Week 9; 29/07/13 – 03/08/13

 “Going to the right place at the right time with the right people is all that really matters . . . what one does is purely incidental.”

-Colin Kirkus

After a fantastic week in Chamonix, we found ourselves feeling both satisfied and tired. After a lot of contemplation, we decided that we were ready to go home! I suppose you would call it a “psychological burn out”. All the mountain days were starting to feel a bit samey; it seemed more valuable to save the adventures for building great memories in the future rather than this feeling of ‘getting them done’. As Suzana (our wonderful Chamonix hostess!) put it, “Mountains are not frogs. They do not hop away”.

Mont Blanc, Mont Blanc de Courmayeur, Mont Maudit and Mont Blanc du Tacul

It was the first time either of us had been to Chamonix, and the vibe was very different to anywhere else we had been. For starters, there were a lot more English speaking people around (in Switzerland we hardly met any climbers from the UK), and the town had much more of a climbers feel to it, with an impressive collection of gear shops where you could spend hours wanting after things you didn’t need! After three very enjoyable rest days, we packed our bags and took an afternoon lift up to Aiguille de Midi. Suzana accompanied us, but unfortunately couldn’t join us due to a broken collar bone. Whilst she had only planned to see us off, on arrival at the top station was handed a token saying she was assigned to the 5.30pm lift down, giving her a two hour wait!

We had taken a tent with us, and were a little concerned by the “NO CAMPING” signs at all the lift stations. But as we descended to the Col du Midi we were very relieved to see several tents scattered around the glacier. Safety in numbers! There was a lot of fresh snow, perhaps as much as 30cm, but as there had been a day of good weather since the storm we were able to take advantage of fairly well established tracks. We chose a site for our tent, and since everyone else had dug out a hole we thought we should too. Our axes were rather ineffective at shifting snow and upon borrowing a shovel from our new neighbours we soon had our tent pitched with stunning views across the Mont Blanc Massif. 

The following morning we made a fairly late start, setting off at about 6am just as the sun was rising. After a couple of hours of walking, there was a tricky section leading up to the Col du Mont Maudit, involving steep powder snow with an icy base underneath. Once over the col, it became incredibly windy! It was an icy, cutting wind and as we zig-zagged up towards the summit of Mont Blanc, it alternated between being a side-wind, and one that was full on in-your-face-take-your-breath-away! Eventually we reached the summit, and sought refuge from the wind by dropping over the far side of the ridge. Here it was still and peaceful, and as we caught back our breath we felt delighted to be on top of Europe’s highest peak. It also represented the completion of our “top ten highest” list, and this gave us a great deal of satisfaction.  

We walked over the far side to reach the subsidiary peak of “Mont Blanc de Courmayeur”, and then returned to the top of Mont Blanc, to meet a fresh set of people on the summit; one man asked us with admiration if we had just climbed up from the Italian side!
In descent, we retraced our steps until shortly before the summit of Mont Maudit. We climbed to the summit via an icy/snowy slope, and descended rocks on the far side to return to the col. I had been a bit worried about down-climbing this steep section, but it was actually not too bad now that more people had passed over it.
We finished the day with a final short detour to gain the summit of Mont Blanc du Tacul, which had a rather exciting icy section at the top, and involved a bit of axe swinging! From the summit, we got a fantastic view of all the tops we had climbed that day.

The following morning we took the first lift back down to Chamonix. Even though Mont Blanc presented no great technical difficulty, its status gives it an air of distinction and it was certainly a perfect finale to what has been an incredible trip. Having achieved our modified goal of climbing the ten highest peaks, and with a total of 38 summits we are proud of our efforts and fully inspired for many adventures to come! 

Still smiling!!

Week 7 and 8; 17.07.13 - 28.07.13

“Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” 

Ed Viesturs

It has been a fortnight of highs and lows, both emotionally and in terms of the altitude! After sitting out three days of rainy weather, (that was one of the lows! With hindsight it doesn’t seem so bad, but at the time you worry it will last forever), we have been up in the mountains every day for the past 9 days, and ascended a total of over 9700m! We have ticked four big mountains: Dom, Matterhorn, Weisshorn and Taschhorn. The latter three were all quite difficult, with a normal route of AD(+). We felt particularly challenged by Weisshorn and Taschhorn, which were in quite hard condition with a lot of soft snow on the ridges and very few other climbers around. We are now enjoying a rest in Chamonix, with my friend Suzana who is very kindly having us to stay for a couple of days. It looks like there is a great forecast for later next week, so we are pouring over the guidebooks and making plans :)

Dom

The first two days that we had planned to walk up Dom we awoke to thunder and lightning, and so it was third time lucky that we packed up our things and set off up to the Dom hut. We thought we would be feeling really fit after our time in the Monta Rosa group and our three rest days, but in fact the 1500m ascent up to the Dom hut felt like a total nightmare! There was a good atmosphere at the hut, because everybody was planning to ascend Dom, and so there was a feeling of a shared goal. We set off at 2am the next morning as part of a long chain of headtorches winding our way up the glacier and onto the side of the mountain. Tim and I were both feeling strangely sleepy, almost dozing off as we walked! Dom was challenging in a different sort of way to the other mountains we have climbed; it was technically easy but very long – in fact it has the greatest vertical ascent of all the 4000ers, (3100m!) since its starting point is at the bottom of the valley. And so with no difficulties to keep the mind occupied, all you could focus on was step…step…step… and it was so tiring! But eventually we found ourselves on the summit where we were rewarded with stunning views, as well as some sweeties from a friendly Italian man! Looking over to the South, we could see the Matterhorn standing proud and it didn’t look like there was much snow on the ridge; we got quite excited by the idea of climbing it and agreed that we would phone the Hornli Hut to find out about conditions as soon as we got down.

Matterhorn

 After a relatively late start we packed the bags with the rest of the food we had brought from the UK. After 8 weeks it had almost run out. We parked the car in a layby above Tasch (something we were later to regret…) and caught the train up to Zermatt. The climb to the Hornli hut starts from the Schwarzee lift station and so having unburdened ourselves of 49 CHF each we set off on the short hut walk. Clearly as a mountain climber above Zermatt you become an instant celebrity, there were endless cheery greetings as the stream of tourists saw the ice axes adorning our rucksacks. After arriving at the hut we cooked our pasta and custard and then to bed with a great deal of anticipation for the following day.  We awoke at 0330 and entered the dining room to a rush of people. The atmosphere was different to anywhere we had yet been with many people eating breakfast with their ropes already coiled around their shoulders. The ‘Protocol’ for the Hornli ridge is that the Zermatt guides leave first; in fact the hut door is locked so as to prevent any misinterpretation! The first moves of the climb are equipped with a fixed rope and as we moved across the snow patch at the bottom we joined a queue of around 15 people so setting the scene for the day. 

As we moved up the ridge and through the Mosely slabs the climb felt more like a race to join the queue at the start of the next climbing section. Finally clearing the queues above the emergency bivouac hut we put on our crampons and started climbing up the fixed ropes. Having been deposited onto the summit ice field we climbed in zig zags using the fixed stakes as running belays up onto the summit crest. The top was a little awkward with insufficient space for the ten people or so who all wanted to be there at once and so we caught a few summit photos and then started on the equally long route down. 

Descending the summit icefield there was a degree of objective danger from ice blocks falling from the parties above, after Anna had been hit in the face we were a little worried about looking upwards. The descent went faster than expected with only a single abseil just beneath the bivouac hut and we reached the hornli hut around 1 30. 

Having waited at the hut unsuccessfully for an hour to exchange photos with one of the guides we met him in the coop in Zermatt where we had decided to buy some celebratory beef mince! Having been riding on a bit of a high since summiting we came crashing down when on getting back to the car we found that 2 of our tyres had been punctured. Having spent a few hours sorting this out we eventually got our spaghetti bolognaise at around 10 o clock.

Weisshorn

We returned to the garage the next morning and were told that the new tyres would be delivered the following afternoon. Since the weather was great and they were happy to look after the car, we made the decision to walk up to the Weisshorn hut. Perhaps this was the silver lining to the tyre saga; we had been feeling totally intimidated by the idea of climbing Weisshorn, and now we were in a situation where it was the only peak accessible without transport! On our way up to the hut, we met a couple who had just descended from the summit. They were surprised to hear that we were planning the Weisshorn, because the weather tomorrow is not good, and there is nobody else at the hut! This made us nervous, and on our arrival at the hut, the warden also advised us that the weather is bad. Confused, because the forecast we had seen was good, we decided it must be some strange hut rumour! 

The next morning, we set off at 2am and followed the footprints across the snowy glacier. They lead to an improbable looking section of a rock band, and despite our best efforts we ended up a little off route and got a bit of a soaking from a waterfall! 

Back on route we continued up the glacier shelf and onto a subsidiary rock ridge. I think we had both noticed the lack of stars in the usually clear night sky, and the heavy blanket of clouds that was suppressing the now rising sun. And then it started snowing. But despite this, it still took a lot of strength to actually voice the issue with one another… maybe the weather is bad! And so with heavy hearts, we began to descend. Every step was filled with doubt… are we making a mistake? … should we have kept going up? As we descended further and further towards the hut the weather actually seemed to improve as the sun came up and we both waged our own personal battles with feelings of doubt and failure and mistakes.
Back at the hut, we felt very frustrated, and battled with a strong desire to just descend to the valley and get away from this mountain that had beaten us! But after a few hours rest, a phonecall to the garage to discover they’d happily keep the car an extra day, and confirmation that tomorrows forecast was great we decided that we should stay another night. Reassuringly, there were ten other people now staying at the hut who all planned to climb the Weisshorn. For the first time during our trip, we enjoyed the luxury of a hut dinner (since we had only brought for one night), and even got ‘seconds’ of all courses!
The following morning, we returned to our high point and continued up the subsidiary ridge to join the East Ridge which leads to the summit. The climbing was enjoyable, and we moved together quickly making fast progress towards the final snowy ridge. 

The last 400m of height is on snow, and unfortunately for us there were no tracks through the knee deep powder. Progress was slow and tiring, but before long, the guide and client behind caught up with us, and the guide kindly broke trail for the rest of the way to the summit rocks! It was very misty as the sun was coming up, which created a beautiful orange glow; it felt eerie and magical and allowed for some great photos. 

We had climbed the mountain pretty fast, arriving back at the hut by midday (where the warden thought we had retreated again!), and so we continued our descent to the valley.
We arrived at the garage to pick up the car (having, rather ironically, had two free nights parking in Tasch!), and with our shiny new tyres we drove back down the valley to Stalden, and turned up the Saastal valley to spend a night at the campsite-with-a-pool in Saas Grund.

Taschhorn

The next morning our alarm woke us up at 6am, but feeling totally exhausted we decided that we deserved a couple more hours sleep! After taking the lift and train up to the “Metro Allalin” station, we found ourselves paying for the extra snooze as we trudged up the soggy snow slope that had been softened by the morning sun. 

The ascent of Taschhorn involves climbing a long rock ridge that rises from the Mischabelajoch, where there is a bivouac hut. Today’s goal was to reach the bivouac hut, re-ticking the peak Alphubel en-route which we had climbed the previous year. As we climbed the steep snowy slope towards the summit of Alphubel, an avalanche started from up high, and a whole section of the hill slid away a mere 5m away from us. It was quite surreal to see the slope moving as if it were a river. We continued with haste to the summit, from where you can see a load of the Zermatt mountains including the Matterhorn. We recalled having stood here a year ago, thinking we should climb that one day! It was pretty cool to look over and know that we had achieved that particular goal!

We descended a rocky band on the east side of Alphubel to reach the hut. For some reason we had decided to take an inordinate amount of food with us, and spent an enjoyable afternoon eating and playing cards! Although, ever-looming outside the window was the sight of the beginning of the ridge of Taschhorn which in all honesty... looked like a terrifying loose pile of choss!!

Two other pairs had joined us at the hut and were also planning to attempt Taschhorn. With an early start, we set off up the ridge under a wonderfully starry sky. Tim lead the way and somehow managed to stick to the "path" - it was always a bit surprising , and reassuring, when we came across a cairn - oh, this is the right way!! There were quite a few snowy sections on the ridge which we found a bit scary. The snow was very soft, and it was difficult to tell which bits were corniced and which lay on solid ground, and there was always a huge drop below! I think the particular snow conditions made the route a bit more difficult than usual. In the photo below you can just make out the footsteps along the right hand side of the sharp snowy ridge. 

But soon we found ourselves at the steeper summit rocky section (which was also pretty loose and chossy!), and eventually, on the summit! The mist dissapeared for long enough to allow us a couple of brilliant summit shots with a bright blue sky.

Back at the bivouac hut, we now had to decide which way to descend. We could either go back up Alphubel and down the other side, or straight down from the hut, which the guidebook says is not recommended in descent, due to its complexity. Since it was hot and we couldn't really be bothered walking back up Alphubel, and it looked like there were some footsteps going straight down, we opted for the latter option. At first it all went very well, but then the footsteps dissapeared and we found ourselves a bit stuck at the bottom of the glacier, which was very crevassed with big drops down onto the lower slopes. After what felt like forever, (with a bit of retracing footsteps back uphill, jumping over crevasses, and belaying down particularly icy sections - our crampons are now decidedly blunt!), we eventually escaped the dodgy ground and made it down to the lift station. Despite having made such a meal of it, we were still well within the guidebook's timing -as if it had allocated a whole load of extra time for getting lost and were saying I told you that would happen!

What next?

As mentioned, we are currently in Chamonix having a lovely rest! On Tuesday we are planning to take the Augille di Midi lift, hoping to ascend Mont Maudit and Mont Blanc. We are also hoping to climb the Diable Ridge, which is a long rock climb that looks absolutely amazing – the forecast is great so we really hope it stays that way! 

Week 6; 09.07.13 - 16.07.13

"Because it's 

there".

George 

Mallory

So from the best campsite in saas grund last week to the best in Randa this week. We are lounging in the sun and enjoying a well earned rest day - in the past 6 days we have ticked off a whopping 22 peaks from our list! It seems the mountaineering season has hit us with a bang; as our french friend put it, the conditions are "tip top!".

Nadelgrat
The next couple of days had a rather strange looking forecast; sunshine in the mornings and lightning in the afternoons. We did not really know what to make of this, but since the first day of this forecast was holding out well, with a clear night and blue-sky morning, we decided to head up to the mischabel hut and make the most of the good spells! The hut sits high up at 3340m, with a very enjoyable approach involving a via ferrata up the final rocky ridge. Arriving around midday, we waited in anticipation of the afternoon storm , but it never came! This was a great confidence boost, and we decided that we should make an early 2am start and attempt the Nadelgrat; a circular ridge route that includes four peaks over 4000m: Dirruhorn, Hohbarghorn, Stecknadelhorn and Nadelhorn.

As we set out up the hohbalmgletscher neither of us were feeling too well! I don't think it was the altitude, because we had spent a lot of time up high recently; in fact it was more likely to be the fact we had been filling our bottles with the "not drinking water" water from huts; lesson learned! We made very slow progress, and by the time we made it onto the rocky ridge, we were a couple of hours behind schedule. We left our bags at the col and made an ascent of Dirruhorn, which is usually done as a short detour before returning to the col. Again this took us almost double the guidebook time as we moved very slowly with dizzy heads, and Tim confirmed his status of "unwell" by bringing up his breakfast!
Continuing along the ridge and arriving at the summit of Hohbarghorn, I began to feel a bit outside my comfort zone for the first time on this trip. The last two peaks that we had climbed - Barre d'Ecrins and Grand Paradiso - we had shared with at least a hundred other people in stunning weather. At the time, it had felt crowded, but I think there is a certain amount of reassurance that exists in crowds, which I only began to appreciate now that we were totally alone. We had not seen anyone else the whole day, and the isolation felt intimidating; were we not supposed to be there? From the summit of Hohbarghorn, the fastest way back to the hut is to complete the ridge circuit, and this carried a rather scary feeling of commitment. As we were taking a lot longer than expected, we new we wouldn't make it back to the hut by midday, and so the impending "afternoon storm" was an added concern, although the weather looked to be holding out.

We continued along the ridge, finally reaching the summit of Stecknadelhorn. After descending to the col, the guidebook suggested that "tired parties" could avoid the rocky ridge to the summit of Nadelhorn, instead traversing around the mountain and arriving at the snowy north-east ridge. Well we decided that definitely applied to us! Reaching the north-east ridge, we summoned up the energy to plod up to the summit, and were completely delighted and exhausted to have achieved our goal. But the day was not over yet, as we still had to descend over 2500m on foot! As we arrived back at the Mischabelle hut, we found ourselves engulfed by mist and the first raindrops began to fall. We rewarded ourselves with a glass of coke at the hut, before descending the via ferrata in pouring rain. However, as we arrived back in Saas Fee with aching knees, the skies miraculously cleared and the sun came out to say "well done"! And there was more weather-related good news; checking the forecast at the tourist information office, we were amazed to see a bright yellow sun for the next five days! this was exactly what we had been waiting for, and we instantly scrapped the idea of a rest day , deciding that it would be a far better idea to head to Zermatt and attempt the "monte rosa circuit".

Monte Rosa
The sun was shining brightly as we got onto the "Klein Matterhorn Glacier Paradise Lift" in Zermatt. As we were carried up the mountain in what seemed like the wrong direction we grew mildly panicked that we had missed a changeover and were going to end up in the wrong place! However, the lift system did a 90degree turn, and carried us to our desired location. From the top station, it was just a two hour walk to the Rossi e Volante bivouac hut, and since the hut sits at 3750m, we were glad to have had several days of acclimatization! We arrived as guests #11 and #12, to a hut that only has ten mattresses! But our companions for the night were friendly and happily made us a space, although it was very crowded in the tiny tin hut with twelve rucksacks, one bench, and lots of pans of boiling water perched in precarious positions! We boiled up some snow for the next days drinking water, and it had a disgusting burnt flavour to it ; we realised that this is why everyone takes teabags or flavoured powder with them! not to make it extra nice, but just to make it tolerable. How unfortunate to learn this lesson at the beginning of a four night trip!
Day 1: Breithorn and Pollux

There are five summits to Breithorn on the UIAA list, and an early start saw us on top of the first  - Roccia Nera, long before sunrise. Traversing westwards, we made our way over the "East Twin" and the "West Twin", which involved some interesting scrambling and a couple of abseils. The guidebook had suggested a 50m rope was required for one of the abseils, but we had decided to risk it with our 35m rope because it seemed a lot extra to carry for four days , and thankfully it was absolutely fine. As we reached the col between the West Twin and the Central Summit, it was still very cold and the sun had only just started to come up. The ridge looked a bit daunting to tackle with cold fingers, and with a quick glance at the map we decided it would be quicker and more pleasant to descend back down to the glacier shelf and climb back up the other side , thus avoiding the ridge. This decision paid off, and we had reached the Central Summit by about 8am, and continued along the snowy ridge to the West Summit. As we descended, we passed lots of parties who were making their way up the mountain from the Klein Matterhorn lift. The West summit of breithorn is one of the most frequently climbed 4000m peaks, facilitated by the lift which leaves only a two hour walk to the summit.

We passed underneath the bivouac hut and headed in the direction of Pollux. From afar, it looked like a  very long rocky ridge, but this was deceptive, as there was actually a long snow gully tucked in behind the ridge which we followed most of the way up the mountain. The final 50m or so is a steep rock climb, made much easier by some fixed ropes which we decided to tackle via feratta style. A final snow plod leads to the summit.
We were back at the bivouac hut by about 1pm, where we were planning to spend another night. We wondered how many people would be joining us; it was a Friday night after all, and it had been crowded the night before! We waited in anticipation, but as the hours ticked by, nobody arrived and we began to wonder if we might have it to ourselves. Drifting off to sleep, I was still half expecting the door to open and a rowdy party to walk in, but it never happened and we got a great night's sleep!

Day 2: Castor and Liskamm

We awoke to another clear morning, and set of at a brisk pace to reach the summit of Castor as the sun came up. From the top of Castor, we were able to see over to Liskamm, which would be our second objective for the day. Liskamm is a huge mountain, composed of two summits (East and West) separated by a 1km ridge. This was to be our most technical climb within the Monta Rosa Circuit, with the ascent, traverse, and descent all receiving grade "AD". According to wikipedia, the mountain is nicknamed Menschenfresser (man eater) due to the many cornices and frequent avalanches that occur on the ridge; however, as previously mentioned, the conditions for us were tip top! and we had a superb time traversing the mountain. At times, the exposure on the knife edge ridge was quite breathtaking, and it was an exhilarating experience!
We arrived at the Giordani Bivouac hut around 12.30pm - much earlier than we had expected - but much to our dismay the hut was already full for that night! However, our companions - three French and three Italian - agreed that we could sleep downstairs in the kitchen and spared us a few blankets and a mattress, so in the end it was not too bad at all! 

Day 3: Pyramid Vincent, Punta Giordani, Schwarzhorn, Ludwigshohe, Parrotspitze and Signalkuppe


This was to be our shortest and easiest day within the circuit, despite the rather large looking list of peaks above! Pyramid Vincent was a mere thirty minute walk from our bivouac hut, and its subsiduary peak Punta Giordani took deceptively long to reach via the descent of a tricky rock ridge. We then returned to the summit of Pyramid Vincent, this time via a steep snow/ice face to avoid the ridge, and passed back underneath the bivouac hut. It was only around 8am by this point, and it looked like all the spaces in the hut had already been bagged for that night - crazy!

The second half of the day involved walking up to the summit of Signalkuppe, via three detours to summit all its subsidiary peaks. From afar this looked like it would take no time at all, but it was actually quite a tiring and a bit demoralizing having to go up and down so much!  Eventually we arrived on top of Signalkuppe, which at 4556m was the highest peak we had been to so far. At the top of the mountain sits the Margherita Hut, which is the highest hut in Europe and, impressively, was built over 100 years ago in 1893. At such a height, it was not surprising to see several posters hung around the hut providing information on Acute Mountain Sickness! And clearly this location comes with a premium; we were rather taken aback by the 126 euros it would have cost us for half pension, so instead tucked into our instant mashed potato, but managed to fork out 12 euros for two cans of coke!!
Day 4: Zumsteinspitze, Dufourspitze and Nordend

Our final day! We were already starting to dream of the things we would do when we returned back to civilisation - Macdonalds in Zermatt being the number one priority!
Zumsteinspitze is a subsiduary peak which is traversed on the way up Dufourspitze. The ridge up Dufourspitze receives an AD grade, but I think we met it in pretty easy conditions because there was a lot of solid snow bulking out the rocky sections. It was a very enjoyable climb, with a brilliant section of grade III climbing up a rocky slab. I think we need to sharpen our crampons at somepoint, because we have done an awful lot of rock scrambling wearing them! The summit of Dufourspitze sits at 4634m and is the highest mountain in Switzerland, and second only to Mont Blanc within Europe. Despite this impressive status, the mountain seems to remain humble amongst its surroundings, as the Monte Rosa group contains 6 of the 10 highest Alpine peaks.
The descent from the North side of Dufourspitze is facilitated by a series of fixed ropes; again we used a via ferrata technique and looped our slings around the rope. It was quite chaotic passing other parties and I can't imagine what it would be like on a busy weekend day! This lead down to a col, with a short ridge climb to reach the summit of Nordend, which had an unexpectedly spicy rock scramble to the top! It was a wonderful feeling to be stood on top of the 18th and final peak of the Monte Rosa circuit. We wondered how many parties complete the whole circuit, with all the peaks, each season and decided it couldn't be all that many. We were elated, and had been incredibly fortunate with the weather and conditions which had been absolutely perfect every single day. 

As we descended the glacier towards the Monte Rosa Hut, we contemplated the size of peoples rucksacks. Some seemed absolutely massive! We were very curious as to what sort of large things people like to carry up a mountain; the best thing we saw was an absolutely massive, metal pan, which might be better described as a cauldron,  attached to the outside of a mans rucksack, which could have cooked a meal for twenty people!
The descent took absolutely forever, with a final killer 300m ascent to reach the Rotenboden rail station. I have never been so overjoyed to get on a train before! It carried us comfortably back down the valley to Zermatt, where with blistered feet and tired legs we hobbled up the road to enjoy a well deserved Big Mac Meal! Clearly they like to come across as health conscious, because compared to the regular choice of 'medium', 'large' and 'supersize', our options here were 'mini', 'small' and 'medium'! So we had to settle for a medium ;)

What's Next?

Not sure! The weather has turned pretty grim, with a thunderstorm last night and a lot of snow forecast over the next few days. It is so frustrating waiting out the bad weather, and not knowing whether to try anything, or what to try, and not wanting to miss out on any opportunities! But I suppose we should just be grateful for the incredible conditions we enjoyed last week! We will probably try to climb Dom in the next couple of days and then head to the Bernese Oberland for another hut to hut tour, since we rather enjoyed the last one!



With thanks to Alpkit, MCofS, sportscotland and the Julie Tullis Memorial Award

Week 5; 03.07.13 - 08.07.13

""Do nothing in haste, look well to each step, and from the beginning think what may be the end".

Edward Whymper"

Less than a week has passed since our last post, but it feels like it has been a successful week and it seems sensible to take advantage of wifi whilst we have it! This time I do not write from an Italian lake, although I am sat next to a hotel swimming pool - it turns out that the cheapest campsite in Saas Grund is also the BEST as it's attached to a hotel which allows you to take full advantage of their facilities! So, other than 15 hours of driving over winding mountain passes, here is what we have been up to last week;

Barre D'Ecrins

We left Italy feeling well topped up on sunshine and happiness! The drive from Laglio to Ecrins looked to be long and complicated, especially since we wanted to avoid all the tolled motorways. I'd thought that our twenty-three page PDF of directions  downloaded from google maps, complete with streetview photos, would be a lifesaver, but it turns out to be rather difficult to get back on track when you make a wrong turning! Anyway, we eventually made it to Ailefroide which is the last village on the way up the valley, and set off the next morning to walk up to the Ecrins Hut. It was a most enjoyable walk with spectacular scenery around the Glacier Blanc, and we were blessed with clear sunny skies. When we arrived at the hut, there was only one other man there, but by early evening it was filled with over a hundred people; it was the first time we had stayed in a busy hut and the atmosphere was great.

The next morning, we had planned to get up at 4, but when everyone else seemed to be getting up at 2.45am, we decided that we should too! We left the hut, and after overtaking a couple of parties found ourselves leading a winding train of headtorches up the glacier. It was quite spectacular looking back and seeing all the lights leading away from the hut. We arrived at the Breche Lory, the Col between Barre D'ecrins and the subsiduary summit Dome de Neige. We first walked up Dome de Neige, and then returned to the Col. The start of the rock ridge to the summit of Ecrins looked rather intimidating; it seemed like a set of footprints led to a scary looking rock wall and then just stopped! Were we supposed to climb that?! It turned out to just be a case of getting on with it, and the climbing wasn't nearly as serious as it had looked. The ridge was great, with an interesting mixture of rocky and snowy sections. The sun was up by the time we reached the summit at 7.45am. Descending the ridge, we met a swiss couple who were next behind us, who offered high fives and told us "you are so fast!!" , but I am not very speedy on the decent and they soon zoomed past us lower down on the glacier! 

We spent the afternoon searching around the campsite in Ailefroide for some of our uni friends; owen, calum, david, alasdair and robbie;, and eventually discovered their empty tents. Bearing in mind that there looked to be over two hundred people staying at this campsite, I was a little sceptical when Tim pointed at three coloured blobs about eight pitches up a crack climb that was visible from the campsite and claimed that it was them. We went to the base of the climb and Detective Tim identified a size medium primark tshirt, that matched perfectly with the size medium primark label that was sitting outside one of their tents! Deciding that they probably wouldn't be off the climb anytime soon, we left them a note and returned to see them in the morning; it was great to have a catch up and exchange stories.

Grand Paradiso

Later that day we drove North into Italy, and headed to Pont in the Grand Paradiso National Park. The drive took a bit longer than expected, and we didnt arrive until 8.30pm! We hadn't booked spaces in the hut, and since it was a Saturday night we decided it was best not to turn up near 11pm without a booking; and so we decided this was the perfect opportunity for our first bivi! We set off up the approach path, which was rather steep and unrelenting, but it all passed in a bit of a sleepy daze and just as darkness was falling the hut came into view. We took advantage of a nicely built bivi spot just beneath the hut, with some flat dry ground surrounded by a little stone wall. It was the first time either of us had bivied, and it couldn't have been better; the night was clear and the sky was filled with a million stars; it was stunning!
We awoke at around 4am, and set off in pursuit of the many other glowing lights that were already forming a trail from the hut. It was a bit of a relentless snow plod, but this was more than compensated for by the stunning view that unfolded before us as the rising sun illuminated hundreds of mountains to the north. We were among the first to arrive below the summit rocks, and scrambling past a few parties who were roping up, we arrived at the madonna summit, once again finding ourselves to be the first people on top of the mountain. Another pair soon joined us, and clearly crowding/busyness was going to be an issue here as a man spun round and knocked me with his rucksack. We made a quick abseil descent off the rocky buttress, and decided to visit the other summit about 100m away, because we couldn't remember which one was supposed to be higher! By the time we had visited both summits and began to descend , it looked like absolute chaos up at the summits; there must have been at least fifty people, now queuing to take their turn at ascending the final ridge. We were very relieved not to be caught among it, and happily descending the snow slopes which were now catching the morning sun. 

Back in the valley, we took the opportunity to have a wash in the river. It seems that washing in freezing cold glacial rivers is something that you can get used to; each time it becomes a little easier to submerge into the icy cold water. The commitment comes when you put the shampoo in your hair; then you know you have to get back in!

What's next?

Initially we had planned to go to grand combin, where there are three summits, because it was pretty much on the way to anywhere else in switzerland. However, arriving at the parking spot we were a little put off by the dark clouds that had filled the sky and as the rain began to fall we made the decision to keep driving to Saas Grund instead. Upon checking the weather forecast , we decided to head back to our favourite campsite (for the 4th time this  year!) and we are hoping to go up to the Mischabel Hut tomorrow and do a few peaks on the Northern end of the Mischabel chain thereafter. Beyond that, i dare not speculate, because it seems that we change our plans more often than we change our socks!

With thanks to Alpkit, MCofS, sportscotland and the Julie Tullis Memorial Award

Week 3 and 4; 17.06.13 - 02.07.13

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings" 

- John Muir




This trip has been a humbling experience! There are so many more factors to consider in the mountains than I hadn't appreciated before. I thought there would be "good days" when the weather was good enough to climb, and "bad days" when we'd have to wait out the weather. But then there are the days when the snow stays soft and doesn't freeze, or the days after fresh snowfall when there is lots of frozen powder, and it is tricky trying to choose the best routes at the best times. So i feel very humbled with a new respect for this game that is a lot more complex than i had realised! That said, we have had a brilliant fortnight with a few peaks, lots of rock climbing and some exciting skiing experiences! We have accepted that we aren't going to manage to do all the peaks as we had initially hoped, and it feels like a big pressure release to shift the focus to spending a couple of months in the Alps enjoying climbing / mountaineering in all its forms! Again i write this post from a sunny lake in Italy, this time Lake Como; we have come to meet up with my friend Hannah who is here on holiday with her family, who have very kindly invited us to stay for a couple of days. It is wonderful to sleep in a bed for the first time in over a month!!

Bishorn

Upon leaving Arco, we decided it was vital to get at least one mountain ticked! We decided that Bishorn would be a guaranteed success as there is a grade "facile" snow plod to the summit. Actually we thought we could ski up it, but when we got to the carpark we could see that at least the first 800m of ascent had no snow, so rather than carrying skis we opted to walk. We left the car at 4am (in shorts and tshirts!) and arrived at the Tracuit hut mid morning in the blazing sunshine. We were grateful for our early start because we met some people who walked in later in the day when the snow was soft, and it took them nine hours! It turns out that they had knocked down the old hut and were in the process of building a new one, meaning the hut was not open and the winter room was a bile of rubble! And so we had essentially arrived at a rather chaotic construction site. It took a bit of persuasion to  organise a space for the night, as originally they had asked us to go back down to Zinal. But kindly they let us stay, and so we got some sleep and set off for the summit at 2am. We arrived on the summit just in time to watch a spectacular sunrise across the alps. We headed back down to the hut and then the valley, arriving back at the car late morning. 

Strahlhorn

We arrived in Saas Grund in the heavy rain, and the next day's forecast promised us thunder and lightening! So we resigned ourselves to a day of sitting in the car reading books, and also made a trip to the local boulder wall. Once the weather had settled, we took the Felskin lift and skied to the Britannia hut. On arrival we learned that it was their opening day for the summer season, and we were their very first guests! We enjoyed a leisurely day of playing cards and board games, as the hut slowly filled up. We left the hut at 4am the next morning, on skis, and it was really quite scary! It was dark , with mist so thick that you could only see another headtorch within a couple of metres, and the skiing was a steep descent from the hut. We skied up the Allalingletscher , following the ski tracks of a party who were a little ahead, who we knew were also heading for Strahlhorn. It was very disorientating in the thick mist, and it became apparent that the other party had headed of route. We broke of from their tracks, and it almost felt like we had made a U-turn, but the clouds lifted breifly and we could see a walking party ahead so we continued towards them. For the next hour or so, we skied up alongside their footsteps, until, to our great dismay, we saw them heading back towards us!! It was snowing quite heavily by this point, and their guide had decided to call it a day and head back to the hut. We continued on until just below the Alderpass (3789m), and deciding the weather was increasingly dismal, decided to turn round ourselves too. Skiing down the glacier was absolutely great, especially since so much fresh snow had fallen over the past few hours! The skiing totally made up for the fact that we hadn't made the summit, and so we returned to the valley in high spirits, and keen to make more use of our skis!





Saastal Day Trips

The next day we had a go at skiing up Allalinhorn. It must have got a lot colder overnight, because the snow was completely solid! So we ditched our skis and walked to the top, enjoying some fantastic views from the summit. The next day we made a quick ascent of Weissmies from the morning lift to Hohsaas, reaching the summit within 2hrs and were back down at the lift by midday. We then spent a sunny afternoon at the campsite finely chopping some potatoes to make Rosti for our dinner! The next morning we took the same lift up to Hohsaas and this time turned in the direction of Lagginhorn. Again, we made a fairly speedy ascent reaching the summit within 2h35. As it had been snowing most of the morning, we went to check the weather reports in Saas Grund. It looked like we were in for two days of heavy rain (snow up high), and then a dramatic temperature rise from 6' to 20' in the valley practically overnight, with the freezing level rising to above the summits. So, not attracted by the idea of soft fresh snow, we decided that we should spend the next few days rock climbing in the valley!


Saastal and Mattertal rock climbing
We first chose to do a rock climb called Brandgraben which climbs up a rocky ridge next to a waterfall just outside Saas Almagell. It was very nice, with a few interesting moves! We then visited a crag in the Zermatt valley called "Medji", which got 5 stars in the guidebook , and WOW it was worth every star!! It was mostly crack climbing, with routes varying between one and three pitches. And it wasnt even polished! Possibly the best crag i have ever been to! Finally, we visited a crag close to Visp to climb a route which was dubbed to be one of the most classic in the Oberwallis area, called Verschneidung. The route climbed up the corner of a large limestone wall, and topped out on the hillside, before a (rather difficult!) abseil descent. It was brilliant to get in a view days of rock climbing , especially at such high quality venues!

What's next?
We have enjoyed a very nice and relaxing two days in Laglio by Lake Como, with great company and lots of luxury! Tomorrow we are planning to drive to the south of france, (which is bound to be complicated as we plan to avoid the toll roads!) to Barre des Ecrins. We hope to meet up with some friends from uni, and tick the two 4000ers there, before possibly heading to the Verdon Gorge for a few days of rock climbing. And then back to Switzerland for some more 4000ers!

With thanks to Alpkit, MCofS, sportscotland and the Julie Tullis Memorial Award