6/21/2015 Route: Southeast Slopes Posted On: 6/23/2015, By: AlexeyD Info: Decided to tag Matterhorn after Wetterhorn to take advantage of the longest day of the year :) Compared to Wett, this one was pretty trivial. Once out of the basin between the two peaks, it was possible to stay entirely off snow by simply walking up the gentle grassy slopes on climber's left side of the SE ridge (foreground in Photo 1). Then, just before the brief, easy class 3 scramble to the summit, there is a short snow feature blocking access to the start of the scramble, requiring a couple of moves of "snow bouldering" (one foot on snow, the other on rock) to get onto the rocks (Photo 2). This can be bypassed on climber's left, but this involves some rather loose terrain and quite a bit more time than the "snow boulder move" (which is really quite easy and not exposed at all). It‘s also possible to just walk across the snow ridge, but we left our ice axes lower down, and didn‘t feel like risking the exposure off to the right side of the ridge. The way we did it, we did not use, or feel like we needed, an ice axe or any type of snow gear on Matterhorn at all. On the return back to the access trail, we did have to cross several snowfields with quite a bit of postholing, but none were long enough to warrant putting the snowshoes back on. Awesome day on two amazing mountains. The view of Wetterhorn from this little peak makes it more than worth the extra effort! |
|
5/9/2015 Route: Southeast Slopes Posted On: 5/9/2015, By: rcrisp88 Info: It is still very snow-covered all the way to the top with a pretty stable cornice (see picture) at the very end. You can get within 1 mile of the summer 2WD trailhead but there are two last snow drifts and two large trees still blocking the road. Also the open field leading up to the slopes has a few spots with flowing water underneath so be careful where you step. Snowshoes were very helpful about 1/2 mile after the 4WD trailhead as was an ice ax to get across the cornice. |
|
5/25/2013 Route: Southeast Slopes Posted On: 5/27/2013, By: BobbyFinn Info: We did not need flotation in the basin. The trail is clear until about 11,600 and then it is intermittently covered with snow until it is mostly covered nearing the turnoff to Matterhorn. Crampons/axe were necessary toward the top due to steep snow. No issues getting to/from the TH in our stock Xterra. Pic 1: From the trail Pic 2: The final bit |
