Mountain Bivvi, Switzerland

 The plan for the first route of our trip was to head up from the valley towards the Rimpfischhorn. We planned to climb up to the ridge at Pfulmes and bivvy so we could have a faster start and less climbing the following day. We had bivvied many times in the UK, and most of them in the winter. however this would be the first in the wild of the high Alps.

We would head on to the ridge as you can see in the picture, then follow the skyline to the left.
We tried to keep the bags as light as possible, but they always seemed far too heavy and massively overweight.

 From Zermatt we took the cable car up to Sunnegga. From here we headed off up the valley, on a gentle gradient using a wide tourist track. Not long later we past the Flualp Hotel .. this is the normal stopping point for people headed our way.
From here we headed upwards, the track soon gave way scree and soon we were picking our way through it.




After a brief rest for something to eat and we were heading upwards again to the ridge. Now were were looking for a good place to stay overnight, somewhere with a bit of shelter, and not far from some water. there was plenty of the later running down from the edge of the glacier above, but the former was harder to find.

 Soon we found a pair of large boulders with hollows underneath them, and room for two in each. Soon we were making it comfortable. We arranged hanging points for all the gear to make more room for "bodies".

We cooked dinner on a stove Dave had "fixed" up to cook while hanging, and before long we were watching the twilight over  the Matterhorn.




Like most bivvies this was not totally comfortable and there always seemed to be a rock in the wrong place. However the night went fast and before long it was the start of the next day.