Bishorn

  • Bishorn
  • 4153 m.
  • Primary factor: 120 m.
  • Switzerland
  • Location: North 46:07.067, East 007:42.883
  • Climbed August 3, 1999

Information:

How to get there: A good starting point is the village of Zinal in the Annivers valley. This is west of the valley leading in to the famous Zermatt in Switzerland.
Route description: The climb involves a considerable vertical gain (Zinal is at approx 1650 m) and is best done by hiking to the SAC (Swiss Alpine Club) hut Tracuit (at 3256 m), spending the night there for an early climb of the summit the next morning. The hut can accommodate about 100 people and serves meals and sells various articles.
From the hut the climb is entirely on the glacier. The standard route proceeds across the Turtmann Glacier (in a south-south-east direction) crossing a couple of minor crevasses, as one get closer to the rock on the eastern side the route heads pretty much straight up the glacier arm that essentially extends to the very summit. The climb ends with a very short ridge in a more south-west direction (the only place when one senses a mountain ridge) to the snow covered summit.
Comments: This is technically one of the easiest 4000 m summits in the Alps. The mountain is a part of the Weisshorn massive, but with a 120 m vertical drop between it and the higher Weisshorn (4505 m) it is generally accepted as a separate 4000 meter summit. We had fog and light snow flurries on the summit, very poor visibility. In fact, the weather did improve, but not until after noon during our decent from Tracuit to Zinal.

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