I had unfinished business with the Obergabelhorn after high winds and a pressing flight to South Africa frustrated my first attempt to climb the mountain from the Rothorn hut. Foolishly, I had suggested to Bertrand (my guide) that I would like to start attempting more difficult routes as the “normal” routes I now find less challenging.
We took the cable car from Zermatt and headed for the Arben bivouac. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and had brought a cheap umbrella from Boots as rain was threatened – epic fail, the wind destroyed the brolly in about 30 seconds.
As we climbed the final via ferrata section to the bivouac we saw six others heading back down. Ominously, they warned us the bivouac was full. Bivouac’s are a little like mountain huts but they do not have a guardienne and are entirely unmanned and so you cannot book – it’s a case of first come, first served.
We arrived at the hut, not much bigger than a large garden shed, and were met with a scene reminiscent of those dreadful photos of rows of inmates of Belsen, with haggard and weather beaten faces peering out from three tiers of bunks. Each of the three tiers had five beds but I counted at least 30 faces. There were then more people using the cooking area and more still seated at the table on benches eating freeze dried food. These were hard core mountain men (and three women) and I was a bit intimidated. Bertrand had hoped that the bad weather would have deterred others, but this was not the case.
Dinner completed and with the inmates comfortably in their bunks there were fours of us left with nowhere to sleep. A young pair of Swiss had arrived before us, so they had first choice as to where to sleep – one opted for the table and the other, the floor. This left Bertrand and I with the benches.
We were donated a blanket each and this took the edge of the hard, narrow bench but a long and uncomfortable night lay ahead. It was also cold because those in the top bunk insisted on the door being left open. Incredibly the difference in temperature between the top of the hut and the bottom was about 10 to 15 degrees. Bertrand told me to hand my boots up high in the hut and whilst I slept fully dressed and froze all night, by the morning I had warm, dry boots.
It was a long and painful night, not helped by the fact that I was suffering from something called “false sciatica” although there was nothing false about the level of pain. I must have slept a little however, as at one point, a whole 30 minutes had passed before I looked at my watch again. Anyway, at 4:00am, some rose to begin their adventure and we stole an extra hour in a bunk.
We eventually left the hut an hour to two hours after the others. The weather had cleared and it was a beautiful morning, with fresh snow from the evening before. We moved fast, Bertrand and I are now a reasonably good team on the mountain and my fitness levels are returning. It was probably the hardest level of mountaineering so far – the route was Assez Difficile Plus (AD+) which is already harder than the normal level I climb to and the snow made things more challenging still. That said, I felt pretty comfortable most of the time.
My big issue with mountaineering is still rocky, knife edge ridges in crampons when I only have my feet as points of contact – I mentally freeze the moment I see one of these approaching. Bertrand told me I need to sort this out!
Despite having to crawl like a baby on said, knife edge ridges, we moved fast and overtook pretty much everyone – we were the second pair to summit. We then continued up and over the summit and along the snow ridge, up and over the Wellunkupe and down a final rock section and across the glacier to the Rothorn hut. In the photo, we summited the main peak from the far ridge and then traversed towards the point where the photo was taken.
A piece of cake and a coffee at the hut and then we ran (literally) down to Zermatt as I had to get back for a bar-b-que with friends for 6pm. A great day out which took me to the halfway point of climbing every 4,000m peak in Switzerland.
Expeditions 