Early the next morning, we were out ascending the glacier, following the tracks in the dark. After what seemed like and age we were scrambling up the chossy, loose rubble at the head wall leading to the festijoch. Here we had a decision to make - for days we had been trying to choose between the ridge route and the "normal" route traversing underneath the NW face (see right) and up beside the N ridge (see left). Looking up there was a good trail leading up the ridge, so after a brief nod of agreement we set off.
My memory of the climb was more of a steep ridge walk rather than a scramble, however as the sun came up we reached the Western fore summit at which point, a layer of cloud rose and we were soon engulfed in mist. This was the low point for the day, we were over the 4000m mark and the two recent days were catching up with us - a brief rest led to 40 winks (they call it a power nap these days, but I don't think the lifestyle gurus would be seen anywhere like this). Sheepishly waking up after 10 or 15 mins the sun was out, we could see the Matterhorn peering through the cloud inversion and things were cheering up. We were re-invigorated and soon were on the summit ridge.
The view made all the effort worthwhile and we could not believe the fantastic environment with 360 degree high peaks. We charged down the "normal" route and before long were back at the festijoch. The initial descent had some great views over the ridge to the north, with some interesting "Grats".Retracing our steps through the crumbling headwall, and back down the glacier, we were back at the hut for lunch. A short break, repacking the sacs to put away all the snow gear, we set off down to the valley, and a cold beer.
