South face | Mountain hiking | Swiss Alpine Club SAC

Unterstütze den SAC Jetzt spenden

South face (Normal route) Hohhoren Südgipfel 2771 m

Difficulty

T4
Ascent

2:30 h, 660 m
Descent

1:45 h, 660 m

Hardly known summit off Grimselpass

The wide-stretched Hohhoren with its three summits – the middle summit, however, is not charted on the map – stands unobtrusively in front of Vorderes Gärstenhorn, which attracts far more attention with its pointed peak and its walls of polished granite slabs. While most hikers stay on the trail on Nägelisgrätli, alpine hikers who love pathless terrain, can enjoy the rarely visited summit of Hohhoren. The southern summit is relatively easy to reach, while some scrambling is neccessary to ascend the middle summit.

On the block ridge to the middle summit. View back to the south summit, to the right in the background is Finsteraarhorn. (07/2015) © Fredy Joss

Hohhoren to the left and in the background Vorder Gärstenhorn (07/2015) © Fredy Joss

Route description

Grimselpass – P. 2634 (Nägelisgrätli)

From Grimselpass walk north-eastward on the marked mountain hiking trail towards Nägelisgrätli as far as ca. P. 2634.

P. 2634 (Nägelisgrätli) – Hohhoren south summit

From P. 2634 (Nägelisgrätli) hike westward pathless across a terrace above the 2600 m line; walk on the grass and bypass larger rubble walls. Aim at the left (southern) faces of the Hohhoren south summit with a towering wall made of slabs. The closer you come, the better you distinguish a narrow rubble and grassy gully on the left above some slabs. That is where you ascend. Rubble alternates with more stable rock, followed further up by grass. There are cairns and a faint path. The cairns help to orientate especially on the way down. After the gully a grassy slope interspersed with rocks leads up to the summit ridge. Continue on this ridge to the south summit with several cairns. The summit is hidden between two granite blocks, not in a cairn.

From the south summit to the middle summit

There is a nearly horizontal ridge (20 meters of vertical height on 400 m distance) leading from the south summit to the middle summit (ca. 2790 m, not charted on the map). Right after the south summit some towers on the ridge must be bypassed on the left (west). From there you scramble more or less on the large ridge. Climbing the blocks is a pleasure, the difficulty rising above grade I only on a few short passages. The additional roughly 45 minutes (round-trip) for this variant is well worthwile. Caution is advised when wet or icy: the blocks in general and the lichen in particular can get very slippery. T5–.

Descent

Use the same route back to P. 2634 (Nägelisgrätli) and on to Grimselpass.

Alternative descents via Roti Blatte to Gletsch

Go back to P. 2634 on the mountain hiking trail and then continue the hike to Grätlisee and towards Rhonegletscher until Roti Blatte (beautiful view to the glacier). From there an intermittent, partly invisible, faint path leads down to Gletsch (bus, hotel) via Obersaas. P. 2634 – Gletsch 2 h, T3+.

Additional information

Departure and arrival point

Grimsel Passhöhe (2164 m)

Busbetrieb nur im Sommerhalbjahr.

Get there Google Maps

Grimsel Passhöhe

Difficulty / Material: There is no path to the south summit, but some cairns help you find the way through a steep couloir and a grassy slope interspersed with rocks (schrofen). T4. Continue to the middle summit (see variant), easy climbing on blocks (I), short passages up to II. Some passages on the west side are precarious in wet or icy conditions. The granite blocks overgrown with lichen become very slippery. T5–.

Waypoints

Hohhoren Mittelgipfel (2790 m)

Additional summit climbed on a variant.

Gletsch (1757 m)

Endpoint of the variant with bus stop, restaurants and hotels.

Neighbor summit

Sidelhorn (2764 m)

The classic tour on Grimselpass. The summit is often visited, but beautiful nevertheless. We suggest to go round the peak on the south side with a detour to Jostsee, then ascend to the summit via Triebtenseelicke; on the north-east ridge descend to Grimselpass. T3.