Ski Club of Great Britain // Action Zone // SIMPLON THE BEST

The Simplon Pass, slicing between Switzerland and Italy, reaches 2000m and is frequently clobbered by savage snowstorms. It’s a tough old bit of Tarmac – and the road to day tour heaven…

WORDS ERIC KENDALL | PHOTOS PENNY KENDALL

If the International Road Transport Union had a ski touring division – bear with me – there can be little doubt that its annual jamboree would take place high on the Simplon Pass between Switzerland and Italy. Reaching 2,000m and frequently clobbered by savage snowstorms, but somehow kept open through the winter, this epic bit of Tarmac carries juggernauts and a smattering of other traffic between north and south year-round.

Built by Napoleon Bonaparte between 1800-1805 as a vehicular route linking the two countries, the road now gives some of the Alps’ easiest access, by car or regular bus, to almost limitless ski touring terrain: day tour heaven, to all points of the compass, offering everything from mellow morning outings to full-on days involving all the kit and an extra helping of muesli.

We thought we’d give it a go. It’s just an hour-and-a-half from Mountain Tracks’ founder Nick Parks’ home in Zinal, so a doable day trip from there; but with so much to explore we’ve chosen to base ourselves for a few days in the Hotel Fletschhorn, in the village of Simplon Dorf, a few kilometres south of the pass. Though a few skiers already know of the region, the local powers-that-be have finally decided to share their secrets more broadly, with an app you can use to bag the peaks you climb, earning points courtesy of QR codes on the various summit crosses. The app and website also detail 25 day tours, which gives a hint of the scope of the region.

A good warm-up, skinning directly from Simplon Dorf, is the Schilthorn – the one that’s 1,300 vertical metres above us, to the northwest of the village, rather than the other one that nearly did it for James Bond 50 years ago, over in Mürren. Though our Schilthorn is less famous, it has the advantage of not swarming with tourists eating 007-branded burgers; in fact it’s likely to be deserted.

Heading north through Simplon Dorf’s tiny backstreets, with the smell of woodsmoke on crisp air, we’re soon climbing snowy meadows into a forest of ancient larch, then up the Senggibach valley. This multi-streamed playground is promising – we’ll be skiing back this way, and it looks delightful. Emerging from trees, we hook right, up to the deserted hamlet of Rossbodustafel. From here on it’s time to knuckle down: about 800 vertical metres of mostly straightforward, medium-steep open ground in the shape of an elongated bowl, with our destination, the Schilthorn, at its head.

Have app, will bag some pretty mighty peaks…

Just the final climb gets spicy. The sensible line is in the lee of a big ridge to the south. What it lacks in sun exposure it makes up for by being blasted by wind, to judge by a sudden change to bullet-hard-should-have-put-my-ski-crampons-on conditions, just where it gets steep enough to be scary. A final snowy boot-scramble to the peak itself gives our first QR code on its summit cross.

The view is as sensational as it is useful for getting our bearings: almost due north is the distant ribbon of road over the pass, and we can make out the distinctive granite tower of the Altes Hospiz, built in 1650, as well as the more distant, massive Simplon Hospiz. The latter was commissioned by Napoleon as a hospice and barracks, but only completed in 1831, long after he was overthrown. Most striking is the pyramid of the Hübschhorn to the north-east and the 3,553m Monte Leone beyond, more impressive even than the bulk of the almost 4,000m Fletschhorn behind us to the south.

Our descent retraces the route up, but at about one hundred times the speed. The long bowl is superb – full of spring-ish snow and without obstacle – but all over too soon. Down into the river-valley and trees, it’s as good as we’d hoped as we climbed, though so deep and warm at this altitude that no-one’s pretending it’s powder.

We somehow make it back to base unscathed: a very good start all-round. In the warmth of the hotel bar we swap notes on Simplon tours with Iwan Arnold, a local boy who’s a world champion ski touring sprint specialist. His races last just three minutes, in which time he covers approximately the same distance as we manage in a morning. His transitions are a sensation – he rips both skins off his skis simultaneously while still wearing them (without – apparently – putting his back out); he’s quite effective downhill too, even if his skis are just 65mm wide. Just remember, if he makes you feel a bit inadequate, that he barely has a moment to enjoy the view, and as for picnics, forget it.

THE GRAND FINALE

The following morning’s outing starts a few kilometres up the road towards the pass; as well as handy bus stops, there are well-ploughed parking areas along the way – a sign of the region’s commitment to visitors (slightly unexpected with no resort attached) for whom snow-shoe and winter walking routes are prepared as well.

The Galehorn, like the Schilthorn, is to the west of the road and our route follows a similar pattern, leaving pretty wooded lower slopes to climb into a high bowl to the Sirwoltu saddle. A final couple of hundred metres brings you to the broad summit, marked not by a cross but a monstrous communications pylon on top of a bunker-like building, without any useful amenities on this chilly day, such as a café and roaring log fire.

But the descent is a cracker. Heading east off the top, a broad gully cuts through a steep face for a few hundred vertical metres before dropping into the wider Ritzitalli. It’s basically straight back to the car from this point – a couple of kilometres of wide open terrain and perfect gradient, down into well-spaced trees and no traversing or climbing involved. We’re back in time for tonight’s special, a keep-it-coming raclette whose overwhelming cheesiness ensures a terrible night’s sleep for all.

Which is just what you don’t want before a pre-dawn start for our grand finale: the 3,437m Breithorn. We set off in the half-light from the hospiz, under the watchful eye of a nine-metre-high granite eagle, built by the Swiss Army (which didn’t have anything better to do) during the Second World War. We’ve barely warmed up before we’ve got something to worry about, in the shape of a traverse below the north face of the Hübschhorn, which we’ve got to skirt around. It would all be fine, except the going is quite crisp, and the well-established route is a bit of an awkward trench for just one ski, leaving the other threatening to skitter down the rather steep slope that extends a very long way below us and is dotted with rocky outcrops to help slow you down in the event of a slide. Remind me: why do I do this?

Once safely through it’s now a big climb to reach glacier. We focus on the moment the sun will make it over the ridge above to cheer us up; it’s a while before we’re taking a break in the first rays, near the foot of the Homattu glacier. As 1,400m climbs go, this one is strangely strenuous and it’s taking us five hours longer than Iwan’s best time up and down, of 1hr 20mins. Not enough cake, perhaps; Napoleon would have known that a ski tourer marches, like an army, on his stomach.

In any event, once we hit a broad col and a sea of sastrugified snow stretching two kilometres to the craggy foot of Monte Leone, I’m very happy that our goal is the Breithorn, now just a few easy metres above us to the south. Not monkeying around as the sun warms is essential if we’re to make the most of the epic descent, via the Homattu pass, and then 1,200 vertical metres of ginormous south-facing mountainside – big gullies through cliffs, then wide bowl and finally into forest.

By this time we’re at the heavy end of cement, snow-wise, and the handily placed bus stop couldn’t come too soon. Our final QR code – the bus ‘ticket’ on my phone – turns out to be the best of the lot.

SWISS SKI TOURING WITH MOUNTAIN TRACKS

Mountain Tracks is running a range of exciting ski touring trips to Switzerland this season.

The Monterosa Summits Ski Tour in Zermatt, taking in many 4,000m peaks, runs from 16 and 23 April. It costs from £1,805, including six days with IFMAGA guides, two nights’ B&B/hotel accommodation and five nights’ half-board in high alpine huts.

Or, you could opt for the Western Oberland Traverse Ski Tour, which crosses through Berne and the Valais, and runs from 19 March and 9 April. It costs from £1,435, including six days’ guiding, three nights’ B&B/hotel accommodation and four nights’ half-board accommodation during the tour.

For more details on all of these trips, and more, visit Mountain Tracks

THREE OTHER OFF-THE-RADAR RESORTS FOR TOURING ADVENTURES

Montafon, Austria

This bit of Austria borders Switzerland and shares lots of good ski touring terrain. The Madrisa Rundtour is the classic day out, looping round the Madrisa mountain, via Klosters and back to Gargellen in time for tea. But there’s so much more, with excellent summits to bag from the centre of Gargellen – just a few lifts and classic hotels – such as the Heimspitze to the east, and Riedchopf to the west. The local website details plenty of tours, with excellent info attached, right down to downloadable GPS tracks.

Learn more

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

It can be hard to know where to begin in the Dolomites: not just the most stunning mountains, but lots of them and with tricky geography. So just head for Cortina d’Ampezzo for a bit of glamour, and a tourist office that’s done the hard work for you, with an excellent snowshoe and ski mountaineering map to help you get your bearings. It shows routes – some of them even groomed – to huts, which (as per the local style) are a destination in themselves, for lunch. There’s more exciting stuff in abundance as well: just look at the shape of the mountains if you don’t believe me. But you might want a guide, with a rope.

Learn more

Queyras Regional Natural Park, Vars, France

This corner of the southern French Alps has some serious resorts, such as Vars and Risoul, with plenty of sidecountry touring and freeriding. But there’s also a whole natural park on the doorstep, the Queyras, which appears to have been designed specifically for ski touring. A couple of marked rando itineraries are publicised, but the vast area is really a place to head with a guide for a few days, either to base out of one of the small resort villages such as Ceillac or Saint Veran, where you can use handy uplift to save your legs; or to head off on a hut-to-hut tour – it’s a great part of the world for early season touring, in search of powder rather than spring snow.

Factfile

Hotel Fletschhorn, Simplon Dorf (hotelfletschhorn.ch) has double rooms from CHF 125 per night, including breakfast.

Nick Parks (backcountryadventures.co.uk) is the man to lead you on your Simplon adventures;

SIMPLON THE BEST