Day 1:

Train/bus to Zinal and hike up to cabane de Mountet in about 4 hours.

Day 2:

From Mountet we followed the normal route to Pointe de Zinal as described on C2C. When descending from the hut to the glacier make sure to take the left fork after a few minutes. We almost missed it and it might be good to explore this portion of the path the evening before. The glacier was in very good condition with barely any open crevasses.

From the south summit we continued the traverse to the north summit. There was one party of two directly in front of us and thanks to them the route finding was easy. Otherwise it would have taken us a while to figure out that we were supposed to go [b]through[/b] the chimney at the first tower. In retrospect we should have looked at the route description on C2C more carefully as the attached pictures very clearly show the route to take on the first and second tower.

From the south summit we then descended down to the col as described. Not sure we found the most optimal way from the col to the glacier as there was quite a bit of loose rock. We followed the normal route back to the Schoenbielhut. At the little col just south of the Schoenbielhorn (big cairn) we completely missed that we were supposed to descend from there and instead continued on the ridge to point 3282 where we realized our mistake. We backtracked and found the obvious trail down to the Schoenbielhut.

Since we had to catch a train back to Geneva we descended the looong way to Zermatt as fast as possible.

Very sunny with some winds in the early morning of Sunday.

The glacier Durand was frozen in the morning and well covered. The rock on the ridge is mostly solid and a joy to climb. The Hohwaenggletscher was very soft but luckily we only had to cross it for a very short time (another big advantage of the traverse).

Day 1:

14:00 Zinal, village de vacances
18:00 Mountet
[i]including 20-30 minute break[/i]

Day 2:

04:30 leaving cabane Mountet
08:30 Col Durand
09:30 Pointe de Zinal (north summit)
13:00 South summit
17:30 Schoenbielhuette
20:00 Zermatt
[i]including ~1h break and 45 minute detour[/i]

The approach to both huts is quite long and hence it's nice to have to do each walk only once by doing this magnificent traverse from Zinal to Zermatt using public transportation:

[u]Saturday:[/u] SBB/Postbus: 10:30 Geneve - 13:41 Zinal, village de vacances i[/i]
[u]Sunday:[/u] SBB 20:13 Zermatt - 00:07 Geneve

Nice refuge with friendly staff and descent food but no running water (at least it was turned off during our visit). There is small stream of water just outside the refuge.

The view from Pointe de Zinal must be one of the most stunning in the swiss alps as it sits right in the centre of many of the 4000m peaks with the Matterhorn right in front of it making the rather long approach/descent fully worth it. The ridge climb from the north to the south summit is the highlight of the outing. Never too difficult and plenty of options for protection. It is amusing to note how the "Bonjour" gradually changes to "Grüezi" on the way from Zinal to Zermatt.