General Andermatt huts

[Slim]

Hi,
My wife and I will be doing some backcountry skiing near Andermatt. Mid March.

Coincidentally, we are going with the same guiding company and on the part of the same route as @jmeb did a Urner Haute Route a few years ago.

Currently (assuming there are still spots) the plan is:
Thursday ski to the Albert Heim Hut
Friday ski to the Göscheneralp Guestouse
Saturday ski to the Voralp Hut
Sunday do a day tour there
Monday Return to either the valley or the Göscheneralp House

2 questions for @jmeb or others, familiar with the area:
Does that seem like a good idea? My thought was staying up in the Voralphütte puts us in closer proximity to the Süstenhorn and surrounding glaciers and ridges.
But, perhaps staying at Göscheneralp House would be fine too, @jmeb, you mention that in your trip report?

On Monday, we could choose to ski all the way back to the valley, or stop at Göscheneralp. Doing the former gives a few more it’s to end in a different spot. And, on Tuesday morning we would have time for a short (~2hr) ski.
Spending another night at Göscheneralp would be a cooler location, and we’d be set up in the snow, for a little skiing on Tuesday morning.

 

[jmeb]

Seems like a good idea to me.

Goscheneralp Guestouse is only really available that early if you coordinate via Dan and his team at Andermatt Guides. But it's a special place -- much more a full hotel than the huts you're at otherwise. It's incredibly scenic and a great vibe.

Voralphutte was my favorite of the huts I stayed in (not including Goscheneralp). Albert Heim is very recently remodeled and nice, but didn't have quite the great vibe of Voralphutte. In addition to access to the Sustenhorn, the E/NE facing terrrain all around that basin holds tons of good skiing including a bunch of moderate terrain if avalanche conditions spike. Voralp I believe has better access to skiing immediately nearby than Goscheneralp. If conditions permit, 791 and 792 SAC ski routes look like rad days exiting from Voralp but probably including a good bit of steep snow climbing before the huge descent to the valley.

I'd let Dan / the guide recommend ultimately and be excited for either option. Conditions more than anything dictate the better option. My memory is that most good skiing near Goscherneralp is N or S facing which can be quite variable that time of year and highly dependent on stability.

Couple Voralp shots. The charcuterie and beer on the deck in the sun after a great day of skiing was pretty much perfect.

Enjoy! If you can swing it, it's worth a day or two skiing off lifts in the Andermatt/Disentis complex as well.

 

[Slim]

It’s funny that I ended up in the same spot, with the same guide company, and the same huts as you @jmeb.
I can only hope we have as good weather as you did.

 

[Slim]

Well @jmeb , you know how you wrote after your trip that if you did it again, you wouldn’t bring a 106mm ski with a 120mm ski crampon?
I think we might be doing just that.
Up to 5 feet of snow falling from today-next Wednesday, it might be getting deep!
My allround AT skis this season are the new Wayback 98, in 186cm, which should be pretty decent in deep snow between their length and fairly deep tip and tail rocker.
But my wife has Fischer Hannibal 96 (in only 162 cm, so not much float for her height/weight) and a flat tail. She really struggled in the deep powder last year in Utah on them.
So in addition to those, we might be packing her’, or both of our, Locator 112’s. And those have 120mm ski crampons .
I even looked if anyone makes a 115 or so wide ski crampon, but I couldn’t find any.

 

[jmeb]

If you're getting lots of snow; it'll probably be fine. We had a bunch of S-aspect uphills which were refrozen/icey which made it spicy. It was too in the weeds, but the other contributing factor there was that the Vipec/Tecton crampons I was on have less horizontal rigidity than more classic (Dynafit/ATK) style designs which make super wide crampons on icy skin tracks less happy.

 

[Slim]

Yes, luckily for us, ours our both ”standard” designs. My kid has Vipecs so I know what you mean with that design. It doesn’t have a full rigid bar running left to right.

yes, their description on the tour specifically calls out “climbing on S aspects, ski on N aspects.

Currently the forecast has the snow ending on Wednesday, and not big dumps after Sunday either, so by the time start skiing on Sunday, it will likely have settled a lot. So, most likely we will use our “mid waist“ skis.
But I think I almost certainly will bring my wife’s Locators, just in case.

I just thought it was funny as I was contemplating that , that they have exactly the 120mm crampons you mentioned.