Weekend on the top and around the Pointe d'Arpitettaz

The Pointe d'Arpitettaz was planned as one of the highlights of the Summer 2011. Simone, Green and me left Zurich on Friday evening and went to Lucerne, where we met Ponch. By car we travelled then to the Wallis and spent the night in a camping in Vissoie. Saturday morning we left Vissoie very early direction Zinal with the aim to be on the top by 1.00 PM.

Day 1: We left the car at the parking outside of the village of Zinal, close to p.1675 and walked along the river to p.1731. Here the path going to the Pas du Chasseur starts. Be careful: the Pas du Chasseur is a difficult route. There is a second easier variant going up to the lake d'Arpitettaz, which starts at the same intersection but is not signed. At the beginning we followed the path going up to the Pas du Chasseur till we reached the intersection at an altitude of about 1880 m. Here there is a marker indicating the route to the Pas du  Chasseur going to the right. The easier way, going to the left, is not signed, however the trail exists and can be hiked. We decided for the easier, but still very steep variant and went up to p.2256. Here we left the path and started our ascent to the summit. Since we could not find any traces or any sign indicating the way to the top, we continued almost straight direction flat rocks forming the lower part of the west edge. We turned around these rocks and entered then the west face of the Arpitettaz. Since the terrain was quite friable and even big stones were unstable and falling down we tried to reach the west edge as soon as possible (around 2950m). The ascent along the edge was easier so we continued on this way till the top. For the descent we first went back along the west edge but already at approxymately 3080 m we entered the west face and went down there. We turned around the prominent flat rocks of the west edge described before and went up direction south-east to reach the "plateau" at approxymately 2800 m. Here we continued direction east first staying close to the lower rocks of the south face and then going direction path coming from the Col de Milon, which we crossed at about 2760 m. From there we continued along the normal path going down to the hut.

Day 2: the second day we left the hut direction Col de Milon. The path first crosses the glacier river and then goes up to the edge of a moraine following it till the end. The last few metres are on unstable stones. On the other side the path continues on stones and friable terrain till p.2703. From there we left the signed path and turned to the left to follow the river Torrent du Barmé. We passed p.2606 and continued straight direction east till we reached the bridge and the intersection at p.2477. Here we started the final descent to Zinal via Le Chiesso.

The trail difficulty of the first day was T2-T3 between Zinal and the lake Arpitettaz and T4 for the rest of the tour. The variant along the west edge requires some easy climbing (I). The second day, ascent and descent of the Col de Milon can be considered T4- (for the descent there are chains to secure the way) whereas the rest was T3.

A real alpine weekend with nice weather and wonderful panorama! Funny people in the hut...