| pg22. 08. 2020 11:20:24 |
For some acclimatization before yesterday's ascent of Wildspitze, last Sunday I crossed the border to the easy three-thousander Muttler, the highest peak of the Samnaun Alps in Switzerland and partly Austria. The first choice of the day was the more interesting and demanding Piz Sesvenna according to the descriptions, but due to the rather poor weather forecast, I abandoned that idea and opted for a shorter ascent from the high-altitude resort of Samnaun, which is entirely set up as a duty-free zone and incredibly cheap by Swiss standards (fuel (super) around 90 cents, for example).
Since due to the quick decision I only looked at the Bergfex map, which for some unknown reason doesn't have the usual route drawn in, in the quite cold and foggy morning after just under 2 hours of driving I headed towards the Stammerjoch saddle, where a passage to the path leading to Muttler was promised. Through a pleasant stream valley I climbed over 800 meters of elevation to the saddle at 2688 m, where the view quite shocked me - between the mountain of sympathetic funnel shape and me, about 500 m lower gaped a deep plain, where the path to the summit was clearly visible. It looked quite harmless, it was hard to believe it was a three-thousander, let alone an almost 3300 m high peak, but with the relatively late hour and a few hours before the forecasted start of thunderstorms, I had no choice but to believe that was the target. I descended to the glacier valley off-trail through grass to avoid the long detour, then continued on the marked path over the north ridge to the summit, arriving around 2 pm, an hour before the forecasted thunderstorms. The ascent over the marked north ridge, despite the Swiss T4 rating, is normal walking over scree on the wide shoulder of the mountain without exposed sections or technical difficulty, but the part of the path just below the summit is unpleasantly greasy and slippery.
The view from the path and summit is potentially magnificent - all key groups of the central Eastern Alps are visible, including the Bernina group, Silvretta, Ötztal and Stubai Alps, Ortler, and Verwall. Wonderful view into the valley back to Samnaun and to the eastward Nauders. Well, this time the view was obscured by heavy dark clouds, and right after arriving at the summit it started raining, so the guy I overtook while walking quickly fled back to the valley.
I stayed a few minutes on the spacious summit, where there's also an old transmitter, then cold, rain, and thunderstorm danger quickly called me to leave. Based on descriptions, I knew that over the south ridge there is an unmarked but only slightly more demanding approach to the summit, which in the wet might even be more suitable for my old worn-out shoes (that was their last tour), so I quickly set off. This is off-trail, where you can sometimes follow predecessors' tracks, but it's even secured in a few places with a slightly different cable (!) Still nothing special, but this part is definitely more pleasant than the north approach, at least on descent - to the plain follows a long scree descent. At a suitable point I slid down solid scree and a bit lower unexpectedly caught the marked path leading to the nearby saddle. With nice views of Piz Tschütta, only slightly lower than Muttler but much more demanding and fascinating, I descended quickly; meanwhile thunder started, but no real storm developed above me. Lower down I continued on the path that quickly brought me back to Samnaun - by then the rain had stopped, and it turned into a really pleasant afternoon.
Muttler is a relatively undemanding three-thousander that can be recommended even to less experienced - due to the convenient high starting point in Samnaun, from where the summit is just over 3 hours walk (even though 1450 elevation meters), great views and height almost 3300 m it's an excellent opportunity for the first walk in this altitude class. Samnaun itself and the area between Samnaun and Ischgl (yes, Covid-Ischgl  ) are really worth a visit; just don't feel too sorry for your shoes.
Pictures are again poor because I haven't got the new screen for Samsung yet, but Nokia works within its capabilities. In shades, you can even recognize something...
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
| (+1) |  | |
|
|