Gonzen via Follaplatten and Gletschergrube – Following the footsteps of hikr VIPs

After Alpin_Rise published the route up to Gonzen via the Follaplatten and Gletschergrube in his report last fall, there was a big run in spring this year for this route by many hikr VIPs (like Delta: click, Fenek and Zaza: clack, and 3614adrian cluck). They all repeated this route in more or less similar ways. Of course I was interested as well and last weekend went there too. Here is my report about this nice little treasure.

Alpine_Rise’s description of the route is very good and helped me to find my way up to Gonzen via the Follaplatten. The path from the train station up to Cholplatz is clearly marked. Also, the place where you have to leave the path to the left is obvious if you know you’re looking for this sign (or in fact this one is there too). The path traces to the Follaplatten are also rather clear. After reaching the Follaplatten I was mislead by some climbers walking up towards the south wall of the Gonzen and followed them instead of turning left below. I soon noticed though and went back, crossing westwards in the Follaplatten.

Then Alpin_Rise describes as follows: "Auf Wegspuren zuerst diagonal an den rechten Rand hoch (T5), dann mehr in der Fallinie (Fixseil) bis zu einem schönen Biwakplatz unter überhängenden Felsen.“  Well I couldn’t find any fixed rope anywhere. However, I saw quite a few bolts, but no rope. Or maybe I was too far west like Delta where there is no rope? I did find a nicely coiled rope at the bivouac place though. Anyway, without a rope the part up to the bivouac place was more like a T6 than a T5 or at least a T5+!

From the bivouac place the path traces are very clear again soon you can see the “Annegrethli” and the “Breiter Turm”. The eastern channel up to the block as high as a little house offers some man made steps in critical places. After the genius route underneath the block, I also visited the Gletschergrube (a few meters northeast of the block). I agree that you need to overcome a certain fear in order to climb down into this hole, but I don’t think the difficulties are more than a II for getting in and out again.

As others mentioned the Gletschergrube is very interesting and if you take this path up to Gonzen you should definitely visit it. I was very impressed with the glittering walls and of course the colors. There is still quite a considerable amount of old hard snow present and in order to get down to the bottom of the cave you need to overcome another queasy feeling (steep, slippery, a lot of loose material and in my case a bird flying around in there!). As adrian3614 mentioned, all the way at the bottom left, there is a Gletschergrube log.

Back out of the cave, I followed the channel up to the saddle east of the “Breite Turm”, there are quite a few steps cut into the rock and ease the climbing. After the saddle, instead of following the bottom of the west wall of the Gonzen, I went down towads the Follawald (path traces) because I saw lots of chamois there. Later I ascended towards the west wall again and then as soon as I saw a possibility, climbed up to the path near P. 1772. From there I followed the path to the summit enjoyed the nice view and weather a little bit and then went back down to Sargans via the path through the avalanche protection and Leiter.

 Sargans – Schloss – Gonzenwald – Cholplatz – Follaplatten – Gletschergrube – Follawald – Gonzen – Wang – Älpli – Leiter – Cholplatz – Erzbild – Schloss –  Sargans