La Ruinette

difficulty: pd
altitude: 3875
month: September

The whole trip is depicted to the map on the left and the detail of the summit part is at the upper picture. The ascent is by red and the shortcuts while descending by blue.

The summit of Le Ruinette was built on purpose to have a beautiful view of the Grand Combin's west face. We both, me and myself, agreed to climb in a great style: unsupported solo, almost naked. What does it mean? In order to wear as light pack as possible, I had no tent, no sleeping back, no rope for rappel, no climbing partner, no mum, and the most important thing in such a great altitudes, no supplement of oxygen :-). Of course I refused to stay in any cottage with nice warm bed and fondue as a dinner. I rather took a rest at the cold stone where self-prepared bread was served by me to myself with piece of chocolate from Carrefour as a dessert. To complete that fun, my handy was broken and there was absolutely nobody around.

I parked my car at parking place before the hotel Mauvoisin and I think it is for free, at least I didn't pay. On has to take the path on the left side of the lake to get bellow Le Ruinette. It is a long trip (3 hours), especially when returning back. One can just walk until the pass Tsofiert, where tiny path leads to the left and it is next 1 hour to the pass Col de Lire Rose without any technical difficulties. The technical parts starts from there. At the first ridge, I can only recommend to keep on the left when ascending. It was quite difficult for me to make a right decisions in the night. At some point I climbed something not compatible with pd difficulty. I could avoid this place nicely when descending what was better choice than end up as tomato pizza down in the valley. There are also some belay stations for abseiling.

The glacier should not be crevassed, but I found one big ice hole exactly next to the route. It is better to stay on the rope there, especially after snowing.

The summit part is again technical, but I would say easier than the bottom ridge. Even though, it is much better to use the blue variant at the picture at the top. Again tomato pizza problem at the red variant. Note, one has to judge it according to the snow conditions. That's it.

Summary:

Generally speaking, it is nice easy summit. Let me note that it is worth to belay even on such an easy peak. Some of the steps are quite exposed. Also it is worth to take an advantage of belay stations for abseiling.  Good luck and stay alive!

Altels (Berner Oberland)

difficulty: pd-
altitude: 3620 (3400 reached)
month: September 
map: google geo.admin

Running shoes, light jacket, water and few bars. That's it. Altels should be doable in this way, I believe. The bad weather unexpectedly came already the day before my attempt for the Altels summit. I brought my tent to the altitude ~2200 meters where the rain changed into snowing. The freezing night was quite long and silent, nobody nowhere. And the same was the morning. Anyway I packed my few things and try to pretend that I am running, although it was more walking.

At some point arround 3400 metres (according to my watches) I had to give up. There was no other choice. The slab covered by ice would by tough with normal equipment. With the running shoes I had is it called suicide. Autumn is approaching, running shoes must stay in the valley.

On the other side, there was nobody and the mountain was there just for me. The views were simply amazing.

The Altels is amazing slab. I have never seen the bigger one. One could thing to run it directly in the middle. But I don't thing it would work, the slab has roughly 50 degrees. Difficult to say, maybe.

Ringelspitz will not stay unattempted from me, that is sure. It is too nice to let it just stay there without visiting the summit. That could be next running goal if the weather let me run there.

My tent, nobody, nowhere

The Alps are already great mountains like Andes, Himalayas and similar. But they offer also plenty of running possibilities. Choose the area which is not often accessed, bring your tent somewhere far away from the people, and enjoy the alpine running next day. More technical routes you choose, more fun you have. Go alone.

Throw away that big uncomfortable boots and rope.  Let's run the Alps!