Gross Fiescherhorn

4,049 m

'Great horn of Fiesch' — named after the Valais village of Fiesch in the Rhône valley below the south side of the Bernese ridge. Fiesch is from an old toponym of pre-Romance origin.

Card

Coordinates46.5550° N · 8.0894° E

UIAA rank№ 65 / 82

CountriesSwitzerland

Normal gradePD · peu difficile

First ascent1862 · A.W. Moore, Horace Walker & H.B. George with Christian Almer & Ulrich Kaufmann

Typical seasonJuly to September

Photo of Gross Fiescherhorn — Photo: Jo in Riederalp · CC BY-SA 3.0

Highest of the Fiescherhörner, on the Bern–Valais border between the Mönch and the Finsteraarhorn. Usually climbed via the Fieschergrat from the Mönchsjoch Hut.

History

Climbed on 23 July 1862 by an English party with two Grindelwald guides of the very first rank — Almer would the same season climb the Mönch and within a few years make first ascents with Whymper of the Barre des Écrins and Mont Dolent. The Gross Fiescherhorn's north-east face above the Fiescher glacier is a long mixed wall that was a respected objective from the 1880s and that remains one of the more serious 4000-metre ice climbs in the Bernese Alps.

Location

Summit · huts that serve as bases for routes on this peak

Major routes

Fieschersattel from Mönchsjochhütte (Normal route)

PD+Topo ↗

Vertical / summit day600 m gain · 4h

The most-climbed line. From the Mönchsjochhütte cross the flat Ewigschneefäld glacier eastward to the foot of the steep west flank, climb 200 m of 40–50° snow/névé to the Fieschersattel (3923 m) and follow the SE ridge with short rocky sections (II) to the summit.

Sections

Mönchsjochhütte (3657 m)→Foot of west flank (~3700 m)+100 m1h

Foot of west flank→Fieschersattel (3923 m)+223 m1h 30m

Fieschersattel→Summit (4049 m)+126 m1h

Huts on this route

Mönchsjochhütte3,657 m

Nearby huts

MönchsjochhütteSAC · mid-February to mid-October3,657 m

← Aiguille de Bionnassay · 4,052 m · № 64

65 / 82

Piz Bernina · 4,049 m · № 66 →