Via Ferrata Loéche les Bains Gemmi-Daubenhorn

Have you ever done a Via Ferrata? Thanks to the Werlen bros. and many others, Switzerland has a huge one! I’ve climbed and ski toured many times in and around this valley and have always been impressed by this huge cliff towering above Leukerbad. It’s unimaginable that one would put a via ferrata up these 1000 meters of rough limestone. The amount of rock fall alone would make this project seemingly impossible. But the route is amazing. Calculate a solid 6 hours up and 2 hours down.

One starts by taking the lift from Loeche to the Gemmi pass. We got on the first ride up at 7:50 with the employees. A 30 minute walk down to the start of the via ferret got us going at 8:30. One starts with some horizontal hiking, high above Loeche. We flushed a couple of Ibex who knocked off some sizeable rocks, but below us. Then the fun begins with a few moves across a vertical wall, a couple of short ladders, then more hiking. It’s all a blur now, but passing through a natural tunnel in the wall, seriously gripped traversing a vertical section 100 long, seemingly 1000s of meters above the valley floor, (no photo taken here!), then onto the final ladder, too vertical on failing arms… Just a blur…

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