Gamschopf at last - and a new route in the north-west flank

After my failed attempt to climb Gamschopf a few weeks ago, I wanted to make sure I would succeed this time. For slippery steep grass, I even carried crampons with me, just in case… However, I didn’t need any aids at all and even found a new (?) relatively easy access (as compared to the east-ridge from Lauchwis) to the Gamschopf in the northwest flank.

Here’s how it went:
I started my hike from the bus stop  Lutertannen and walked along the marked path via Bumoos – Schlipf – Oberhofeld – Blackentolen towards Lauchwis - always looking at my goal Gamschopf. At around P.1719 I started realizing, that it would actually be feasible to head towards Gamschopf from here already. I kept walking a little bit, because I wasn’t totally convinced yet, but at around 1750m, I was sure it would work.

The route I chose from here is shown in this picture. It follows then northwest flank of the Lauchwis ridge and gets to the exact same place in the ridge (blue arrow in my picture) where Delta’s red route (see this picture) gets.

OK, I have to admit the way I got there is still a T6, very steep grass mixed with some rocks and rather exposed, but for my taste it was easier then the very exposed ridge from Lauchwis. My way could probably be optimized some, because at a few points I thought “would I really want to go back down here if I had to?” Anyway, the good thing about this access is that in case you really need an exit, you always have the chance to go up left towards Lauchwis, because the layers are aligned in this direction.

As described by Delta in his report, after the saddle in the East Ridge, one needs to bypass a little tower. Unless Delta, I bypassed it on the west side. Still very exposed, but it seemed easier to me than the eastern way. After that the rest of the way up doesn’t really pose any T6 difficulties any more.

As mentioned by Delta and Alpin_Rise, Gamschopf is a “lonely peak” and has only a few visitors per year. The “Gipfelbuch” is almost 30 years old and in very bad condition, because it got wet at some point. During the hour I stayed up there I let it dry in the warm sun a little and gave it some fresh air.

For my way down I went back to the saddle in the East Ridge where I came up and then went down Delta’s route in the northeast flank, the red route. I was surprised how “easy” it was and would actually rate it as a T5 only.

As Alpin_Rise “requested” in his comment, I did look at the “ledge on Schwarzchopf east”, but I didn’t have enough time to actually give it a try. If you look at this picture, the upper half seems feasible (also if one looks at it from Gamschopf), but the crux is probably to climb the big first step. Maybe on the narrow and exposed band from below the saddle?

After that I then went down to Schrenit and via the marked route to the Post in Unterwasser.

Luttertannen - Bumoos – Schlipf – Oberhofeld – Blackentolen – P. 1719 – NW flank – E-ridge – Gamschopf – E-ridge – NE flank – Schrenit – Alpli – Chüeboden – Unterwasser Post