Lenzspitze – Nadelhorn Traverse

Lenzspitze 4294 m – Nadelhorn 4327 m

ZS+, 3c / ~1130 m ↗ / Lenzspitze ascent → traverse (3a) → Nadelhorn NE-Grat descent

Dawn on the way up the Lenzspitze.

The route up to the Lenzspitze from the Mischabelhütte is rather straightforward — the difficult places are easy to read, and navigation is never a problem. The sting is in the tail: there’s some extremely unpleasant chossy rock just below the summit. The summit firn can be climbed straight up on front points with an axe, but the transition into the last 50 m of very crumbly, barely protectable rock was the unpleasant part.

The traverse across to the Nadelhorn.

The traverse ridge itself is lovely — mostly easy scrambling, with a few obvious harder steps that stay easy to navigate as long as you keep to the crest.

Descent from the Nadelhorn

The way down was the sketchy part.

• First, crampons on to downclimb a steep, chossy slope where the rock is more or less held together with mud.
• Then steep snow sections crossed by narrow but deep crevasses.
• The glacier was blank — black ice, demanding extreme caution.
• Lower down, on the flatter section, the snow cover held: the snow bridges were still in, and the crevasses were visible and easy to navigate.

The glacier descent back toward the hut.

Route

• Traverse Lenzspitze → Nadelhorn on Camptocamp — AD+, 3c, linking two Mischabel 4000ers (Lenzspitze 4294 m, Nadelhorn 4327 m).

Thanks to Michał for the adventure and the photos.