Wasserauen <-> Wagenluecke

I had about 4 hours to spare and decided to try another path towards Saentis. Starting from Wasserauen again, I took the path south of Seealpsee. It was a good choice, as the views overlooking the lake were spectacular. The other advantage of this route is that the path is comfortably steep so I could run for long sections. Mosf of this is a T2, apart from a snowy bit near the pass which I rate as T3+.

At Meglisalp, I decided to go north to catch some sun, rather than south towards Rotsteinpass. It also afforded me the opportunity of coming back the other way if time was not enough to summit and return. As it were, it was a good choice because the route was easy and I was able to arrive at the Wagenluecke pass quickly, and only a little tired.

However, there was another 400m to climb and it was already 11:00. I had to return - I decided to try going down the north side, as there wasn't much snow yet. Only a few meters afterwards, I encountered a gully with a bit of frozen snow - maybe 20-30m of descent. I initially used my axe as a pole, and then did some backwards climb for a steeper bit, avoiding the path. Finally on a slightly easier bit I found it useful to slide down and do a self-arrest. Then it was a bit of sliding over loose rock down the path.

It wasn't that it was *that* hard - a guy passed me that only had poles (heck, maybe 2 poles would have been better than a single axe), but I'm not very comfortable with snow.

Anyway, after negotiating this the rest of just a steep descent (in parts secured with ropes in the spring, but not in the winter- in the beginning I thought the ropes were actually in place, and I held one of them, before realising they were just hanging from one bolt).

When I got to Mesmer, it was the same descent to Wasserauen I did two weeks ago, but I felt a bit fresher this time.