Monday - training climb of the Weissmies

A tougher day today but a fascinating and enjoyable first ascent of a 4000m Alp for the team.

Today the team all successfully climbed the Weissmeis, a 4017m peak in
the Saas Fee valley.

We all started the day early - getting to breakfast at 4am before setting
off from the hut at 4.30am - a major achievement in itself! The first hour
and a half involved a brisk walk in the dark up to a Col using head torches. This will be similar to the start of the Matterhorn climb where the first few hours will also be in the dark.
Dawn broke as we reached the first of two ice and snow fields. We needed to
traverse these to reach  the side of the ridge we would move onto as we
approached the Weissmies summit.

Crampons on - easier for some than others - and we set off zig zagging our way across some reasonably steep terrain.




















At the end of the second snow field we rejoined the ridge for a 150 meter rock scramble where plotting the route required concentration from our guides. The views from this point on were truly spectacular - with the sun rising, we looked over a sea of clouds with numerous tall alps exposing their summits oblivious to the valleys below.

A final march up a further snow field and a very narrow ridge route led onto the summit.

Despite walking in four separate parties we all reached the summit within 20 minutes of one another - the last party arriving at 8.30am.

The  vista was superb and in some respects it would have been nice to have to have lingered longer; however, looking to the north ominous clouds were rolling up towards the peak. The forecast was for a deterioration in weather during the day and it was already starting to rain in the valleys. The temperature dropped quite rapidly and we were all reminded how inhospitable the high Alps could become in short order.

We set off down the ridge and made good time. The descent was not particularly strenuous but tired legs meant concentration was paramount. We passed several parties still striking out for the summit and were glad that by this stage we were on our way down. As we dropped we joined a large glacier and crevasse awareness was important. Our
guides altered our roping technique to ensure if any snow bridges collapsed we wouldn't all disappear down a hole!

We arrived at the top of a cable car safe and in one piece at around 10:30am, had a quick coffee (or was it a beer!) and searched for John's lost camera for 30 minutes, finally finding it in his ruck sac. By this time cloud had descended and it was raining.  We headed down in the cable car for home tired but elated.

Per, our lead guide was pleased with the teams progress, and having spent two nights above 3000 meters, done a serious technical climb and bagged our first 4000 meter peak our altitude fitness and climbing experience has improved enormously.

None  of us would have believed we would be able to have done this 12 months ago. Tomorrow we are off to do the Breithorn Traverse - another 4000 meter peak with a mixture of glacier traversing and technical rock climbing.

This will be our last training climb. The weather forecast is for a clear spell so we are still going with Plan A, to move up to the Hornli hut on Wednesday for an attempt on the Matterhorn on Thursday.

More tomorrow.