Federispitz & Speer including "trial and error" on the NE ridge of Federi

I have been on Federispitz and Speer numerous times. Since a work related event happened to be on Speer on this day, I wanted to explore a few uneasy “paths” up to these well-known.

My plans for the day were rather ambitious – too ambitious as it turned out. I intended to go up to Federispitz from Schänis via north rim then try the northeast ridge from Federi towards Schafberg (maybe climb Schafberg as well) and then down the Chämmi and approach Speer via Grappenhorn. Well, several things didn’t work out as they were meant to…

The first part up to Federispitz worked out as planned. As recently described by Delta here, the Federispitz north rim is an easy T5. From Oberfederi I found clear path traces up to the peak, they follow more or less the ridge, with a few exceptions where difficult sections are bypassed in the west (for the way up that’s right). I also noticed quite a few, brand new, shiny bolts in the critical parts of the path. To me it looks likes the north rim will soon be equipped with ropes and opened up for the "general public". Anyway, I think it is a nice approach to Federispitz. The summit cross reported broken by Delta has been replaced, however it is very crooked.

I stayed on the peak, in fact the so-called “Säntisblick” peak for quite a while and studied part of the northeast ridge from here. I have heard about this ridge and how difficult it is, and that numerous people have failed – even very experienced and courageous hikers, but I wanted to give it a try - after all it didn’t look all that bad from what I could see here.

So I started my way towards P. 1857 “Der Übergang … ist exponiert und man umgeht allzu schwierige Stellen durch die Südflanke.” I soon realized this is nothing for the fainthearted. I first stayed on the ridge until over the natural bridge (see picture here) but had to turn around and tried to bypass in the south flank. I didn’t get very far because the grass was still quite slippery after all the rain and the conglomerate rock just didn’t offer enough stability and grips to hold on to. So I decided to not continue this dangerous adventure but go to Schneeboden via Ober Fiderschen on the marked path instead.

At Schneeboden I studied the NE ridge again. After Chilchli it looked tame and according to the SAC guide this part should be easy: “Von der Gratschneide beim Chämmi (ca. 1680 m) … folgt man zunächst leicht dem Grat…” (The description is for the way from Chämmi to Federispitz). So I decided to go back up to the ridge and thought that I could go up to Schafberg from here. Well, the alleged easy is relatively easy for a while but at a drop of approximately 3 meters shortly before the Chämmi I gave up again. (I could have jumped down the little overhang, but wasn’t sure if I would have made it back up again in case I had to turn around later…). Instead I went down to Betlichängel and from there along the little river to Unterchäseren (one difficult section I bypassed left/north).

The exhausting “trial and errors” were time consuming plus I didn’t really feel like completing my original plan to go up to Speer via Grappenhorn any more. Instead I walked to Oberchäseren, had a beer there and waited for my colleagues to arrive from Alp Matt. Together we went up to Speer and down to Alp Matt along the marked path.

Schänis – Ledi – Buholz – Grütwald – Federiwald – Federi-Hütte – Ober Federi – north rim – Federispitz - Ober Fiderschen – Schneeboden – Chilchli – almost Chämmi – Betlichängel – Unterchäseren – Oberchäseren – Speer – Oberchäseren – Unterchäseren – Alp Matt