The next morning we struggled out into the freezing darkness over the rolling folds of the glacier keeping to the side of what the day before had been the piste, now all scraped flat and ready for another day. As we came level with the top telephrique station of Kliener Matterhorn we could see that we were not the only ones up that morning. The cable car had not started yet, but two figures were descending down from the Breithorn. We were by now getting well acclimatised, and the steep slope up to the summit ridge was not too daunting. Before long we were on the top gazing around at the full extent of the 4000's along the summit ridge.
As we looked back down the way we had come the cable car had disgorged several long strings of people heading our way. This was the penalty of the closeness of mechanical assistance, on the Dom there were so few people, here popularity is linked to "ease of access". We charged down the slope like men possessed, keeping well out of the way of the human chain gangs struggling up in a variety of apparel and equipment.
After a brief rest for a bite and some water, we set off for the valley; again saving money we had planned to walk all the way back to the campsite. At lot further than we had imagined but the weather was perfect.
However in hindsight we would have been better off saving the energy for the high mountains and used the facilities.