Fletschhorn

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Fletschhorn
Fletschhorn from the southwest, from the Jegihorn

Fletschhorn from the southwest, from the Jegihorn

height 3985  m above sea level M.
location Canton of Valais , Switzerland
Mountains Valais Alps , Weissmies group
Dominance 1.1 km →  Lagginhorn
Notch height 298 m ↓  Fletschjoch
Coordinates 643603  /  113108 coordinates: 46 ° 10 '5 "  N , 8 ° 0' 11"  O ; CH1903:  643603  /  113108
Fletschhorn (Canton of Valais)
Fletschhorn
First ascent August 8, 1854 by Michael Amherdt with the guides Johannes Zumkemmi and Friedrich Clausen

The Fletschhorn is a glaciated peak in the Valais Alps in Switzerland between the Saas Valley and the Simplon Pass . It is located in the main Alpine ridge and reaches a height of 3985  m above sea level. M. The first ascent was achieved on August 28, 1854 Pastor Michael Amherdt from Simpeln, today Simplon , with guides Johannes Zumkemmi and Friedrich Clausen. The Fletschhorn is the third highest peak in the Weissmies group after the four-thousanders Lagginhorn ( 4010  m above sea level ) and Weissmies ( 4017  m above sea level ) . With these two four-thousand-meter peaks, which are not far away, it forms a well-known triumvirate, especially seen from the Mischabel group opposite .

At the beginning of the 20th century, when the Fletschhorn was still 4001  m above sea level. M. was attested, the importance of the summit was greater: the northern part of today's Weissmies group, including the Weissmies itself, was called the Fletschhorn group. The Lagginhorn was then also called Süd-Fletschhorn, today's northern Fletschhorn was also called Rossbodenhorn.

Location and surroundings

The Fletschhorn is the northernmost of the highest peaks in the Weissmies group, it is only a little more than a kilometer north of the Lagginhorn, from which it is separated by the Fletschjoch ( 3688  m above sea level ).

The Fletschhorn from the Simplon Pass seen from

The summit sends out numerous ridges. The glaciated upper west flank is bounded by the overfired northwest ridge and the rocky southwest ridge. In the further course of the northwest ridge is the Senggchuppa ( 3607  m above sea level ), just under 1½ km from the Fletschhorn. About half a kilometer east of the main summit is the east summit ( 3927  m above sea level ), separated from the main summit by the snow saddle ( 3898  m above sea level ). Three other ridges start from the east summit: The northeast ridge, also called Breitloibgrat, the actual east ridge, aka Sibilufluegrat, and the southeast ridge, which is also called Hosaasgrat.

There are numerous smaller glaciers in the Fletschhorn area . The largest are the Rossboden and Gruben Glaciers, both of which cover an area of ​​around 2.5 km². The latter, also known as the Grüebu Glacier, is to the west of the summit. In the area below its glacier tongue, where there is also a large rock glacier and a lot of loose moraine material , water collects in various glacier and thermal karst lakes . These pose a threat to Saas Balen , which is located on the debris cone of the Fällbach stream over which the glacier drains. Various historical floods and debris flows were caused by it.

North of the Fletschhorn, embedded between the southwest ridge and Breitloibgrat, lies the Rossboden glacier. This extends to the top of the Fletschhorn. There, on the morning of March 19, 1901, the largest known combined rock / snow / ice avalanche in the Alps occurred; it started from the northwest ridge at an altitude of 3788. The volume of the eruption was 2.5 to 3 million cubic meters and the deposits covered an area of ​​around 70 hectares. The avalanche overcame an altitude difference of 2300 m and had a seven-kilometer outlet.

To the east are the Bodmer glacier between Breitloibgrat and Sibilufluegrat, the Sibiluflue glacier between Sibilufluegrat and Hosaasgrat and the Holutrift glacier south of the Hosaasgrat. To the south of the summit is the Fletschhorn glacier, whose origin lies in the area of ​​the east summit.

Ascent history

Fletschhorn in the morning mood (2018)

On August 28, 1854, Pastor Michael Amherdt from Simplon, under the leadership of Johannes Zumkemmi and Friedrich Clausen, was the first to reach the summit of the Fletschhorn, which at that time was mostly called Rossbodenhorn . They got there via the Rossboden glacier and the northeast ridge, nothing more is known about this first ascent. Also known is an ascent by a federal customs collector named Vergerer on September 5, 1868. Furthermore, the yearbook of the Swiss Alpine Club of 1888 and the Alpine Journal of 1887 describe an ascent that the English tourists Topham and Rendall together with the mountain guide Aloys Supersaxo on July 16, 1887. They reached the Horn from Saas via the southwest ridge. The English theologian William Augustus Brevoort Coolidge and the mountain guides Christian and Ulrich Almer made the first crossing of the Rossbodenhorn over the Fletschjoch to the Lagginhorn , then usually called the Laquinhorn, on July 27, 1887.

The Fletschhorn north face was climbed for the first time on July 25, 1928. Émile-Robert Blanchet and his guides Oskar Supersaxo and Kaspar Mooser needed 5½ hours to climb the wall, but a further 6 hours to approach Simplon. The second ascent of the north face did not take place until July 21, 1948 by Hans Oertli under the leadership of Alexander Taugwalder, the starting point was also Simplon. With the third ascent of the north face on July 17, 1960, Erich Vanis and his Viennese comrades Egbert Eidher, Günther Godai, Karl Mach, Pasul Pernitsch, Heinz Regele and Wilfried Wehrle opened the so-called "Vienna Route", which leads through the right side of the wall.

The Fletschhorn and the 4000 meter mark

Karl Blodig , who in 1911 was the first to reach the goal of climbing all four-thousand-meter peaks in the Alps, had also climbed the Fletschhorn in 1900. From the perspective of the time, the Fletschhorn was one of them. While the surveyors at the beginning of the 20th century had determined an altitude of 4001 m, from the 1950s onwards it was only recorded at 3993 m on almost all maps. Erosion, melting ice caps and, last but not least, more precise measurement methods were probably responsible for this loss of altitude.

In February 1988 the municipality of Saas Grund submitted a planning application to the building commission of the canton of Valais in order to “restore the original height of the mountain”. The then mayor had convinced the village politicians of his plan to pile up the rock material lying around near the mountain summit at the highest point in the form of a dry stone wall so that the Fletschhorn would come back to the height shown in earlier maps. The project got into the international press because of its peculiarity, for example the subject was picked up by the Chicago Tribune and the Soviet Izvestia . The response was huge, few were enthusiastic about the idea, most rejected it, some for religious reasons. The mayor defended his plan, also emphasizing the environmentally friendly execution. On October 22, 1990 the project was finally rejected by the building department of the canton of Valais.

For many years the Fletschhorn was now at an altitude of 3993  m above sea level. M. recorded. More recent photometric measurements only showed 3982  m above sea level. M. for the summit calotte at the intersection of the southwest and northeast ridge. Now the trigonometric fixed point in the southwest ridge with 3985  m above sea level. M. obviously represents the highest point.

Routes

Fletschhorn from the north

The normal route is by far the most traveled route to the summit and leads from the Weissmieshütte ( 2726  m above sea level ) over the upper western flank and the uppermost part of the northwest ridge to the summit. The upper part of the Grubengletscher is crossed. The difficulty is given as WS . It is not uncommon for the ascent of the Fletschhorn to be combined with that of the Lagginhorn, whereby the Fletschhorn is exceeded . It is first reached via the normal route and then descended to the Fletschjoch.

The ascent variants from the east are far less popular. One of them is the northeast ridge (Breitloibgrat). A much more difficult but very popular tour leads through the north face, the so-called "Vienna Route". This has a wall height of about 600 meters, is 50 ° steep, just before the exit to the uppermost part of the north-west ridge a little steeper in places. It is a pure ice route until reaching the ridge. When difficulty is S indicated. The starting point for this is usually the Piero de Zen bivouac box located northeast of the Senggchuppa on the ridge between the Rossboden and Griessernu glaciers (also Fletschhorn bivouac, 3,014  m above sea level ). You can also ski down the north face, while an easier ski run leads over the Gruben Glacier to Saas Baalen.

Web links

Commons : Fletschhorn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e swisstopo.ch: Swisstopo geodata viewer, as of November 2012
  2. a b c Gottlieb Studer: About ice and snow: The highest peaks in Switzerland and the history of their ascent. Pages 245–250, J. Dalpsche Buchhandlung, Bern 1870 ( online )
  3. ^ Charles Knapp, Maurice Borel, Victor Attinger, Heinrich Brunner, Société neuchâteloise de geographie (editor): Geographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume 2: Emmenholz - Kraialppass . Verlag Gebrüder Attinger, Neuenburg 1904, p. 121 f., Keyword Fletschhorngruppe   ( scan of the lexicon page ).
  4. a b c Michael Waeber: Walliser Alps. Area guides for hikers, mountaineers, ski tourers, climbers . Pages 137–143, 13th edition, Bergverlag Rother, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7633-2416-X
  5. ^ Research institute for hydraulic engineering, hydrology and glaciology (VAW) of the ETH Zurich : Grubengletscher. In: Glacier Natural Hazards. ( ethz.chTemplate: dead link /! ... nourl  ( page no longer available ), also as a PDFTemplate: dead link /! ... nourl  ( page no longer available ), accessed on November 23, 2012).
  6. ^ Research institute for hydraulic engineering, hydrology and glaciology (VAW) of the ETH Zurich : Rossbodengletscher. In: Glacier Natural Hazards. ( ethz.chTemplate: dead link /! ... nourl  ( page no longer available ), also as a PDFTemplate: dead link /! ... nourl  ( page no longer available ), accessed on November 23, 2012).
  7. M. Ulrich: Chronicle of the SAC from 1869. In: Year book of the Swiss Alpine Club. Page 512, Volumes 5–6, Bern 1870 ( online )
  8. ^ The Alpine Journal, Volume XIII , No. 98, London 1887, p. 415
  9. Yearbook of the Swiss Alpine Club 23rd year, Bern 1888, p. 477
  10. ^ Swiss Alpine Club: The Alps. Volumes 37-38, page 170
  11. hikr.org: Fletschhorn - North Face (Vienna Route)
  12. chmoser.ch: Tour details Fletschhorn 3993 m N-Wand (Wienerroute)
  13. ^ Helmut Dumler and Willi P. Burkhardt: Four thousand meter peaks in the Alps . Pages 7, 57 and 59, Bergverlag Rother , Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7633-7427-2
  14. a b c Manfred Schmidt: Geographical curiosities. Page 44, Grin Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-638-95530-3
  15. ^ A b Jon Mathieu: The Sacralization of Mountains in Europe during the Modern Age. In: Mountain Research and Development. 26: 343–349, November 2006 ( online ; PDF; 1.0 MB)
  16. a b Daniel Häußinger, Michael Waeber: Walliser Alps between Furka and Great St. Bernhard. Page 61ff, Bergverlag Rother, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7633-5930-1