"My Yearly Report" about alpine like tours on the Albis ridge

The hikr regulars know by now that the Albis ridge is my playground for some alpine like hikes whenever the conditions in the “real Alps” don’t allow a tour, or, if I feel like a short Sunday morning or after work tour in the close neighborhood. I hardly ever follow any path for my way up, but keep finding new ways to get up to the top. By now I believe that it is probably possible to get up to the Albis ridge more or less wherever you want and the difficulties are all in the T4/5 range.
   
Following is a list of most of my ways up. Together with this map and my previous reports 1 2, I think it should be possible to repeat them in case anybody feels like it.

The personal highlight in this series is definitely the “ice climbing” tour up to the TV tower (#6). The conditions needed for such an adventure, probably don’t happen very often, but this winter it was possible and actually quite joyful. Very funny are also the strange looks you get when meeting hikers on the “highway hiking path" between Uetliberg and Felsenegg, when you are equipped with an ice pick and crampons…

With all the snow we had this year, I also encountered another curiosity in the Felsenegg east flank: During my deep snow tour (#9), I actually saw snowboard tracks coming down from the top station of the Felsenegg cable car, ending at Rellsten. I think the pleasure for such a ski- or snowboard tour is rather limited though, because of the rather thick and steep forest, but for a historical reasons it’s probably worth mentioning :-)

1. Fallätsche Traverse (T4)
   For the detailed route see RomanKoch’s description here or my report here
    
2. The classic Fallätsche path (T4)
   A detailed description can be found on Roman Koch’s website here
    
3. Zurich/Adliswil city boundary walk (T4-) which I described here
    
4. a: The Rebegg route begins at the Rebegg Atelier and follows the ridge which starts right above the house. Somebody seems to maintain this path, since there are lots of aids and steps made out of wooden branches where ever the path is steep.  (T3+)
   b: For the Oberleimbach route, check out this page (T5)
   -> see a more recent update here
    
5. Burg Balderen (T4+)
   In order to get up to the place where the castle Baldern used to be, I started at the Schützenhaus Adliswil and followed the ridge north of it (at the beginning it isn’t very distinct); this ridge leads the way up. At an altitude of a little less than 700m you get to a rather flat part with a little hut. From there the rest of the way up is very steep, but roots and trees are always there when you need them.
   “Die Burg Baldern bildete im 1. Jahrhundert eine Besitzung der Grafen von Lenzburg und später des Freiherrn Lüthold von Regensberg. Nach der Sage wohnten darin Hildegard und Bertha, die Töchter Ludwig des Deutschen, des Gründers der Fraumüsterabtei in Zürich. Die Burg wurde von den Zürchern unter Rudolf von Habsburg zerstört 1268.“
    
6. “Ice climbing” to the TV tower (WI1)
   In January this year, it was rather cold for a long time period, and, the Albis was below the fog most of the time, so the creeks on the eastern side of the ridge built up quite some ice. Why not go up to the ridge with crampons and a pick for a change? For my Albis ice climbing activity I chose the little creek which comes down from the TV tower to Langwies. The steepness there sometimes is more than 40° so the terrain qualifies for the easiest ice-climbing rating. In order to get there one needs to walk up the Langweid next to the Schützenhaus (this place is often used for sledding) and just strictly bear towards the TV tower. The little creek didn’t really have all that much ice but enough to make good use of the pick and crampons.
    
7. Rellsten
   This is the tour I’ve done more than a dozen times by now, under all sort of circumstances, deep snow, wet and rainy conditions, barefoot on a hot summer day, when it was almost dark, etc... The path traces are clearly visible and a more detailed description of this path can be found here
   -> these days the path is equipped with lots and lots of ropes/stairs and other aids see a recent update here
    
8. Below the Felsenegg Cable Car (T4)
   Whenever I take the Felsenegg cable car I’m looking for new possibilities up to the ridge. The way right below the cable car always looked rather easy so I tried that too.
   From Rellsten I actually took two different ways up to the ridge which are more or less below the cable car line. The first time I really tried to follow below the cable line as much as possible, after walking up to Rossweid in the meadow. It isn’t actually very hard to do so and feasible almost all the way to the top. Only right below the top station of the cable car, there is a vertical sandstone wall which I had to bypass on the right side.
   The second time I first followed a dell which bears to the left from Rossweid. After getting to a wooden construction (I don’t know what it’s for), I then followed a not very distinct ridge up to the path between the top station of the cable car and the restaurant.
    
9. Very deep-snow and AW. MEMORIAL-WAY HU.H.RW. (T4)
   On February 22nd 2009, there was a lot of snow in this area and I felt like “playing” in the snow a little bit and walked up in the east flank of the Albis ridge. On my way up I first went to the bottom of the path near Hofern, but instead of taking it, I went down to the little creek on the right and first followed it on the left side. Shortly after crossing underneath the cable car line I went up on the left side following a rather steep couloir, later a ridge on its left side. I got up to the path where the stairs with the rail are and where you find a wooden sign which reads: AW. MEMORIAL-WAY HU.H.RW. I’m not quite sure where this memorial way is supposed to go or who put the sign there, but it might follow the bottom of the sandstone drop which continues for quite a while. I followed it for a few hundred meters and then decided to “dive down" towards Rellsten again in the deep snow in a couloir north of the one I came up.
    
10. Felsenegg diretissima (first part T3+, second part T4+) for this route see the description here
     
11. Stig (T4-)
    On this path one finds white markings on the trees, it starts on a ridge between Vorder and Hinter Stig (the one closest to Vorder Stig). First it follows the south edge of the forest. At an altitude of about 540 meters one gets into the forest and follows the ridge all the way to the top. One rather steep patch is bypassed on the left hand side.