Tuesday - The Breithorn Ridge traverse

Today we had our final training climb - the Breithorn Traverse. This is a popular 4164m peak above Zermatt and is mostly climbed via a simple trek across the Matterhorn glacier and up the easy snow field up to the summit. Suffice to say that was not the way our guides took us. Instead we climbed to the rock ridge you can see at the left hand end of the picture below, then traversed along the ridge and eventually up to the snow covered summit you can see on the right.

The day started off at 7am with us meeting at the Klein Matterhorn lift in Zermatt. As we walked up to the lift station we were amazed to see lots of Japanese tourists out already with their cameras, but as we rounded the corner we could see why. The first sunlight was hitting the top of the Matterhorn - a beautiful sight.















As those that have skied in Zermatt will know the Klein Matterhorn lift is the highest cable car in Europe and takes you up to the Plateau Rosa glacier at 3820m.

Once at the top we got kitted up and were immediately roped up to trek across the glacier towards the Breithorn. At this point we were accompanied by quite a few other people, some ski training on the glacier and others like us headed for the Breithorn.

We traversed the glacier below the south side of the mountain, passing by the easy track up to the summit and kept going on towards the rock ridge. After about an hour we turned an headed up a steeper snow field (which was quite icy) to reach the col at the base of the ridge and the start of the rock climb.

The climbing was not too difficult but was very exposed and a mixture of rock and snow. We went up and down over the three main towers on the ridge, each linked by snow and rock bridges of less than a few feet wide with 1000m drops on each side - good preparation for what we will experience on the Matterhorn.

When anyone dared to look up the views were stunning. We could see mountains as far away as Turin to the South, Mont Blanc to the east and all the many high peaks of the Swiss Valaise to the North and west, and of course the Matterhorn always just over the top of the ridge.

The route finishes with a high level walk to the east summit and a traverse of a snowy, corniced crest to the slightly higher west summit.  From there we descended across a steep face and back down across the glacier to the klein Matterhorn Cable car station. We arrived back at around 2.30pm -  a 6 hour climb.

We had some notable instances - Andrew missed the 7am cable car as he had his wife's pass; Malcolm stepped on Tim Wheelers thumb - since at the time they were hanging on a cliff some 4000m up Tim didn't let go, nor was there anyone to hear his verbal disquiet. We were followed by a German couple who
had a serious matrimonial which we did all hear - lesson to be learned -  don't take a bride inexperienced in mountaineering to the Breithorn for her honeymoon!

On our return we had a delightful lunch at the Schwartzee hotel which
nestles in the ground below the Matterhorn. It is such a daunting prospect.

In our "acclimatisation" we have climbed two peaks over 4000m and a ridge above 3000m. We have rock climbed, ice climbed and walked our socks off. If you add up the vertical height 11,000 meters is one and a half times the height of Everest.

Tomorrow we move up to the Hornli hut.  We may not all get to the top but we will give it a damn good try!!

Watch this space.