The Swiss professional alpinist and mountain guide Roger Schäli has opened a new route on the northwest face of Piz Güglia near the Julier Pass. The obvious and aesthetic ice line offers challenging mixed and ice climbing up to WI5+ and M5+ in the lower part.
A testimonial from Roger Schäli
The northwest face couloir of the Piz Güglia is an obvious and aesthetic ice line, which offers challenging mixed and ice climbing in the lower part.
The third pitch is the key point with vertical ice climbing. Because of all the snow in the winter of 2024, the columns formed were very thin and formed with a lot of compact snow instead of ice at the beginning and at the end.
This meant that no solid ice screws could be turned and the climbing became more mentally demanding.
Roger Schäli
I therefore climbed the second part of the ice column further to the right via an exposed rock ramp. From the middle of the wall it becomes much easier. In the upper part you move in classic north face terrain. Moderate climbing in snow and ice is peppered with short, technically combined sections, in the third or fourth level of difficulty (depending on route choice, amount of snow available and conditions).
The ridge to the summit is more alpine and airy than I expected, overall very impressive!
Roger Schäli
Climbing Piz Güglia in winter via this north face couloir and the north ridge is a complete winter adventure that can be done in one day from the Julier Pass road and offers everything a winter mountaineer's heart desires. The view from Piz Güglia feels like in Alaska or Canada thanks to its isolated position and pointed shape.
Approach:
From the parking lot on the Julier Pass, you go on touring skis through Valletta dal Güglia to the start of the route.
This is very easy to reach after about 600 meters in altitude and is only very steep and demanding from the last 300 meters onwards.
Nevertheless, the approach is a pure winter pleasure and perfectly rounds off the later climb to Piz Julier.
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Credits: Cover image Flavia Celia | flaviaphotography.com