Via Heinrich - Klein Furkahorn, Furka Pass

The Klein Furkahorn stands at 3026 m on the border between Uri and Valais, directly above the Furka Pass. Its west flank falls away in long granite slabs toward the Rhone Glacier, and Via Heinrich takes a seven-pitch line up them. I climbed it free solo.

Klein Furkahorn, 3026 m / Via Heinrich, west flank

5c / 7 pitches / granite

Via Heinrich is one of the shorter plaisir lines on this flank. Sources give it 5c across seven pitches, with closely spaced bolts and rock described as unusually well structured, full of large quartz crystals. Its immediate neighbour, Bepi, is four pitches at 5a. Both sit lower down the glacier side than the long classics of the same wall - the Kreuzbandweg, for instance, runs thirteen pitches at mostly 4a to 4c from a start at around 2430 m, continuing into the summit slabs above.

Logistics

Approach

From the Hotel Belvédère on the Furka hairpins, or from the parking just below the pass, follow the road up past the military bunker and then the footpath running along the eastern lateral moraine of the Rhone Glacier to the foot of the west-flank routes. The neighbouring Kreuzbandweg start is reached in roughly 30 minutes this way; Via Heinrich lies a little further down the glacier side.