Waking up with little after effects from the day before, and the mood was further enhanced by looking outside. Another great day, the nip from the overnight frost still in the air, as we set off around the end of the Western ridge heading for the Rotgrat.
We reached the crest of the ridge as the light was just coming through the darkness, allowing us to see the ridge stretching out in front of us. This did look very Scottish, and indeed the first few nobbles were very reminiscent of some classic scrambling routes.
As we headed up we reached the snow field, this brought some change to the scrambling as we put crampons on and walked up the corniced edge. The sting in the tail of this ridge was just ahead with a couple of rock steps – not difficult, but massive exposure.
The last gentle slopes lead up to the summit – a large flat area with great views both ways along the ridge – toward the Taschorn and Dom one way and Monte Rosa the other. We sat in the sun and waited for Nobby and Sarah to follow us up, marvelling in the fact that I was feeling no adverse effects from the days before.
The descent was down the South ridge back to the Alphubeljoch, initially quite steep, but with just sufficient snow to make it uneventful (there was one area where the thin soft snow made it necessary to caution). Going back to the hut, there was plenty of time to gaze up to the ridge and see the route up and reflect on a great day.
From the hut it was time to retreat back to the campsite, and now feeling much better, the thought of the long walk out was not as frightening as it had been the day before.