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!