Skiing the Mönch’s North side

a dream almost forgotten.

John Thornton (Go Vertical Athlet)

The Mönch, one of the three most iconic mountains in the Bernese Oberland. Whilst equally as impressive as its neighbouring peaks, the Eiger and Jungfrau, the Mönch also offers a skiable route on its north side. Full of demanding terrain, this route is perhaps most characterised by the Nollen, or ice-boss, providing skiers with a hefty amount of exposure and no-fall zones.

Since first summiting the Mönch at the age of 16, as a visitor to the area, it captured my imagination and fascination for the mountains. At that time I had not yet begun to ski, but returning many years later, to ski the Eiger West flank, I looked across and wondered…is it possible to ski the Mönch via the Nollen?

An ambitious goal that at the time, with hindsight, was out of my league. Struggling to find eager partners and never seeming to have the right conditions, this ambitious goal eventually recessed into the back of my mind. Since then my steep skiing portfolio hasn’t vastly increased, as I chose to concentrate more on climbing in its various forms. However my time spent ice-climbing and being in alpine terrain had certainly made this ambitious objective feel much more amenable.

It’s the end of May. At this time of year I would normally be well into my sport climbing season. However as we all know, this Springs precipitation has been exceedingly high. This meant large amounts of snow in the mountains and wet rock in the valleys. This prompted a spontaneous message from my friend, Alex Rohr, who saw this as a great opportunity for big mountain skiing.

The message simply read, “Nollen is skiable now.”

And just like that, the dream I had almost forgotten about, was re-kindled.

Earlier that month we’d been up on the Mönch and experienced less than ideal (terrifying) conditions whilst skiing the South face. But since then, we’d seen and heard of the great lines that were being skied across the Alps. Joined by Cedric Stalder, we made our way from the Jungfraujoch up the normal route of the Mönch. Soon after the wind began to pick up and clouds engulfed the summit. Skiing a route of this calibre with no visibility would be extremely risky. But we stayed optimistic and on our path to the summit. To our surprise we had enough visibility to begin our descent – we wasted no time.

The snow was heavy to begin with, but as we dropped into the upper slope, being around 45º steepness, we were greeted with powder. Unbelievable! Just an hour ago I expected to be turning around, but now we were skiing it! And in good condition. This led us to the Nollen – the steepest section, and perhaps the crux of the descent. We quickly made the assessment that attempting to ski this section would be perilous. We chose to rappel and glad that we did.

With the rappel and steepest part of the route behind us, we could again enjoy the skiing. The snow quality deteriorated as it became warmer, but that didn’t waiver our excitement of the route we were skiing. After years of dreaming about this, it was finally, and rather spontaneously happening.

Just before gaining the Mönchsplateau we made the choice to exit right, and descend through the Westlicher Eigergletscher. Benefitting from previous tracks, we could navigate through the glacier as the terrain became challenging, and more no-fall zones presented themselves. Some 6hrs after beginning our tour, we descended out onto the Eigergletscher main, and traversed towards the Eigergletscher station. Looking back up, sweaty, tired, and very much in need of a well-earned beverage, we could reflect on this amazing day.

That ambitious goal, that was born from my first time up the Mönch as a teenager, and had grown as I development my skillset in the mountains, had now become a reality. It still surprises me that by removing the seasonal mindset, and being spontaneous, can bring success in big mountain skiing.

Is that the missing key to skiing these dream lines?