Mönch - Lauper Route

Preface

On the weekend of October 3/4, 2009 we set off for the Bernese Alps to climb a nice season ending tour. During summer I've told Michael, a friend of mine, about my intention to climb the "Nollen" on the Mönch in late season. He'd ticked off this route already and proposed to give the Lauper Route a try instead. By this time I already knew some facts about this route and its reputation, but agreed after some consideration.

We started our journey on friday, slept in the car at a rest area close to Basel and arrived at Grindelwald on saturday morning. With the Jungfraubahn we shortened the approach to Kleine Scheidegg (2061 m) and continued to the Guggi Hut (2791 m).

The weather on sunday should be sunny and pretty stable, but we moved off early in the morning nevertheless. The climbing was awesome and rich in variety - steep ice sections, nice mixed rock, brittle scrambles, an icy crack, the overhanging crux, snowed in slabs and the finish through this sensational ice couloir. The route was technically not this hard, but the soft snow made the ascent pretty exhausting and took us some time.

We arrived at the Mönch summit at sundown and descended during the evening to the Mönchsjoch Hut (3627 m) along the normal route, to catch the train back to Grindelwald the next morning.

Images

Mönch North Face	Wetterhorn	Eiger North Face
Approach	Felsbollwerk	Guggie glacier	Guggi Hut
Sunset	Haston-Eistrup	Lower rock barrier	Upper rock barrier
Mönchplateau	Lower ice field		Traverse
Kleine Scheidegg	Vertical crack	Crux	Lauper Rib
Snowed in slabs	Couloir

Images

View Mönch - Lauper Route Image Gallery - 23 Images