Haggenspitz, Kleiner and Grosser Mythen – An introduction to alpine hiking

A friend of mine wanted to go on a tour with me for a long time already. He also had a plan for almost 10 years to climb the “Kleiner Mythen”, but for several reasons it never happened so far. Since he asked me to take him along when I go up there, I thought that climbing Haggenspitz, Kleiner Mythen and Grosser Mythen on the same day would be an even better experience. Due to the fact that this was his first alpine hike in the upper Ts, I didn’t want to make it too hard and therefore, didn't take him on the classic N-S traverse, but keep the difficulties in the T5 range.

The plan
Haggenspitz: I decided on the route from Brunni up to Griggeli and from there up to the summit from south (R 672: Haggenspitz von S). For the Kleine Mythen the idea was to go back down to the Griggeli and from there not via the “Kamin”, but the eastern ridge up to the summit (R 665: Hauptgipfel vom Griggeli) and down to Zwüschenmyten via S-ridge (R 660 S-Grätli). For the Gross Mythen I chose the Schafweg and Rotgrätli as our planned route (R 602: Schafweg-Mythenmatt-Rot Grätli) - nicely described by HBT here. Except for the route up to the summit of Kleiner Mythen we walked according to plan. Here are the details:

After getting out of the bus in  Brunni SZ, Talstation LBH, we walked pretty much directly up towards Griggeli via Geissloch. There are path traces up to the Griggeli, it’s moderately steep and not very difficult. For the way up it’s easier not to walk in the rubble, but next to it. From Griggeli we then followed the path traces on east side of the S-ridge up to Haggenspitz. Everything is clearly marked with red dots all the way to the summit. After a short break we then went back down to the Griggeli.

The clouds and fog were still kind of hanging low and with all the rain in the previous night everything was still rather wet and sometimes slipperey. We decided to go and check out the slipperiness and the path traces on the north side of the Kleine Mythen anyway. The path traces from Griggeli towards Kleiner Mythen are clearly visible and automatically lead you to a prominent saddle in the NE ridge. From there path traces either continue in the east flank to the next saddle on approximately the same altitude in the SE ridge, or, they go up towards the summit in the NE flank. Due to the slipperiness we decided to continue in the east flank. From the before mentioned saddle in the SE ridge, we then scrambled up to the summit more or less in a direct way towards the summit, for the exact route see this picture. It is actually surprisingly easy (T4+) and due to the fact that this route was mostly rock which dried up already, it wasn’t slippery or dangerous at all.

We enjoyed the nice view and the fact that we found an easier way up to the Kleiner Mythen than expected. After our short lunch break we then went down to Holzegg via the S-Grätli, Vorgipfel and Zwüschenmythen, a joyful and scenic route.

As said in the introduction we then walked up to the Gross Mythen via Schafweg and Rotgrätli. There is nothing to add to the description of HBT which is crisp and clear: here, thanks a lot! However, due to the fact that you’ll find blue dots every 10-20 meters, you don’t really need a description to find your way on this route.

My remarks: The Schafweg is equipped with steel ropes everywhere and makes the otherwise quite exposed path rather easy. The exposedness of the Rot Grätli is nothing for the fainthearted and there aren’t very many additional aids there. Therefore, I would actually rate it a T5+ in particular under the rather wet conditions we encountered. Sorry mate...

After a rather long break on the top of the Gross Mythen (there were actually surprisingly few people up there) we walked down the Mythenweg to Holzegg and from there back to the bus stop  Brunni SZ, Talstation LBH along the marked path.

My friend did very well on his first T5 hike and liked it too. I told him that it is dangerous, because alpine hiking can be become an addiction!

 Brunni SZ, Talstation LBH – Geissloch – Griggeli – Haggenspitz – Griggeli – Kleiner Mythen – Kleiner Mythen Vorgipfel – Zwüschemythen – Holzegg – Mythenweg (Kehre 22) – Schafweg – Nollenbrünneli – Mythenmatt – Rot Grätli – Grosser Mythen – Mythenweg – Holzegg -  Brunni SZ, Talstation LBH