Ski mountaineering course Gaulihut

Learn how to safely travel on glaciated terrain with skis — in a 5-day ski mountaineering skills course.

Trip Dates

Price:

650,- €

Duration:

5 Days

Group Size:

4-6

Difficulty:

Difficulty

Accomodation:

simple: Hut / bunks

Ski mountaineering course Gaulihut

Have you ever wanted to ski a 4000 metre peak? Are you dreaming of doing a self-organized ski traverse in the Ötztal Alps? Feel vulnerable when you are out with friends, negotiating crevasses? Then our ski mountaineering course is just right for you!

If you are an advanced backcountry skier who already has experience on self-sufficiently organized ski touring trips, our mountain guide will teach you the tools to take the next step (or turn) into the realm of the glaciers. According to the motto "learning-by-doing" we have designed our course as a multi-day ski traverse of the Uri Alps, the secret star of high alpine skitouring in Central Switzerland.

In terms of terrain variety we find a perfect playground in the Uri Alps: the higher peaks are heavily glaciated and the cols require a lot of rope maneuvers. So it's ideal to learn how to deal with all situations encountered on ski mountaineering trips. And we can also count on enough snow for the downhill, as the area gets one of the deepest snow packs in Switzerland.

In order to equally meet the demands of learning and applying, we have designed this ski mountaineering course with a duration of five days. This results in a good mixture of training days with a strong focus on content and practical implementation in the course of the ski traverse. On the last three days of the course you will take over the lead and the mountain guide will only be in the background for corrections. Because this is how you learn the most.

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Itinerary and topics

As of 2022 the course is moved to Gaulihut due to the Trifthut being not accessible
Day 1: Ascend to the Hotel Steingletscher at the Sustenpass road and rehearsal of the classic skitouring skills avalanche rescue, avalanche risk assessment and tour planning.

Day 2: Ascend to the Tierbergli Hut, glacier-travel techniques on skis, crevasse rescue in winter. Tour planning and theoretical lessons in the evening.

Day 3: Today you will climb one of the neighboring peaks — maybe Sustenhorn. It's your turn to take the lead and carry out the tour that you have planned the evening before.

Day 4: We try to reach the remote Trift Hut via the crossing of some interesting cols. There is plenty of opportunity to apply and discuss newly acquired knowledge. If the conditions do not allow this section, we will consider an already designed plan B. A quite realistic scenario on ski traverses!

Day 5: We climb the Rhonestock and/or the Dammastock and ski back out via the Gelmerhörner to the Grimselpass road. Your first full-grown ski traverse is complete.

Prerequisites

You should be able to plan and carry out skitours in unglaciated terrain independently. The basics of avalanche assessment and rescue should be at hand. Solid off-piste skiing in all types of snow is a basic requirement as well as the stamina for approx. 5 hours of ascent during a 5-day tour week with a 12 kg pack.

Getting There

The nearest Airports are Geneva, Bern and Zürich. We will try to pick you up at a nearby town that can easily be reached by train from your inbound Airport. We discuss the details of transportation with you.

Accommodation & Food

You will stay on typical alpine mountain huts. They have a big dining room and dormitories with usually 4 – 12 bunks. Sometimes the dormitories have up to 20 bunks. The sanitary conditions are basic with common toilets, washing rooms and no showers. On very high huts there is sometimes not even running water.

We typically have half board on the hut. A lean breakfast with bread, jam, butter and, depending on the region, cereals are served along with coffee or tea. Dinner consists of 3 to 4 courses: soup as starters, sometimes salad, main course with some meat, desert. Vegetarian or other dietary requirements are accounted for.

You can order non-alcoholic drinks, beer and wine. Likewise, snacks and lunch can be purchased. On the higher huts there is no potable water and you will have to buy bottled water.

Please don't hesitate to contact us in case of questions.

Gear

Touring skis and -skins. Avalanche safety gear. Complete glacier travel set. We will provide missing items.

Included

  • Organization and guiding by a IFMGA licensed Mountain Guid
  • Rental gear: glacier travel and avalanche safety
  • All guide's expenses

Excluded

  • 5 x Night/Half board on mountain huts approx. 65 CHF/Night (alpine club members)
  • Transfer back to starting point 40 CHF
  • Lunch and drinks on the huts (lunch for take away can be ordered the day before)
  • personal insurance covering mountain rescue

Specials

for this trip

Individual coachings - our specialty.

The technical basics of alpinism such as knots, crevasse rescue, setting up a belay etc. are rather easy to learn. What takes a lot more time to acquire are experience, judgement, situational decision making as well as all the tricks of the professionals that make life in the mountains easier.
A lot of alpinists were lucky to learn from more experienced mates. Our coachings give you that unique opportunity. We act as supervisors and consultants while you are climbing on the sharp end of the rope. We try to provide you with as much expert knowledge as we can. There is no business secret, we are happy to share our decision making and perhaps even learn something ourselves.

Advanced topics include complex rope techniques (e.g. the infamous short rope), tactics, speed improvement or analytical snowpack analysis. Our coachings are well suited for experienced teams.

Personal communication rather than follower and likes.

Lets face it: social media is a mere marketing tool for many businesses. To us this way of connecting with the audience is somewhat superficial. That's not our style. We prefer the direct contact to our clients - even beyond 'business'.

What does that mean for you? If you are planning a trip to the mountains on your own, get in touch, we are happy to recommend on a summit, region or provide information on the conditions. You need advice on gear? Need a second opinion on the avalanche situation? We are fostering a long term exchange, often on a very personal level, with many of our clients. We are taking the time, because its fun to chat or talk shop with like-minded people!

Fairness first.

The job of mountain guides is demanding and highly responsible. Clearly, this work has to be appropriately remunerated. Yet we are climbers, not tough business men. That's why our emphasis is on dealing fairly with our clients.

We block dates for your trip. Sometimes the arranged climb still doesn't work out. We then appreciate your understanding that we cannot bear the cancellation risk alone. On the other hand we do understand that you don't want to pay the summit rate of a prestigious goal for an alternative destination. With open communication and consideration for each other's situation, we will find a good solution. The summit rate only applies if the conditions are right and we make a summit bid.

Why we do not show available places online.

Because you still wouldn't know if a trip is confirmed. Bookings can be cancelled after all. Besides, well, the displayed number of available places can be fake — we all know that from the flight search engines.

Don't panic if the minimum number of participants is not yet reached! We often try to directly address long term clients, bring together bookings for different dates or find alternatives. Maybe we are really keen on doing the trip ourselves and offer you a special deal. Anyway we are keeping you updated. You might tell us your deadline by which you have to know if the trip takes place or not.