A week in Saas Fee (Wallis) region of Switzerland, dedicated to climbing summits above 4000 meters! This course is ideal for those with some previous Alpine or winter mountaineering experience who want to progress onto higher and moderately technical peaks. It will be our intention to spend as much time as possible operating from the high mountain huts to ascend four or five 4000m peaks. The course offers a good progression from our Alpine Introductory courses or Mont Blanc week and will involve climbing sections of moderately steep ice and rock. Guiding ratio 1:2 throughout the week.

Our other Swiss 4000m Courses include Zermatt, Bernese Oberland and Peaks of Zermatt.

Previous Experience & Fitness

Previous Alpine mountaineering to PD or Scottish Winter grade I/II and the ability to belay indoor or outdoor.
If you have no previous mountaineering experience, we recommend you join one our Scottish Winter Mountaineering Courses or an Alpine Introductory course in Chamonix or Gran Paradiso. We also offer rock climbing and alpine preparation courses in the Lake District to develop your skills ahead of this course.

This will be a very physically demanding course; you should ensure you come well prepared as the summit days can be long. You should be able to ascend a 1200m slope in a normal day while maintain a rate of ascent of 300meters per hour with a back pack of around 10 kg.

Dates & Prices

Itinerary

Sample Programme
Please note this may be changed, including the acclimatisation peaks climbed, which day is a rest day etc, as a result of weather, snow conditions and individual levels of fitness.

Day 1 (Saturday) – Meeting at 17:00 in Saas Grund Wallis accessible from both Zurich and Geneva Airports. Your guide will run through a kit check, discuss the week and your aspiration in conjunction with the weather and mountain conditions and how these will affect the course planning and itinerary.

Days 2 (Sunday) – Using the high Saas cable car, we head up to the hut and restaurant "Hohsaas" at 3100 m. Today is an acclimatisation day and will be dedicated to the revision of snow and ice skills alongside Alpine ropework, glacial travel and skills training such as abseiling and crevasse rescue. Overnight at the Hohsaas hut

Day 3 (Monday) – Ascent of the Weismiss 4,017m overnight again at the Hohsaas hut

Day 4 (Tuesday) – Ascent of the Lagginhorn 4010m and descent to the valley and overnight in a hotel

Day 5 (Wednesday) – Ascent of the Allalinhorn 4020m via its Hohlaub ridge, overnight in a hut

Day 6 (Thursday) – Ascent of the Alphubel 4206m overnight in a hut

Day 7 (Friday) – Ascent of the Rimpfisccorn 4199m and descend to the valley and overnight in a hotel

Day 8 (Saturday) – Breakfast and Depart

It is important to have a flexible approach to the trip to ensure you can get the most out of it and adapt to conditions, as an exact itinerary cannot be guaranteed. The itinerary is for an 8-day programme with 6 mountain days.

If due to any of these reasons a summit attempt is not possible then we usually switch our attentions to another similar objective. If any extra costs for accommodation, transport or food are incurred beyond the suggested itinerary then you will need to pay these directly.

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