Nagelfluh Crossing

We start our crossing of the Nagelfluh chain in front of the Staufener Haus, where we ascended the day before from the Hochgratbahn valley station. We gently march up the west ridge to the first summit of our route, the Hochgrat (1834 m). We remove our skins for the first time and prepare for the east-side descent towards the Güntlehütte. We keep slightly to the left, already put skins back on, and march through the Brunnenauscharte and over another west ridge to the Rindalphorn (1821 m). Just south of the summit, we carve our turns down a tube into the Gündlescharte. From there, we ascend again via the west ridge to the Gündlekopf (1748 m) and continue over varied terrain through hollows to the Gündles Alpe (1503 m). Here we take our first longer rest and a strengthening break. Then we continue over a broad ridge up to the Buralpkopf (1772 m). During the following descent towards the Gatteralpe, we lose as little height as possible so that the ascent to the Sedererstuiben (1737 m) remains reasonable. It is then about 50 more vertical meters up to the Stuiben (1748 m). At this point of our crossing, we decide to shorten the tour via the Kempten Friends of Nature House and the Gschwender Horn because the descent from the Stuiben is simply too tempting. So we go from the Stuiben with increasingly tired legs to the Mittelberg Alpe and one last time with skins on our skis over the Kempten Friends of Nature House up to the Gschwender Horn (1450 m). We fight our way down from the forest-hidden summit of the Gschwender Horn in eastern direction to Hornklause and further to the Hochberg-Alpe. There we master one last forest step before we then roll down the last vertical meters on gentle slopes to Rieder.