. There is not much I have to add to his description except maybe that I only encountered one patch where the climbing was in the second grade, and, I agree it is rather exposed in some parts.

Back at the Hüenerbergsattel I also fancied to go up the NE ridge to Girenspitz.  ossi and Delta describe it both, but on this day I had some time constraints and had to be up on the Säntis at 2PM at the latest. I didn’t think it was a good idea to rush up this ridge, a WS. In addition I was afraid to also get stuck because of the “usual” hiker jam at the Himmelsleiterli. So instead - like Omega3 - I went down to Blau Schnee from here and then along the marked path to the Säntis, also visiting Girenspitz for a few minutes.

Schwägalp – Chammhalde – Hüenerbergsattel – P. 2121 – Öhrli - Höch Nideri – Hüenerberg – Hüenerbergsattel – Blau Schnee – Girenspitz – Säntis