I joined my friend Andrew Noble and his guide Olivier Roduit on a three day ski mountaineering trip with the goal of climbing the Breithorn, Nordent and Dufourspitze, the latter being the highest mountain in Switzerland.
We took the cable car out of Zermatt as high as we could (this is not considered cheating apparently) and immediately started touring up towards Breithorn which is considered the easiest of the 4,000m peaks in Switzerland.
There had been fresh snow a few days before, but we made good progress as we climbed the gentle slope at the start of the peak. I had heard that “woomping” sound a couple of times as we moved upwards and I noticed Olivier constantly prodding the snow. He asked us to keep 30m apart as we approached the most exposed and steep section and he went first. Before I had even started to follow he turned around and came back to say he had heard a really massive “woomp” and that the avalanche risk was too great to continue (this was not the near-death experience). We had to turn around and skied on to the Monte Rosa hut at 2,883m. The ski was uneventful.
The modern, space age hut is incredible with views of the Matterhorn and the facilities that would rival a high-end hotel. Almost empty it provided fantastic accommodation and food and mountain huts are one of the few things in Switzerland that I feel offer real value for money. Apparently, it can be reached relatively easily by foot from a nearby train and would be a great trip for a family.
We were offered the choice of an early or late breakfast and so took the late option and I set my alarm for 4:00am. We set off just as the sun began to highlight the tip of the Matterhorn and we began the tour to the wide gulley that separated our two targets for the day – Nordent and Dufourspitze.
There were two solitary figures half-way up and Olivier looked at the large wind slab looking high above them and again made the call that the avalanche risk was too great to attempt Nordent.
The solitary figures we were pleased to see had made it through the gulley but they eventually gave up their attempt of Nordent after struggling to make progress in the waist deep fresh snow on the ridge. Olivier had made a good call.
At the foot of Dufourspitze we abandoned our skis and put on crampons and grabbed our ice axes. We began the long and reasonably technical ascent along the ridge line. There were some nasty ridges with certain death on either side and I find these particularly challenging. Often, I would have to stop and breath and wait for the sensation that I was immediately about to topple over the edge to subside before tentatively shuffling ahead. There were some other interesting moments but nothing particularly challenging. It was a long and sustained effort however and we were relieved when we reached the summit.
I often hate the descents as I am not confident on my crampons on steep rock, but I felt good today and we made good progress. Andrew and I were already thinking of the first beer in the hut.
The worst was pretty much over and I was happy following on at the back on the rope with Andrew in the middle and Olivier casually striding across knife edges as if he was walking down Guildford high street. When there was any degree of exposure he would loop the rope around a suitable rock to protect us in the event of a fall.
We came to a small, easy snowy ridge and as Andrew stepped down suddenly he lost his footing and fell to his left. Olivier, thank God, had been watching and jumped off the ridge right. I had seen Andrew fall and so braced myself to help try and hold him and for a moment I had enough time to think, that was close, at least I held him, but then his weight dragged me over too and I slowly crumpled and then fell down on top of him.
As I fell I managed to stab myself in the arse with my crampon although it was nothing too serious. We were safe though and able to scramble back up the slope and onto the path.
Andrew was pretty shaken. If Olivier had not been watching over us we could have had a pretty close shave. In terms of places to fall this was probably the best, we probably would not have died but we would have fallen a good 500m and sustained some nasty breaks and gases for flailing ice axes and crampons. Had we come to a stop and still be conscious we would have then had the issue of how to get back up to the ridge without skis or gear – it could have been very nasty. Fortunately, we made it back to the hut and had a delicious dinner consisting of a Swiss variation of chicken kiev.
This morning we took the late breakfast option again and enjoyed an easy tour through an ocean of glacial snow before wonderful spring skiing back to Zermatt. We boarded the train back to the village and the 60 Chinese tourists were less than impressed by the odour emanating from three men who had not showered in three days.
The Chinese were all listening to their tour guide in Mandarin via their mobile phones on Bluetooth headsets. Andrew got chatting to the guide and recounted our adventures which the tour guide relayed in real time to her bemused charges via the headsets. When Andrew had finished the story the coach erupted in spontaneous applause and Andrew, Olivier and I dashed off the train as soon as we could to avoid the risk of having to pose for selfies.
Expeditions 