120 CH-VS T4+ Barme Pas d'Encel Col Ottans Col Sagerou Tête Pérua Lac Vogealle Pas au Taureau Col Bossetan Pas de la Bide

Date : 2023.09.05
Duration on paper : 11h02
Duration real with breaks : 13h52
Difficulty for me : T4+
Physical : very difficult
Technical : very difficult
Fear : very high
Average Slope : +19.9% -18.0%
Attendance ascent/summit/descent : average/null/null
Comment : woaw I didn't expect this to be easy but it was way worse than I tought, this should only be done by borderline mountaineers/alpinists hikers not people who want "a nice walk"
skip signal de Bonavau the view isn't that great
between Bonavau and Pas d'Encel is a real T3 with several chains and short climbs to do easier than I tought but might still be impressive to beginner hikers, check my 360 videos
the T4 ascent from under glacier des ottans to col des ottans is a short via ferrata (62m) but a via ferrata anyway you better be ready and fit enough to climb a near vertical corridor
the descent between Col des Ottans to Tête de Pérua is a soft slope easy to walk, between Tête de Pérua and Lac de la Vogealle less so it's going down fast
the ascent between Lac de la Vogealle and Pas du Taureau is very hard it's 50-70% slope all the way to the Pas au Taureau at 2555m (it's not where the swiss map show it)
the descent from Pas au Taureau to Col de Bossetan is T4+ you're descending a nearly vertical rock cliff that is sometimes wet and muddy hanging to a cable and a rope, it's very scary and on a few segments your only "hold" is the rope there are no good spots to place your feet, this is absolutely not a T3 (red) even ascending it would be T4 (blue) but descending ? it's T4+ it's followed by "rock surfing" there's a zigzag trail going down under the cable but it's not very stable so you're sliding on moving rocks quite often.
We tought the hardships were over at Col de Bossetan...not at all, the descent to Pas de la Bide is not an easy one to hike lots of pointy rocks and high steps it's pretty steep not easy on knees and finally...
Pas de la Bide...again not a T3 (red) at all but an obvious T4 (blue) it litterally fits the official description of T4....another murder attempt if you ask me as this is not a T3 at all and people looking for T3 difficulty should not go there, it's almost 350m of "if you slip you're dead zero chance of survival" a small rock trail next to very vertical cliffs (check how close the lines of elevation are on the map) with chains...a lot of chains and we did it by night "awesome" large persons might not fit through a small rock tunnel where we had to remove our backpacks and pushed them in front of us oh yeah some segments are also wet and muddy btw.
Overall this was way too much for one day to be recommended.
The Barme to Col des Ottans ascent was great but the problem is there's no other way to come back to Switzerland in a single day than Pas au Taureau, so this should be kept for 2-3 days hikes.
Pas de la Bide would have been nice (if you want to do a T4 !) but on the ascent not descending it in pitch black night and I would recommend instead doing : barme - pas de la bide - col de bossetan - tete de bossetan - col de la golese - col de cou - Barme (17km 1700D+)
I really can't recommend doing Pas au Taureau (2555m between Corne au Taureau et Pointe de la Golette) unless you're a mountaineer/alpinist it's physically hard and seems too dangerous for me.
If you really want to do this hike I would recommend you do it in reverse, end with Col des Ottans via ferrata, I know descending one isn't easy and pretty scary but it's 62m in 1 go which should take you 10-15min against hours of dangerous steep descent between Pas au Taureau back to Barme, an easy choice to make.

YOUTUBE WIKILOC HIKES 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QHONhpvTqI&list=PLOCc4Atr-UDdfNBqAYLqx-Za4u_53-FOG&index=106
YOUTUBE WIKILOC 360° CAMERA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS1fmSTATFI&list=PLOCc4Atr-UDerqBhpqpCMGgjAq-KgyRMA&index=45