We are currently hiking up to the hut and just stopped for a sandwich. You can see it at the bottom of the ridge.
Thursday, 22 August 2013
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Video of the Breithorn ridge climb on Tuesday
Below is some footage of part of the Breithorn ridge climb we did on Tuesday. It was taken by Malcolm with a GoPro attached to his helmet so the hands you occasionally see are his!
It's a bit shaky and lasts about 20 minutes (we can't edit video here) so you may need to be selective. There is no real sound - we haven't quite worked that out yet.
Hopefully it will give you another insight into the sort of climbing we have been doing and the exposure of some of it. Remember this was at around 4000m.
You can view it full screen by clicking on the icon in the bottom right of the screen above or you can also view it on YouTube at http://youtu.be/VKqQEisSJEg
To give you some perspective this is the mountain the video was taken on. We were climbing the rock ridge in the centre from left to right.
Wednesday - Rest day
A quick update tonight.
As you will all know today has been an enforced rest day so we have all made the most of it by not doing too much but spending some of the day above 3000m to continue improving our altitude acclimatisation.
John, Andrew, Will and their support team all headed back to the Klein Matterhorn glacier with two of our guides, Per and Christian. While the guys went for a gentle stroll and coffee, the guides took the wives and children off for walk on the glacier.
The guides ended up taking them on a two hour hike over the border in to Italy!
The Tims, Kevin and Malcolm headed up the iconic Gornergrat train to the viewing station above the Gorner glacier.
At the top they joined in with the other visitors and took several hundred more photos of the Matterhorn. Somehow it doesn't look quite so big in the photos!
Whilst up there, they bumped in to Jonatan one of our Swedish guides. He had also decided to go up to the top of the Gornergrat but had walked up the 1600 vertical metres to the top. Not very restful!
Tim W and Kevin walked with Jonatan down to the next railway stop for lunch. Tim D took the train as he was wearing flipflops to help a blistered foot to heal. Malcolm ever the gentleman insisted on accompanying him.
After lunch the Tim's, Kevin and Malcolm headed for the train while Jonatan insisted he would walk the two hours back down to Zermatt. Kevin found some entertainment while waiting for the train.
Tonight we met at the bar in the Hotel Poste for a quick beer - or ice tea in Malcolm's case - and a last briefing from Per. There we met another guide - Marco - another experienced guide friend of Per's who has just arrived from Cortina to join the guiding team.
Tomorrow we will meet at the lift station at 11am with our kit for the stay in the Hornli hut and the climb. We are will take the bubble to Schwarzee then walk gently up to the hut. It should take us about two and a half hours plus a stop for a quick sandwich half way.
Once up at the hut Per wants us to climb the first 30 minutes of the ridge so we will know what to expect in the dark at 4:30am Friday. He has warned us that the first bit will be quite pressured and stressful as there is a fixed rope just above the hut that everyone has to take. This causes an immediate bottle neck on the climb with all 90 climbers from the hut bunched together and queuing to get past.
We have been told not to take anything we don't need, to sleep in our climbing kit and to not bother with breakfast so we don't waste any precious minutes in the morning.
Positively, Per thinks there is a good chance we could all make it to the top and he is going to try to keep as many of us together on the climb as he can. Fingers crossed.
We will try to do another update from the hut tomorrow night but it will depend on 3G coverage and mobile phone battery charge - there is no electricity for climber's mobiles in the hut. We'll obviously update on Friday as soon as we have energy and possibly can.
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Summit day changed to Friday!
Major change - We were all geared up to move up to the Hornli hut tomorrow (Wednesday) for an attempt on the Matterhorn on Thursday but we are having to move the climb day back to Friday.
We heard tonight that there has been a mix up at the hut and they don't have us booked in until Thursday night. Although this is their mistake the hut is full tomorrow so we will have to move back our climb day to Friday.
Whilst this was an initial disappointment - we are all ready to go - we are going to use tomorrow as a rest day and also a chance to spend a bit more time at altitude before the climb and give our bodies more time to build up the red blood cells needed to perform at altitude.
We only found out because one our guides is going up the Matterhorn tomorrow and so is in the Hornli hut tonight. while chatting with the hut guardian he discovered the mistake. The good news is that we discovered this tonight and not after we all trekked the two and a half hours up to the hut tomorrow! The weather forecast for Friday is also still good although things are set to change on Saturday so we need things to go smoothly now.
We heard tonight that there has been a mix up at the hut and they don't have us booked in until Thursday night. Although this is their mistake the hut is full tomorrow so we will have to move back our climb day to Friday.
Whilst this was an initial disappointment - we are all ready to go - we are going to use tomorrow as a rest day and also a chance to spend a bit more time at altitude before the climb and give our bodies more time to build up the red blood cells needed to perform at altitude.
We only found out because one our guides is going up the Matterhorn tomorrow and so is in the Hornli hut tonight. while chatting with the hut guardian he discovered the mistake. The good news is that we discovered this tonight and not after we all trekked the two and a half hours up to the hut tomorrow! The weather forecast for Friday is also still good although things are set to change on Saturday so we need things to go smoothly now.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monday, 19 August 2013
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.
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.
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.
guides altered our roping technique to ensure if any snow bridges collapsed we wouldn't all disappear down a hole!
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.
Sunday - Rock ridge climbing at 3000m
We completed our first formal climbing training yesterday by climbing the entire length
of the Dri Hornli (" the Three Horns") which is an arete that has three
peaks and rises and falls some 600 feet above the Almagellerhutte.
We were split into 4 teams and all successfully completed the task over about 4 hours. There were a few hairy moments; the climbing was varied and at times
challenging but fortunately it is more difficult than that we will
encounter on the Matterhorn.
Of particular note were a couple of manoeuvres around blind corners over
some lengthy drops, where some of the team found their arms could have
been longer.
Equally, a some exposed slabs which had to be ascended to reach the second summit set hearts fluttering and some unusual commentary which those observing assumed was Swiss German.
We also had to abseil down from one of the Three Horns which certainly raised a few eyebrows.
We got back to the hut mid afternoon and enjoyed an early dinner before the attempt at our first 4,000 meter peak - the Weissmeis.
Fortunately, the bunk room was quieter and we had it to ourselves. Equally, the team was better behaved - presumably a combination of exhaustion and fear of what has yet to come.
Equally, a some exposed slabs which had to be ascended to reach the second summit set hearts fluttering and some unusual commentary which those observing assumed was Swiss German.
We also had to abseil down from one of the Three Horns which certainly raised a few eyebrows.
We got back to the hut mid afternoon and enjoyed an early dinner before the attempt at our first 4,000 meter peak - the Weissmeis.
Fortunately, the bunk room was quieter and we had it to ourselves. Equally, the team was better behaved - presumably a combination of exhaustion and fear of what has yet to come.
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