However, the magnificent mountain panorama quickly makes up for this and we enjoy the monotonous, metallic crunch of the crampons. We make rapid progress and soon see the first rays of sunlight illuminating the Matterhorn on the other side of the valley. It is illuminated as if by a spotlight. At moments like this, it's easy to understand why this summit exerts such an attraction on the mountaineering world.
From the hut, the tour (no. 574 on the SAC ski touring map 284S) leads eastwards on gentle slopes to Chummiboden (2886 m), before ascending the Alphubel Glacier up to around 3400 m in somewhat steeper terrain. This is where the Rimpfischhorn tour separates from the Alphubel tour and you have to keep to the right (south-east) towards point 3421. To our surprise, only a few rope teams turn in this direction with us, even though the Rimpfischhorn is the "primary destination" of the Täschhütte.
Once we reach P.3421, we have to take off our skins for the short descent (approx. 200 metres in altitude) to the Mellich Glacier. The glaciers, both the latter and the Alphubel glacier, are in excellent condition, so there is little need to worry about safety; due to our early start at the hut, we were already at the Mellich glacier at seven o'clock and can continue to climb up on a load-bearing snow surface. We continued southwards in the shadow of Feechopf and Allalinhorn. Only below the Allalin Pass do we catch the first rays of sunshine of the day, but just a few metres further on we find ourselves in the shade again.
At an altitude of just under 3600 metres, we set up our own small equipement depot on a prominent rocky ridge and left behind all unnecessary ballast for the summit ascent. We decided not to climb back up to the Alphubel Glacier on the descent, but instead to take the alternative direct descent to Täschalp Grund (568a) and then along the Mellichbach to Täschalp.
The last 400 metres up the glaciated western flank of the Rimpfischhorn to the ski depot on the Rimpfischsattel (4001 m) are also quickly mastered and we enjoy the magnificent view: to the west the Strahlhorn, Fluchthorn and the Saas Valley, to the south the Monte Rosa massif with its 4000-metre peaks and to the east the Zermatt valley with the dominant Matterhorn, the distant Zinalrothorn and further north the massive Weisshorn. Only to the north/north-west is the view obstructed by the summit structure, which unfortunately has been disappearing in the fog for some time now.
From the ski depot, the route runs via a couloir to the south-west ridge,
which we then follow further. Still a little unsure about the change in walking technique with crampons, we are the fourth rope team to enter the couloir. Contrary to the two rope teams ahead of us, however, we stick strictly to the description in the ski tour guide, climb only a quarter of the way up the couloir and then climb to the left onto the ridge. From here, the route continues in easy but constantly exposed climbing (II-III, some sections IV) in combined terrain. There are loops at regular intervals, which you should use for protection, as a fall in such steep terrain would certainly have unpleasant consequences. After a few metres, the first rope team from the summit comes towards us and we are now in the pleasant situation of being the first, which means that we always find the belay points unoccupied and make rapid progress.
In the middle section, you can make up some time in the steep west couloir if you are comfortable and feel safe in icy terrain, before you reach the southern pre-summit again via rock climbing. Now only a narrow ridge with dizzying views separates us from the actual summit of the Rimpfischhorn. The weather didn't mean well for the summit view. A cloud hangs around the summit the whole time and you can only see something of the depths from time to time. After a safe step over the ridge, we sprint up the last few metres and finally reach the summit at half past eleven! We quickly unpack the summit chocolate, take a few photos and then the next rope team arrives.
We decide to balance back over the ridge before the other rope teams still ascending and descent to the ski depot as quickly as possible to avoid having to wait at the belay points and losing too much precious time.
Inspired by the summit experience, we quickly reach the ski depot, where we briefly pack up our things and then head straight to the equipment depot.
We are surprised how good the snow still feels; we even make a few "first lines" on the firn field below the ski depot in front of an impressive glacier backdrop! From the rocky ridge, we first head north along the ascent route to the Mellich Glacier and then westwards on its glacier tongue. You should avoid the lateral moraine on the rocky ridge "in front of the wall" and prefer to descent a little further south to the Mellichsand. The upper section rewards the effort of the ascent with a beautiful firn descent, but from an altitude of around 2700 metres, you're swimming in metres of slushy snow. It feels more like water skiing to us. Above all, you shouldn't make the mistake of skiing down a stream bed covered in slush snow like we did; we were always up to our knees in soaked snow. And Bernie made the even bigger mistake of unbuckling out of consideration for his skis?
Arriving at the Mellichsand at the bottom of Täschalp, we were once again confronted with the full force of the high alpine playground when, less than 100 metres away from us, the north-eastern slope of Sparrenflue on the other side of the Mellichbach was completely covered by a wet snow avalanche. We therefore keep to the right-hand side of the valley as far as possible on our way down to Täschalp, as there is no more snow to slide down on the south-west slopes. There is more of a risk of falling rocks here. If you can even speak of "descending". The Täschalp Grund has a drop of 200 metres over two kilometres! Anyone can imagine what that means with slushy snow about one metre deep. Every few metres you collapse and have to dig yourself out of the heavy snow! By this point, we've already been travelling for twelve hours since dawn! You don't feel like playing such games anymore and just want to get down.
Unfortunately, this turns out to be quite difficult: the last few warm days have ensured that far more snow has melted than we could have imagined. We constantly have to unbuckle, or rather should have unbuckled, in order to cross soaked meadows and soggy cow pats. In the village of Täschalp, we don't even unbuckle our skis for short stretches on the concrete road.
Rimpfischhorn, Rimpfischhorn, RINDVIEHHORN.
In the heat, the name of the summit we have climbed keeps running through our heads, but with the day's exertions and our aching feet, it fades more and more into the background: Rimpfischhorn, Rimpfischhorn, RINDVIEHHORN (CATTLEHORN). It wasn't until we got home that we learnt that this is exactly what the mountain means in Valais German! The summit was probably only named by its first climbers on the way home....
The path along the Tällibach stream is no longer recognisable at all. The remaining snow must have descended into the valley shortly before us as a huge landslide of earth, mud and wet snow, along with trees and boulders. Thank goodness our arduous descent took so long. Completely exhausted, we finally reach the car and after 14 hours we can finally take our feet out of our ski boots.
A worthy end to a marvellous winter. Now we can happily pack our bus for our surfing and climbing trip to Asturias in Spain!
