A week of mountaineering with many 4,000 metre peaks, imposing glaciers, high mountains and delicious pasta in Italian huts.
Spaghetti tour
The highlight of this tour is spending a whole week travelling in the gigantic high mountains. We will be travelling on the rugged glaciers and experience up to ten mountains over 4000 metres high. We cross the Monte Rosa massif from hut to hut and finally spend the night in the highest hut in the Alps on the Capanna Margherita. A tour that we will all remember fondly for a long time to come!
The Spaghetti Tour is an impressive week of high-altitude tours. We cross many 4,000 metre peaks on huge glaciers in a really cool atmosphere. We start from Zermatt along the Swiss-Italian border and experience the high mountains to the full in 5 days. We spend the night in Italian huts with primi and secondi, hence the name "Spaghetti Tour". This tour is rightly popular. It leads past the highest mountains in Switzerland and the glacier landscape is simply gigantic. We often walk on the glacier. There are passages where we walk up a somewhat steeper snow flank, which is secured by the mountain guides, or we scramble up short sections of easy terrain. Just right for you if you have already had your first experience of mountaineering.
The meeting point is directly at Zermatt railway station. The meeting point is easily accessible by public transport. If you are travelling by car, you will need to park it in Täsch and travel the last stretch to Zermatt by train. Zermatt is car-free. Welcome and introductions by the mountain guide.
Together we walk to the Klein Matterhorn cable car and ride up to 3800 metres. Depending on the group and conditions, we make the tour to the Breithorn. From up there we enjoy great views of Zermatt. We then descend to the Rifugio Val'd'Ayas.
Today we climb together over the Castor 4228 m to the Rifugio Quintino Sella at 3585 m. The firn ridge of the Castor is one of the highlights of the Spaghetti Tour. The firn ridge runs beautifully and imposingly to the summit of the Castor.
Five 4000m peaks are on the programme today: ascent to the Passo del Naso 4100 m, Ludwigshöhe, Corno Nero 4321 m, Balmenhorn 4215 m and Vincent Pyramide 4215 m. We spend the night in the Rifugio Città di Mantova.
The ascent to Naso 4100m involves easy rock climbing. After the rock, we climb up the firn flank at about 45° in firn and ice.
First part of the stage around the highest hut in the Alps: Parrotspitze 4432 m, Signalkuppe/Capanna Regina Margherita 4554 m, the highest hut in the Alps, where we will also spend the night. Depending on the weather and availability of the hut, the alternative is to descend from the Margherita hut on the same day and spend the night in the Monte Rosa hut.
Our final day is on the Zumsteinspitze 4563 m "just" above the hut. We do this just in time for sunrise. Descent via the Grenzgletscher to the Monte Rosa hut at 2798 m and then via via ferrata and glacier to the Gornergrat railway on the Rotenboden.
Together we take the railway back to Zermatt. We travel back home individually with impressive images in our heads.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us, preferably via the Contact form.
Mel Zanga - Rolfland Marotta GmbH
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The Spaghetti Tour is the crossing of the Monte Rosa massif. Depending on the route chosen, the tour leads over 10 to 18 4,000 metre high mountains and mostly runs along the Swiss-Italian border. We always spend the night in Italian huts with primi and secondi and therefore often eat spaghetti, which is where the name "Spaghetti Tour" comes from. This is probably no longer quite politically correct, but it has become commonplace.
The Spaghetti Tour light is the easiest version of the tour. It skips some of the peaks. After the Breithorn, the light variant leads via the southern valleys to the Mantova Hut using chair lifts. The part around the Castor and Naso is omitted. On this map section you can see the route of the Bergschaft in red and the light variant in orange. The sections with the lifts are marked in yellow.
As preparation, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the crampons. We are often out and about on crampons for long periods of time, so it's good if you already know how to use them. It is also important that you acclimatise a little beforehand. It's best to go hiking at altitude the weekend before the week of the tour. It is also worth travelling to Zermatt the day before the tour or spending the night on one of the Alpine passes. We quickly ascend to almost 4,000 m on the Klein Matterhorn cable car and you'll be glad if you're already somewhat acclimatised.
The mountain guides of Bergschaft know the Monte Rosa massif well and can tell you a lot about the area. If there is bad weather, the mountain guides can adapt the tour and carry out alternatives and thus make the tour week safe and exciting. We also take care of all the organisation and planning. You can come along and be enriched by a grandiose, shared experience.
If you are familiar with large glaciers, can assess the dangers and risks of the mountain world and enjoy planning and carrying out the tour yourself, you can also experience this tour without a mountain guide.
The key sections of this variant are mainly at the crossing of the Naso and Castor. Due to global warming, the Naso is pitting earlier and earlier and the ascent is often icy. The crossing of the Castor requires surefootedness and a head for heights. This is a narrow firn ridge where caution is required. Global warming is affecting the glacier and the dangers of glacier fractures, seracs and crevasse falls are increasing. Our mountain guides are sensitised to these dangers and pay particular attention to these places.
There are always top endurance athletes who complete the Spaghetti Tour in record times. In summer 2020, Adrian Zurbrügg and Nicolas Hojac completed the tour from the Monte Rosa hut to the Klein Matterhorn in just over 14 hours. We take 5 days to do it. Before that, Ueli Steck and Andy Steindl's record was a good 14 hours. The rope teams are often travelling without ropes.
For the Spaghetti Tour, you need the normal High altitude touring equipment.
The altitude difference of the entire tour with 18 peaks is just under 4500 m. In our variant, we will climb 3700 metres in altitude and descend 4700 metres.
Sure! The Spaghetti Tour with skis is also a great tour. It is important that the glaciers are well snowed in, but otherwise nothing stands in the way.
For the tour we need map sheet 1348 from Swisstopo.