Jonesieblog

The previous day, the ascent of the Allalinhorn had seemed like a big deal. Now in retrospect it seemed like a doddle – a quick jaunt up from the top of the mountain train. Our thoughts turned to plans for the rest of the week.

This first week was supposed to be an acclimatisation week, so we wanted to get progressively higher, and in particular to spend nights in huts at increasing altitudes. But we were aware that Alpine weather is a fickle thing, so we also wanted to make the most of the good weather we were experiencing.

I came up with a plan: to climb two more 4000m peaks before the end of the week –  the Weissmies and the Nadelhorn. It seemed very energetic, but I was expecting the weather to get in the way at some point and impose some rest.

After lunch on Monday we caught the local free bus down to Saas Almagell, and set off up towards the Almageller Hut in blazing sunshine.  We climbed about 300m up the right-hand side of a gorge, only to discover that the route across from that side to the hut was closed for repairs, so we caught a chair-lift back down to the valley and started again on the left-hand side!  After a steep slog back up the first 400m of the valley, we collapsed in a sweaty heap for a rest

The plod up to the hut was relentless, and we knew we risked arriving too late for dinner, but in the end we arrived with a few minutes to spare, in well under the all-important “book time”!

At dinner, we chatted with a couple of French climbers, who recommended the route up Mont Blanc from the Aiguille du Midi as a good alternative to the usual Gouter route.  After dinner, we met a group of young Brits who were planning to do the Portjengrat the next day.

This was going to be our first proper alpine start, so we organised our kit in the crowded dormitory then hit the sack, with industrial strength earplugs in place! This was going to be a much bigger day than the Allalinhorn, but I was confident about our abilities this time.

After the usual horrors of a night in a hut, we were up and on our way by 4am, with head torches to guide the way along the path up to the Zwischenberg pass. At this stage we were walking in a line with about a dozen other climbers.

At the Zwischenberg pass we turned left and headed up to the base of a steep triangle of snow, where we kitted up.

The ascent of this steep snow was pretty straightforward, if exhausting.  My only worry was the risk posed by some of the other parties.  There was one particularly large gentleman being dragged up by a Swiss guide just above us at one point.  I changed our route to avoid them, as I didn’t fancy any of our chances if the big guy took a tumble!  This part of the climb was comparable to something like Central Gully on Ben Lui (a Scottish grade 1 winter climb).

We emerged into the sunshine and onto the rock of the South Ridge, which was technically similar to Tower Ridge in Summer (without the Gap!).  It would have been an enjoyable scramble were it not for the fact that the altitude was taking its toll.  I was feeling pretty worn out by the time we reached the top of the scramble and put our crampons back on.

The final ridge across to the summit was spectacular – a real knife-edge with massive exposure on either side.  We thought manly thoughts and stepped across, glad to be roped up.  Once the ridge had widened a bit, Alan snapped this picture:

The views from the top were spectacular, and we shared the summit with one couple.  Looking down towards the Hohen Saas cable car station, we could see long, snaking ropes of “clients” being guided up towards us.

The descent went quickly and smoothly.  We could see, from above, some snow bridges which looked rather insecure, but when we got down to them them seemed very solid, and we crossed them with only minimal yelping of “keep that rope tight!” and “keep moving!”. After the snow bridges, we crossed through some spectacular glacial terrain – teetering seracs and gaping crevasses.

40 minutes later we were nearing the end of the track across the glacier when we met a middle aged woman walking towards us with no rope on, no crampons and no ice axe.  A guide 50m ahead of us spoke to her, but she didn’t seem to want any help.  I would have been begging for a rope – the sun was beating down on the glacier and both Alan and I felt the edges of narrow crevasses crumbling beneath our feet as we leapt over them.  I guess she survived her crazy stroll, as there were no reports in the local news of any accidents.

We made it to the Hohen Sass station at about 10.45am, and sat down for a celebratory beer.  Now we were real alpinists!

Stumble it!

School broke up for Summer on Thursday afternoon, and on Friday morning I was on a plane to Geneva with Alan.  We took a train then a bus to Saas Fee, and arrived in sweltering heat about 6 pm, to see this inspiring view.

Saas Fee is completely car-free, so we had to haul our luggage across the village and up the hill behind the church to reach our apartment.  We managed to get lost on the way (which did not bode well!) but eventually we found the right block, and were warmly welcomed by the owners of our apartment.

I had planned a full day of acclimatisation activities for the Saturday morning, but Friday was Alan’s birthday, and he was in the mood for a few drinks! After a vague attempt to encourage moderation, I surrendered to the inevitable and joined him in a round of cocktails, then another…

Some time around 10.30am, we declared that Saturday would be an “orientation day”.  We wandered around, picked up some supplies and pulled ourselves together.  We decided to buy lift passes for the week, then took a stroll  from the village (1800m) up  to the top of the Plattjen Gondola (2600m).

We both felt reasonably fresh after the climb, and were considering going further when a thunder storm began.  We jumped into a gondola and headed back down.

Since we had lift passes, we decided to get our money’s worth, and took the Alpin Express all the way up to Mittel Allalin (3457m).  We hoped that we would begin to acclimatise simply by standing around in the sun up there and admiring the awesome views.  As we gawped at the mountains, I felt very small, and wondered if we were really going to get to the top  of any of them.

Back at the apartment, we ran through crevasse rescue techniques on the balcony and agreed that we would climb the Allalinhorn (4027m) the next day.  It is only 500m up from the Mittel Allalin station, but I was, nonetheless, very anxious about it.  Alan had no previous experience of glacial travel, and we were going to be walking up a route which crossed crevasses and a bergschrund.  I had invited Alan to the Alps, and I felt responsible for his wellbeing.  I did not sleep well.

We took the first train up to Mittel Allalin, and set off over the top of the Summer skiing area at about 8 am.  The snow had frozen overnight and this made the walking easy.  As the path left the pisted area, we stopped to put on harnesses, ropes and crampons.  We were both feeling the altitude (getting breathless more quickly), but neither of us had any other symptoms.

We walked together along a well defined path through the snow – Alan 12m in front of me with a rope between us.  As we plodded along we began to get the hang of moving together – the rope needs to be taut enough to be hardly touching the ground, but not so taut that it drags on the person in front. This tautness is important because the rope is there in case one of us falls into a hidden crevasse.  If it were slack, then the person falling would build up a lot of momentum before coming onto the rope.  This would make it much more likely for the other person to get dragged in after them!

My anxiety subsided.  We were moving well together and Alan seemed relaxed about the climb.  The track passed beneath a steep snow slope, and disappeared for 150m beneath the debris from a recent avalanche.  We traversed  this nervously, then headed for the end of the bergschrund, where the path  crossed a solid snow bridge.

We kept on plodding, and reached the top in less than “book” time (we were somewhat obsessed with this during the first week, as we took it to be a good measure of our fitness).  After managing the ascent without incident, the summit ridge was pleasingly narrow and exposed.

 
Alan and I posed for photos, scoffed a sandwich and headed back down. At the Feejoch, we passed a group of 20-30 walkers heading up. We were glad to have made it to the top before the masses!

The snow was already softening up, and by the time we approached the Mittel Allalin station every footstep was sinking a foot or so into the snow.

We drank a celebratory beer on the balcony of the station, then took the gondola back down to Saas Fee, where we began to plan our ascent of the Weissmies.

Stumble it!