Trying Freedom

After a fairly hectic few months and a complete last-minute change to the entire booking we had made due to lack of availability with our original guide, it was time to make it over to Chamonix for a week which would hopefully end with summiting the Matterhorn.

Starting on a Monday morning first thing I made the trip over to Gatwick via train (because there’s no way I’m paying their airport parking fees) heading to Chamonix, France via Geneva, Switzerland.

Once there we met with our lead guide for the week, Marina Fernandez Sanz, to get a briefing of what the week would look like. That briefing kicked straight off with the fact that we’d be changing the itinerary we’d originally shared due to bad weather which may also then impact our chances of being able to summit later in the week – fantastic start.

The change in itinerary meant that we’d be heading to the Torino hut in Italy the next day and staying the night at 3375m above sea level, essentially bringing the acclimatisation plan forward which I was slightly concerned about given the fact that I haven’t attempted a plan that aggressive previously and you never know how your body will react at altitude.

Concern put to one side we headed out on Tuesday morning to get the Aiguille du Midi cable car taking us up to 3842m, then the Panoramic Mont Blanc cable car directly afterwards which takes us over the border directly to the Torino hut. Every time I come to Chamonix I’m reminded how well-equipped the area is in making mountaineering more accessible to the non Kílian Jornet types.

With a short break at the hut for a late breakfast, consisting of an excellent and very well priced Cappuccino (welcome to Italy) with a slice of blueberry pie, it was then time to head out for our first training traverse of the trip, Aiguilles Marbrées Traverse.

It felt amazing to be back in the alpine, the traverse itself was mostly done either Simul-climbing but some of the harder areas were protected with additional pieces of trad gear to be safe. One small pitch climbing pitch graded at 4b added another element to the climb, which I think I enjoyed the most.

Back to the hut next for a delicious lunch followed by a not-so-delicious dinner courtesy of a power cut due to some storms that rolled in as expected. We tried to rest as much as possible given the early finish but trying to sleep at altitude which puts your resting heart rate up between 70-80bpm isn’t much fun, nor was it very successful.

It was back up at 3:30 am the next morning, the plan was to try and get another traverse in before more storms rolled in later that morning, however, after checking the forecast the weather window had shortened more than expected and we wouldn’t be able to fit it in, so we decided instead to cross the glacier back to the Aiguille du Midi by foot.

I was glad to be able to fit something into a bad weather day, especially when you get a sunrise like this. It was good to get a bit of time in crampons as well in prep for more snow later in the week.

As we still had a good amount of time free in the day after taking the cable car back into Chamonix we were able to get some bonus practice of crevasse rescue skills, which I’d been wanting to do for some time in prep for doing some unguided adventures later in life.

Back to usual programming and weather the next day and it was off to take the Flégère gondola and Index lift to 2595m to make our way over to the traverse of the day, Traversée des Crochues.

It was another fantastic traverse followed by a fairly fast-paced walk back to the Flégère gondola for a well-deserved beer. I finished the day feeling pretty happy with my fitness and felt ready to head over to Zermatt the next day with everything crossed for a weather window allowing us to summit.

We started the day by meeting our second guide, David Sanabria and then taking a taxi together over to Tasche to take a short shuttle train into Zermatt (as combustion engines aren’t allowed in Zermatt). We then took a cable car to Schwarzsee at 2583m, followed by a short hike to the Hörnlihütte (aptly named as it sits at the foot of the Hörnli ridge which we’d be climbing) where we’d be sleeping the night before our summit attempt the next day.

The hut was nothing like I’d experienced before in others, firstly the hut overall was very nice, it looked like it’d recently been built to a very modern standard. There were only 6 people in each bedroom and the common area had huge glass windows all around which made for some fantastic views.

It was decided over dinner that I’d be guided by David so we had a brief chat around the expectations for the morning and followed by a kit check to make sure we were only carrying the essentials, giving us the best chance of a successful summit.

After a much better night’s sleep thanks to the comfortable beds, we were up at 3:30 am the next day ready to experience another side of the hut. Everyone has breakfast at 4 am, however, the differences are that everyone is already in their full kit including harnesses as there is a very strange queuing system centred around the fact that everyone has to start climbing at 4:20 am at the earliest and the lead guide from Zermatters (the local guiding company) must be at the front, followed by their other guides and so on, with unguided groups at the back.

Fortunately, we had much fewer teams in total making a bid for the summit together as the weather hadn’t looked promising, so there wasn’t a gap between groups which I had heard of before. So, we set off just after 4:20 am and around 4 hours later we made it to the summit successfully.

In summary, this was my hardest mountain so far, in total it was just over 8 hours from hut to hut of fairly consistent easy climbing which takes its toll on you. I felt strong for most of the climb, especially out of the gates and only struggled slightly with some pain in the top of my neck on the way down but apart from that, I was happy with the overall time and the experience as a whole was incredible.

Even David mentioned that it was one of the best days condition-wise he’s had in his career, we had a fantastic cloud inversion which left us looking directly out at the Monte Rosa over the valley, followed by a clear summit.

Now that my only booked trip has been ticked off, I’m back to the question, What’s next?