Plattenberg - Brünnelistock - Rossalpelispitz - Zindlenspitz

The Wägital offers an unusually high concentration of exciting alpine hikes, and this just a stone's throw away from Zürich. As such, it's almost scandalous that I hadn't explored this valley much so far. The continued superb mountain weather this autumn and a confident hiking partner - Hikr's madu - provided an unexpected opportunity to change this. The classic Brünnelistock - Rossalpelispitz - Zindlenspitz ridge route was the initial plan. Since we weren't certain about snow conditions on the ridge, we decided to start with the Plattenberg instead, and just see how far we could get with the other summits afterwards.

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On the long ascent from the Wägitalersee, we are overtaken by a Czech hiker who is headed for the Schiberg. Otherwise we have the scenery all to ourselves. Initially, the Wägitalersee (half covered by fog) and the Fluebrig are the main eye-catchers. At the Hohfläschenhütte, the Zindlenspitz appears ahead, immediately from its most stunning perspective, with an extremely narrow shape. Higher up, the Mythen, Rigi and Pilatus appear to the right of the Fluebrig, forming a beautiful arrangement from this angle.

When we reach Furgge, the more interesting hiking starts with the west-to-east traverse of the Plattenberg (unmarked, continuously around T4). On both sides of the summit, impressive tilted escarpments cut across the mountain. On the west side, a fairly obvious ledge provides access to the summit. The descent on the east side is less obvious, and involves descending south along the top edge of the escarpment until you can drop down into a couloir (marked by a small cairn) and descend steeply down onto the Mürli plateau. (See the photos in Daenu's report for details.) The shadow provided by the cliffs has left some snow on the route, so our ice axes get their first usage of the day.

The exposed north ridge of the Brünnelistock looks quite ominous with a fair amount of snow, so instead we try to access the Brünnelistock via P. 1990 on the normal route. There is a relatively large amount of snow to the north of the Brünnelistock. The irregular limestone underneath the snow makes progress rather annoying: you never know if there is the snow is solidly supported, or if your next step will see you sinking waist deep into a gap in the limestone... At the 1920m contour, there is another escarpment with a single steep ledge providing access to P. 1990 above. From a distance, this ledge appears to be filled with a problematic amount of snow. On closer inspection, we luckily discover that the outer edge of the ledge is clear. This means the ascent is a little harder and more exposed than normal, but it goes. P. 1990 is then reached without further problems. The ridge to the Brünnelistock is essentially free from snow, and the little bits of scrambling on the exposed ridge (T5-) are very pleasant.

We return to P. 1990 along the same ridge and continue with the Rossalpelispitz. The ascent from the north has a fair amount of snow. Once more, our ice axes prove useful. Since the snow is rather soft, the clear rock, which only appears on the very edge of the ridge, provides an attractive but exposed alternative. Either way (rock or snow), the ascent in these conditions is a bit more challenging than usual. The final push to the summit is secured by cables, but since there is no more snow here, it's actually the easier part of the ascent for us.

The path to the Zindlenspitz traverses its steep east face. We feared that snow might make this section impracticable, but actually there's hardly any snow left. There are already tracks through the few bits of remaining snow as well. The east face traverse isn't much of an obstacle and clearly less challenging than earlier parts of our route. We then join the normal route to the Zindlenspitz, which is mostly straight-forward but involves a little bit of easy scrambling near the summit. A certain Urs Lehmann has just been up here for the 200th time earlier today, according to the log book.

The descent back to the Wägitalersee past Zindlen and Aberliboden is long and uneventful.

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Maybe this will finally have been the real end of the 2014 alpine hiking season? In that case, we certainly managed to finish on a high. Each of our four summits provides challenges in any weather, and the snow made a few sections more difficult than usual as well. (Technical equipment used: ice axe and MicroSpikes.) In return we got to enjoy wonderful ridges and beautiful scenery, which we had almost completely to ourselves.

To cite a very nice BMC video: "Mondays are the days of exhaustion. Days where my legs would ache and my feet feel sore. But days also, when the fire in our eyes would speak volumes of a weekend spent wild and a weekend spent well." Bring on winter now!