How to climb Mönch in the Swiss Alps
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- čas přidán 9. 12. 2018
- Alpine climbing Mönch on the Swiss Alps near the Aletsch Glacier next to Jungfraujoch is a great introduction to alpine climbing. This fantastic mountain features loads of good beginner alpine climbing routes, and in the climbing video I will explore the South East Ridge also known as the Normal Route or Normal Weg as the locals would call it.
The South East Ridge of Mönch features a very diverse amount of alpine climbing features - such as a nice rock buttress, snow slopes, a few rock climbing moves and a very exposed ridge near the summit of Mönch.
An alternative to climbing Mönch via the South East Ridge would be the Nollen route on the North West spur, so directly opposite from where the South East Ridge begins.
You approach Mönch by taking the train from Grindelwald to Jungfraujoch and then hike the Aletsch Glacier towards Mönchsjochütte - the Mönchsjoch Hut! This is an excellent base for climbing Mönch via the South East Ridge.
Alpine climbing Mönch is actually part of a larger adventure. If you combine climbing Mönch via the South East Ridge with climbing the nearby alpine peaks of Jungfrau and the Eiger, then you will climb what is called the Berner Oberland trilogy.
I actually did another video on the Berner Oberland Trilogy! And a separate video about alpine climbing the Eiger. You should check that out at:
► Alpine Climbing Berner Oberland Trilogy: • Alpine climbing the Ei...
► How to climb the Eiger: • How to climb Eiger via...
This is an immense challenge and a three to four day alpine climbing itinerary.
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#mountaineering #climbing #SwissAlps - Sport
Fantastic video, love your channel, keep it up please!
Thank so much for the support, Jake 😄
We did the Nollen. One hell of a job.
I would really like to do the Nollen Route too! It looks really nice!
NIce route, when I did it forty odd years ago, there was a Japanese guy soloing it. I took some slides (no digital cameras in those days) and we exchanged addresses at the Mönchsjochhütte (no email either!). He didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any Japanese, I sent him the slides once I got home and we kept in touch a bit. When I did the route, in those years there was much more snow cover. Time to urge our politicains to stop digging up and burning fossil fuels. :) :) Thanks for posting.
Great video. I climbed this a couple of weeks ago . The final snow arete was beautiful. Summited at 7am.
I am happy to hear that, Bean Bunn 😄 Yeah, the Arête is really nice! How was the conditions?
@@Cragcloud It had been hot for a few days prior to the climb and there had been some fresh snow before that. We checked with the guides office before going up on the train. We had a night in the hutt, set off at 3.30am.The snow was firm on the way up and for most of the decent. It was so hot on the glacier on the way back to the Jungfraujoch . We had hoped to climb the Jungfrau , but the guides advised us not to. Loved the Monch amazing. The video here makes you want to do this route.
It is a really great climb! I would like to do the Nollen route on the north face from the Guggi hut at some point of time 😄 That looks really nice!
We did Jungfrau, but properly started a bit too late as the snow conditions were pretty bad during the last sections and especially on the descent.
Thanks for posting this video! It looks amazing! 😍
Maybe one day...
Thank you for you kind feedback, Agnieszka. The Mönch in Switzerland is indeed an amazing peak to climb :)
Great video Cragcloud! I like the way you’ve broken it up into sections!
Thank you, Mark! 😄
This is exactly how info vids should be done, no pointless waffle and to the point.
Thank you so much :) Have you done Monch? :)
@@Cragcloud We've not climbed the Monch but we are searching for our first 4000m peak that is appropriate to our experience and we've settled on the Piz Bernina for a few reasons. What I will say is there are an army of youtubers posting vids with horrendous music over the top with no actual info and another bunch just posting gear reviews and waffle about kit which we personally find boring.I wonder how much outdoor vids are about the kit compared to the actual activity of routes and doing it? Your vids have helped me plan 2 ice climbing trips to Norway so your archive is one of the first places I look now as the quality of info on your material is outstanding. Thanks for all your help, we're extremely grateful!
Great overview of the route!
Thank you, Bernardo! I am really happy that you like the video 😄
Excellent video. I would love to do the Monch sometime next year, early just before the season ... perhaps May. I need some more good ridge experience 🤔 ... Aiguille du Midi was terrifying this July 😂, icy, steep and exposed.
Great video, thanks.
Thank you very much, BikeFlagAZ 😄
Great Video Again Cragcloud, I would love to see some of your Clothing, Layers, Gloves, Boots ect. and how you rate them. Thanks
Thank you! :) That is actually a really good input! Something that I often discuss with my climbing partners. I really like what Arc'teryx makes - especially their Gore-Tex jackets as well as their fiber/down jackets, but it is also a pretty expensive brand. Besides that I like Black Diamond, which is cheaper and still high quality. But let me look into a video about clothing for alpine and ice climbing :)
Great video! I wish I had seen it before going there. Nonetheless, I was there just last week (early Sept, 2022). After the culture shock of the stuff/stores/ice-cave etc at the top of the Jungfraujoch and the walk towards the Monch Hutte and then the left tur towards the start of the route, we went up the initial rock step. There is a bit of a moat there but one can still get to the rock from the snow and on belay and using the rope there, get up the first step and some moderate rock work (class 3 / 4) get to a steeper slope that you curve around to get to the beautiful sinuous ridge. It is just about a foot wide and it is a bit nerve wracking with the exposure so we had to be careful. One really does not want to fall here. Great experience!
Did the Monch and Jungfrau but 3 attempts on Eiger were snowed off.
The Mittellegi Ridge on Eiger is definitely a climb you should come back to. It is so great! I would like to do it directly from Grindelwald someday. We crossed the Eismeer glacier and climbed from the Mittellegi Hut.
Great video. Beautiful scenery. I have a lot of rock climbing experience but no alpine/snow/ice experience. Random question... I am living in Switzerland and would love to try this rout as a sort of "introduction" route. I pretty much want to climb it just for the views and the ease of the route, and because that particular mountain range has a special significance to me. What time of the year do you recommend climbing? I see that you keep mentioning "snow conditions" in other comments. Is this really unsafe to do in the middle of the summer because of warm/soft/melting snow? I know nothing about being able to determine if snow pack is good or not. Thanks in advance for any info and for the great video. :) Cheers.
Hey, sounds like you need to either hire a guide, or do at least a couple of other alpine tours first before attempting this on your own
As well as Eiger we are now looking at doing those two climbs to put us in preparation for the Eiger, what length rope did you take .. as I was looking at 30m 7.5mm for me and Christian, we are going to Crib Goch ridge next weekend and the Striding edge in a couple of weeks, then shoot over to Scotland and get the CMD Arete in with some gully climbing and maybe some ice climbing... before we head out to Switzerland, plus are the other two mountains easy to get to , as we are going to be in the area for 7 days but we have 14 days in total as we are thinking of doing Mont Blanc and also Matterhorn fingers crossed... any advice oh and we are doing it in September.. cheers Wayne
Wayne Renshaw - Gravelrideruk sounds like really good preparation 😄
We climbed on a 60 meter rope coiled up so we had about 10-15 meters between us (I cannot remember it brand as it was my buddy’s rope). There are a couple of places where you would probably like to abseil rather than down climb on the Mittellegi Ridge itself.
When you descend via the south ridge you also need to do a couple of abseils.
Just be remindful of that when choosing the rope 😄
@@Cragcloud I've got 60m 8.1mm x 2 rope dry Beal Ice Line... we've decided to leave the Matterhorn until next year .. but going to do 3 mountains in Switzerland and then head over to Chamonix and climb Mont Blanc then hopefully get some rest days in to chill and explore 😉👍
@@Cragcloud loving the vids to great advice .. very much appreciated..
@@waynerenshaw-multi-outdoor4521 Thank you so much :D
@@waynerenshaw-multi-outdoor4521 Nice! Slounds like a really great adventure :) I actually haven't done Mont Blanc - yet ;) There is an itinerary called "The Royal Traverse", which is a summit traverse across Mont Blanc, Mont Maudit, Dome du Gouter etc. as far as I remember :)
Nice video ! How much did the train cost ?
We had to take several trips because we were going for the whole Berner Oberland Trilogy - meaning Grindelwald to Jungfraujoch (climb Mönch and Jungfrau) back to Kleine Scheidegg (rest day) then to Eismeer Station (climb Eiger) then descent to Jungfraujoch and then train back to Grindelwald. I guess it was around 350 Euro each. But obviously just going from Grindelwald to Jungfraujoch and back is cheaper.
There should be other approaches that doesn’t involve the train, but that is either climbing Mönch via Nollen on the North West spur or hike up the Aletsch Glacier...which takes significantly longer time.
Can you please explain your Oberland Teilogy experience? Train cost, departure time, climbing time, date, huts costs etc....... thanks
Absolutely!
We took 5 days climbing the Berner Oberland Trilogy. Day 1 was to get us from Grindelwald to Jungfraujoch, climb Mönch and stay at the Mönchjochhut for the night. On day 2, we then woke up early and climbed the Jungfrau, and then took the train back to Kleine Scheidegg for a rest day on day 3. On day 4 we took the train to Eismeer, hiked the glacier and stayed at the Mittellegi Hut for the night. On day 5 we climbed the Eiger via the Mittellegi Ridge.
The train is insanely expensive and I guess we paid about 300 EURO each for the train tickets. There is a "Climbers Ticket", but it is not cheaper, it just means you don't have to take the train back from Jungfraujoch the same day. The Mönchjoch Hut is rip off! They charge you 14 EURO for 1 liter of water! I cannot remember how much we paid per person for staying for the night, but I believe it was around 70 EURO including half pension.
If I were to do it again, I would probably do Mönch via Nollen from the North Face and stay at the Guggi hut. It is less expensive, but more strenuous as the route is harder. You can also approach the Mittellegi Ridge from the Ostegg Hut directly from Grindelwald, and then do the Mittellegi Ridge first, then Mönch and then Jungfrau. That would also mean that you don't have to take the train up, but that approach would also be harder.
@@Cragcloud thank you so much for the reply 😀 I guess I need to start saving some money for the trip next year😁
@@distortimus7631 Haha! Yeah, especially if you are planning riding the train. But as mentioned there are alternatives :)
Do you think it could be climbed at the end of April / beginning of May? Provided the avalanche conditions were okay, ie no fresh snow.
Cheers.
Yes, I think that is doable 😄 I think what you need to verify is whether the ridge before the summit is formed properly, but in April or May I would assume it has a decent amount of snow.
There is a large sports shop in Grindelwald that also serves as a mountain guide office. You could check with them first to get latest information on conditions 😄
@@Cragcloud Thanks so much, so useful to get insider info. Hopefully we will give it a shot then. Great videos!
dragomanrd2 Thank you 😁 I am happy to help. Leave me
a note when you have done it 😄
very nice video, keep up the good work! May I ask which drone you are using for alpine climbing?
Thanks! 😄 Yes, on this trip I brought my DJI Spark. I have just upgraded to the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom. It is a bit heavier, but much more capable. You film yourself?
@@Cragcloud Thanks for the tip, currently considering to get a drone for the next trip in the mountains
Then the DJI Spark is a great small drone. It is pretty portable and is a good way to get experience with drones without spending all your savings. Just remember to get extra batteries 😉
@@Cragcloud pro tip taken!
😁
Hvad med at gøre det solo? Og hvordan er ruten i forhold til Gletcherspalter?
Hej Frederik! Du kan sagtens solo Mönch South East Ridge. Du skal bare være opmærksom på at ca. midtvejs er der en klippepassage som involvere noget grad IV klatring omkring 3-4 meter. Det er rimeligt eksponeret, men noget man sagtens kan. Men det kan være en god ide at tage et kort reb med til at abseil det stykke, hvis ikke du er komfortabel med at nedklatre det, når du skal retur igen 😄
@@Cragcloud Tak for svaret. Glæder mig til at se flere videoer.
Det var så lidt 😄 Har du andre solo projekter i tankerne? Leder nemlig selv efter nogle stykker 😄
@@Cragcloud Jeg bor i Odense.
Jeg tænker Odense eller Kolding Klatreklub er nogle gode bud, hvis du gerne vil finde nogen der er tætte på 😄
Hvad er din erfaring? 😄
Informative do you have Grandes Jorasses?
None, unfortunately 😕 There are a few things there I would like to do within the next couple of years though 😄
@@Cragcloud Looking forward to that, hopefully I can also make it to chamonix for some Technical Climbing training in the near future Grandes Jorasses is on my Bucket list together with Mont Blanc Matterhorn and Eiger
Hej Cragcloud, overvej at skrive stednavne når du nævner dem. Ikke mindst til os der ikke lige hører det første gang, men måske også til dem der ikke kan den tykke danske accent. Fed video
Hejsa Rasmus! Tak for feedbacken! Der kommer også undertekster på videoen, men de er ikke helt klar endnu, haha! Jeg har dog også forsøgt at skrive stednavnene i beskrivelsen nedenfor 😄
What is the point of staying roped together at the ridge when you are unable to catch a fall there anyway? Better to risc only your own life than those of the whole team.
Good point, and definitely a good question. Well, on a ridge like that, if one climber is to fall to the left, the other climber simply has to jump to the right to stop the fall 😉 A pretty gnarly manoeuvre! But otherwise I would agree with you, there are tons of situations where it would not make sense to risk two lives instead of one.
The girl I was roped up with was very inexperienced at that time, so I decided that we remained roped up so she was more mentally confident on the ridge knowing that she was on a rope.
What if the dude at the back falls first???
Instructions unclear I ended up in Utah
Haha!
Could you STOP shaking your hands, it is absolutely terrible and disturbing?
Haha, I didn't notice I did it that much in this video ;) But thank you for the feedback.
Ok i would defo "freeze" on that ridge..probable sit down and stay until i became part of the landscape.🫣
Haha! It is a really nice, and somewhat exposed, ridge :D