Mittetaghorn

For once, I left the organisation of a hike to someone else. I joined Konrad's suggestion of climbing the Mittetaghorn (or simply Mittaghorn), a mountain in canton Glarus that I hadn't even heard about before. With seven persons in total, we met up in Elm for this hike in the "Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona" UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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The Tschinglenbahn cable car is an adventure of its own, as it flies spectacularly through a wild gorge. After walking through the Alp Tschinglen / Nideren, we climb through the forest to Firstboden (P. 1744). Here, a white-blue-white marked path heads SSW, following the ridge that ascends towards the Gandstock and the Mittetaghorn. There are a few passages that require some scrambling (T4). This isn't very serious as the route is well-maintained. Cables secure the more exposed parts of the route (mostly between 1900m and 2100m altitude on the ascent of the Gandstock). Iron pegs have been drilled into the rock where necessary. The north ridge of the Mittetaghorn looks daunting on the map, but in fact there is hardly any scrambling involved here, as the path zigzags its way up.

All the way from Firstboden to the Mittetaghorn, the ridge provides wonderful views over the Sernftal. This must certainly be one of the best vantage points over the valley. After having climbed such a beautiful ridge, the summit of the Mittetaghorn is a little bit of a disappointment. The views are about the same as before, with the exception of the Zwölflihorn which is now visible ahead through the clouds. Moreover: it isn't even much of a summit. Though it certainly appears as a peak from below, the ridge actually just continues to climb behind P. 2415. The Mittetaghorn is marked by a large cairn, but we still have to double-check the map before believing that this is actually the summit.

The descent route (previously marked white-red-white, now painted over white-blue-white) follows the ridge south for another 50m and then turns to the east. Initially, the descent of the steep scree slope is a little tricky (T3+), but the slope soon eases. Some light rain is starting to fall, but we soon reach the shelter of the Martinsmad SAC hut, where we stop for a drink.

When we leave the hut, the rain has stopped again. The descent from the Martinsmadhütte via Nideren down to Elm is very varied and adventurous. There are lush green pastures, but also wild crags (where some chains have been fixed along the path, T3+), waterfalls, canyons... Unfortunately, the landscape here is also rather scarred by power lines and pylons.

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Minus points for the power lines and for the disappointing summit, but everything else about this hike is great. Varied terrain, a nice ridge with great views, a cosy SAC hut on the descent, waterfalls, canyons... There's not a single boring moment on the entire route.