Gonzen via Follaplatten (aborted attempt)

With the weather forecast predicting dry weather only in north-eastern Switzerland, the Gonzen seemed like a good option. Initially, I had the Leiterliweg ("ladder path") in mind, but checking the SAC Alpinwandern/Gipfelziele guidebook the night before, I discovered the Follaplatten route as a more challenging alternative. We decided to try out the Follaplatten, though in hindsight, the Leiterliweg would have been a lot more enjoyable...

Among the many reports on Hikr about the Follaplatten route, there are one or two particularly harrowing stories, but these seemed to be due to navigational errors. That we would get into trouble on the correct route, was rather unexpected.

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From the railway station at Sargans we climb past the castle and follow the approach to the Leiterliweg. It's an easy and rather monotonous ascent through the forrest until after almost two hours we reach the Cholplatz (ca 1150m, "Am__iches _erbot" sign). Here we turn left on an unmarked path, which soon hits the edge of the forrest, revealing the lower part of the Follaplatten, a steep slope with rock plates interspersed with Schrofen. The Follaplatten are traversed a bit higher up, near the foot of the escarpment that constitutes the foot of the Gonzen south face. We didn't see the cairns that other people have mentioned, but there is a reasonably clear trail that leads to a fixed rope at a steeper rocky passage (would be grade II without the fixed rope). Above the fixed rope, going first to the left and then to the right over steep Schrofen terrain (T5+, often only uncomfortable steps available and not much to hold on to either) brings us to the Bivakplatz. An overhanging band of rock provides a sheltered place here, but as a bivouac spot it looks rather shabby, I must say.

A path continues up from the Bivakplatz, turning around a corner, then climbing very steeply towards a distinct couloir with a house-sized rock wedged in the middle of it. Though mostly dry, the ground is still a bit slippery here. The route should now lead up through the couloir and underneath the wedged rock. However, the bottom of the couloir is filled with abundant amounts of loose rock debris. Not just scree, but also backpack-sized blocks. The higher we get, the more problematic and loose these stones get. It's not long before we trigger a particularly scary avalanche of rocks down the couloir. It's a good thing that there was just the two of us, and nobody else lower down! On our left is a vertical rock wall (sometimes loose!). On our right, there is more solid, but also very exposed terrain, which only occasionally allows us to avoid the loose rocks at the bottom of the gully for a little bit. Not fancying a dodgy down-climb through the Follaplatten, we persevere with the ascent. Things don't only get worse, though, as some 15 metres below the wedged rock, we are both almost cragfast in two different locations. I'm beyond my confort zone in T6 terrain to the right of the gully, trying (and failing) to find a better around. My hiking partner is in the debris-filled gully, afraid to move for fear of causing and being swept away by another rock avalanche. As trying to go any further seems likely to get us completely stuck, we finally turn around and try to descend the way we came, something we should probably have decided to do already much earlier in the couloir.

The descent is not pretty either. All the rocks that we've caused to slide around in the couloir are now covering the gully in an even more awkward way. Each step down needs to be 'cleaned' from the unstable scree lying there, which just sends the scree a little further down, making things worse for the next step down after that... After finally getting safely out of the couloir, the descent from the Bivakplatz to the fixed rope at the Follaplatten is also particularly uncomfortable. We attach (and abandon) a 5m cord to a small tree, securing one of the sketchier spots, but really a longer rope would have been needed to properly secure the descent here. Reaching the fixed rope, the worst is thankfully over. We can relax a little just in time to enjoy the amazing views down to the Rhine Valley that you get from the Follaplatten.

The question remains: why did we encounter the couloir in such a bad condition, with so much unstable rock debris? Is it like this after every winter and does it always require a handful of fools like us who try to go up, before the worst of debris has been 'cleaned away'? Or did we have the bad luck that the situation is just particularly bad this spring? Either way, in the current conditions, I would advise anyone against attempting the route.