Parpaner Schwarzhorn – a nice and surprisingly lonely spring ski tour from and back to Tschiertschen

The Parpaner Schwarzhorn probably doesn’t seem like it would be a very interesting goal for a back-country skier, because there are quite a few ski lifts which get close to its summit. However, when I was on top of it on this day, I was the only one and only saw 4 other back-country skiers in the area. One reason was probably due to the fact that the ski lifts at Tschiertschen were closed for the season and another reason the fact that the weather forecast was kind of uncertain for the day. However, I was lucky with the weather, found perfect spring corn snow conditions and I can really recommend this tour, because the northeast side of the Parpaner Schwarzhorn offers very nice and wide-open 30-35° steep slopes.

I started at  Tschiertschen and walked to the bottom station of the (closed) chair lift. There I put on my skis and walked up along the slopes to the huts and the chairlift station of Farur via Clüs and Ifang. From there I then went south along the nice valley to Obersäss and P. 2378 (route 193a in the SAC book Skitouren Nordbünden). The described route in the SAC guide continues to P. 2447 and then goes up to the top via the west slope and south ridge. However, since I saw tracks going up to Farurfurgga, I decided to explore a different route as well. The slope up to Farurfurgga is around 35° steep or a little more. From Farurfurgga I shortly went up to P. 2464 in order to visualy inspected the N-ridge of the Parpaner Schwarzhorn, however I decided that it wasn’t a good idea to give that ridge a try with skis. So instead I skied down to an altitude of about 2300m and then with the skins back on went up the NE slope of the Parpaner Schwarzhorn to an obvious gap in the west ridge and from there to the summit.

I stayed on the summit for a while and enjoyed the surprisingly nice weather and view and then skied down to Tschiertschen via Urden (route 193c in the SAC book Skitouren Nordbünden). The NE slopes offered the perfect corn snow condition and it was very enjoyable, especially since the steepness of these slopes is very nice as well: between 30-35°. From Captäsch (P. 1775) I followed the path to Clüs and then along the ski slopes back down to Tschiertschen. Below Captäsch the snow was very wet and slow, and there was even one patch which was already snow free.

 Tschiertschen – Clüs – Ifang – Farur – Obersäss – P. 2378 – Farurfurgga – Parpaner Schwarzhorn – Inner Urden – Captäsch (P. 1775) – Clüs –  Tschiertschen