Having started to think about the Matterhorn as a challenge for the Haven, John Woodman's first conversation about the idea was with Tim Wheeler. Tim, unlike most of the rest of us has done some recent Alpine mountaineering and his experience and contacts with guides has been invaluable. Here are his words about the climb, the guides and why he was so compelled to help the Haven.
'This is my story of hills, heights, cancer charity, physical challenge, two Swedish mountain guides and synchronicity.
Just as I sat talking to John Woodman at Lords last summer when the whole idea of a Matterhorn charity climb was mooted, about 10 years ago I met a lawyer at a conference and over a beer he explained he was looking for a fourth person to replace one of his mates who had emigrated and who had come together to ski tour/mountaineer/randonee annually after all meeting at the Skier’s Lodge in La Grave some years earlier. One of their guides from then had been Per As.
Before I knew it I had joined a “busman’s holiday” of Swedes and our group on a week of Per’s epic ski crossing of the Alps (the Grand Traverse, basically Vienna to Nice over two seasons). Jonatan Hulten was then an aspirant guide and also on the trip. He subsequently became - like Per already was- a fully qualified UIAGM mountain guide: the top international qualification.
I had the least recent experience having only taken up skiing in my early 20s and, having had a 6 year lay-off due to knee problems, had been recommended to try snowboarding so on that trip I was on a split board.
My only real experience had been skiing the Haute Route some 15 years earlier (when bad weather actually stopped us one day short of Zermatt), but I could tell these guys were special…especially the way they helped me cope and got me down on the last day, me subsequently discovering I’d broken my sternum in a fall.
From then on for several weeks a year I’ve been pitched in to their winter world of touring and heli skiing with many trips around La Grave, Serre Chevalier, Chamonix , Arctic Sweden, the Lyngen Alps, a second season on the Grand Traverse, as well as joining their other guide friends in Chile, Japan and New Zealand.
My mountain background was more humble, merely spending many holidays and weekends in my teens and 20s scrambling around the fells of the Lakes. Whilst I never thought I’d have the head for heights –or the opportunity – I’d always read about climbers and the great ascents.
My first trip to Zermatt in the mid 80s blew me away, and gazing up at the Matterhorn I determined to read more and more. Over the years I’ve been there many times- summer hiking/winter skiing. And time after time I’ve also been drawn back to its environs: Saas Fee, Zinal, Cervinia, Allagna, Aosta.
A germ of an idea was forming, reinforced a while back by a heli drop and ski down the Monta Rosa, in to Zermatt, and from climbing Gran Paradiso (the highest Italian mountain, 4061m)on skis two winter’s ago with Per and the regular group: maybe I should have a go at summer climbing but could I get over a fear of not being comfortable stepping off ledges or dealing with overhangs ?
Well, thanks to that conversation with John Woodman and Per’s (and Anders’) tuition in Chamonix earlier this year I’m getting there- it really is a mental thing: but trust me Per is wrong when he says motorbiking is more scary !
Per and Jonatan will be joined for our training climbs (Weissmies, 4017m, and Breithorn, 4164m) and acclimatisation next week by another guide friend of theirs, Christian, and we will then be getting by equal numbers of local guides for the Matterhorn (4478m) ascent which should be on Thursday August 22. A shame my other old guide friends, Stefan and Hiro - and indeed Anders, who we all thought was also great - had other bookings.
Please have a look at Per’s web site: his is really a different world. http://www.peras.se/
So, lastly to the important part, my link with cancer charities and the resonance with the Haven.
My mother died of cancer about 25 years ago -when she was in her mid 50s; my age now - and for several years I ran a number of marathons as well as the Three Peaks Yacht Race,
raising many tens of thousands of £ for cancer research. A pal who cycled 3 legs of the Tour de France route with me, for charity again, in 2006 died of the same thing two years later, in his late 40s, so I entered and completed the 2010 Tour (all 20 stages over the 22 allocated days and two weeks in advance of the pros), spurred on in my endeavours and charity raising efforts by his memory.
I think it is, sadly, vitally important that those that can do make the effort for what is such a worthy cause and for a problem that remains so prevalent.
The combination of the Haven, and it’s importance to so many people, and the Matterhorn challenge was always going to be irresistible: thank you John. And thank you Per for sorting out the training and the logistics.
Let’s hope luck and the weather are on our side. It will be tough.'
