Climbing Club Away Dinner Meet, N. Wales

Clearing up after the night before...

We went for a short walk, but as it was damp we set off for home early

Climbing Club Away Dinner, N. Wales

KT and I left Sue and Steph at home and headed off to North Wales for the Climbing club away dinner ...  team Spag. Bog, made from what ever was contributed ... Everyone sitting down together and much alcohol.

Usually involved a few daring do's towards the end of the night.

KT being centre of attention as well as being allowed to stay up late !

tasch, switzerland

The next day we were woken by the sun streaming through the tent. Still overcome with tiredness and feeling slightly stiff, we struggled to get enthusiastic about much ..

Eventually around lunch time we went around to Zinal to pick up the car.

This was a very quiet day. But just what we needed.

The last day Dave and the others headed off to the Kleiner Matterhorn lift to drop over the other side to Cervinia and then up to the hut on the Lion ridge.
I headed the other way .. back down the valley and the flight back to the UK. I do remember thinking that I should have gone a day earlier (the previous day and used the car to get to the train station). the walk to the train station was hard work with a heavy pack.

My one abiding memory would be of the fantastic traverse of the Weisshorn.

Weisshorn, Switzerland

Really early the next day we departed from the hut ... most of the other guests were still in bed.
We climbed up the glacier in the dark - a circuitous route that followed the ridge line coming down from the north.

We reached the Bishorn summit as it started getting light. I had been here before over 10 years ago, but the weather had been very poor, and it was good to see it properly for the first time.

From here the ridge curved around SSW then S and finally E in a big C shape.
the next section was to go over a snow dome and down a snow ridge to a col. This would be the last time we would be on anything resembling ground more than 30 cms wide until we hit the glacier on the other side.

The route followed the ridge line and quickly turned into a scramble.

There were a number of smaller gendarmes leading up to the grand Gendarme sticking prominently up from the ridge.




 This initial section had a couple of points where getting up the steps was not too difficult, but required an abseil on the other side.

 For most of this initial line I was much more concerned with keeping going and tackling the difficulties as they come along.

As we came to the base of the grand gendarme there was a little more "proper" climbing, and we had to pitch the sections rather than move together.

Looking back showed the complexities we had already overcome.

From the collar of the grand gendarme we traversed around below the scorpions tail like structure. from here we dropped down to the col that leads to the summit ... the main climbing difficulties were over, but there was many others yet to come.

From here the route changes and now became a steep snow ridge so we changed over from rock kit to snow equipment - Crampons and ice axe .

Up the ridge there looked like another gendarme, but this could be escaped round the side.

Then it was up the steep ridge in several zigzags..


Eventually we go to the summit ...  several bumps, but the largest one had a cross on it, and enough room for both of us to sit and admire the views down all the sides

We paused for quite a while at the top admiring the views and taking in the magnificence all around. Bryon and Steve were still climbing up, and once we could see they were not far behind we set of down the NE ridge ( the normal ascent route). this was initially a steep snow arête, before it turned in to a sharp boulder ridge, with no real defined path, but just follow the general direction down.

At the bottom of the ridge we caught up with the stragglers who had been attempting the normal route up, crossing the glacier and cutting down the other side we picked up the path to the Weisshorn hutte.

Looking back up the route you could see the whole of the NE ridge leading to the summit.

Dave and I waited at the hut for Bryon and Steve, lying in the sun and having a little snooze.

The original plan was to crash at the hut and head down the next day .... however the sun got to Dave's head and he had been counting days. He had worked out that if we dropped down today, we could get the car tomorrow and then he could pop over to Italy and grab the Italian ridge of the Matterhorn before they had to go home. (This would not work with me as I had to catch a flight).
So once Bryon and Steve caught up and had a few moments rest and around the time we would have booked into the hut for the night, we headed down .. this must have looked really odd to the guardian, who I presume had expected us to stay (I hope he had not cooked extra food to the dinner). The descent was much longer than any of us had anticipated, but the path ground down the slope through the meadows then the woods and eventually rolled out into the valley.
It was close to 11pm and we were concerned about closing time ... we headed over to the nearest town and hoped the bar was open ... we eventually found a bar, and managed a quick "gross bier".
This had the effect of bringing the whole day into perspective as we looked back at what we had achieved. the final mile was really tough the rucksacs heavy and the legs leaden we made it back tot eh tents and crashed.

Tracuit hutte, Switzerland

 The highlight of the trip had started, we got up relatively early for a valley day, and drove around to Zinal ...  this involved going back down to the Rhone valley West to the next valley (excusing the Turtmann niche) and up the Zinal valley as far as the road goes. At the village there is a big car park on the river meadows, where the cars from everyone in the area leaves their cars.




From here the track goes up the East side of the valley, initially across the pastures and lower farm lands but soon crosses into the upper meadows, and continues to ascend in the full glare of the sun.
The hut is a long trek, with many meters gained, but we were well acclimatised and ready for the effort required. Our packs were honed to the bare essentials that we thought would be required so we were not carrying excess weight.


After several hours the meadows gave way to scrub and then to scree and loose stones. We could finally see the hut on the skyline - still a long way off, but something to aim for.








Finally arriving at the hut everything we were wearing needed to be dried off from the excessive sweat that had drained from us on the ascent. I even remember sticking my whole head into the drinking trough outside the hut.







The Bishorn was just across the glacier from the hut, which stood where the glacier fell into the valley we had just come up from. This would be on route to the Weisshorn, and we could easily see the well trodden track for the morning.







There was some cloud around in the evening, but we hoped it would not impact the re-freeze over night and that everything would be in excellent conditions for tomorrow.

Tasch, Switzerland

Rest day and preparation for the coming route.

Dave had an idea to repeat the Tindall routes as this was one of the anniversaries of his first ascents. So next on the list was the Weisshorn. We had planned to do the traverse .. from the Bishorn and down to the Weisshorn hutte.

Weissmeis, Switzerland

Up early in the mornign and we were past the top station well before dawn, and using the head torches to pick up the track across the lower glacier.

This glacier was very dry and it was a delicate, gently rising traverse on the icy surface to the  base of the South East ridge - which we could see the day before from the top station.





From here the route was well tracked and snaked up rounded ridge heading for the skyline

 As we got closer to the ridge the route headed diagonally across the upper slopes towards the base of the summit.

As we got to the ridge the sun started to appear over the top of the ridge, and sunrise came at the same time as we were crossing the Bergschrund. There was a small bridge to make it easier, but was still a big step.

As we reached the base of the summit cone Nick was really feeling the altitude .. and was getting slower and slower. This was the first time I had encountered dehydration and its debilitating effects. It was also the last time Nick would be behind me ...  He and Derek would get a reputation for charging off into the distance.

Forcing him to drink a lot of water and also eat some energy food made a big difference and after a 10 minute break he was ready for the final push to the top.


We shared the summit with a number of other parties, but the cloud inversion on the East side was very spectacular







From the top the descent was back the same way, and coming down we would see all the details we missed on the way up.










The bergschrund and the dry glacier caused a few bigger issues on the way down, as the snow was softer and the ice slippier.

As we reached the rock promintary that the cable car station was situated it was a great place to look back on the route and sit in the shade while we ate lunch.

Back in the valley we waited, for Bryon and Steve, and waited. Around 5pm we eventually thought they must have stayed up for another day, and drove back to the campsite.

Around 11pm, a very annoyed and fuming Bryon came storing into the camp site, having caught a taxi around from Sass Fee at a big expense. He and Steve were tired and upset that we had not waited .. there was no means of personal communication in those days, as in the mobile phone of today. A very real lesson in maintaining a plan ...  they had been delayed by very soft snow on the face and because they were late this made the descent even slower in the even softer snow.

We would all need the rest day.

Weissmeis hutte, Switzerland

The next day we drove around to Saas Fee, an parked in the car park by the Weissmeiss telepherique station. Bryon and Steve went off to the other side of the valley and headed for a hut below the Nadelhorn.

We took the easy option and rode the cable car to the top station. We had chosen to stay in the hutte, but could have just as easily stayed at the left station as it had beds.

From the station we dropped down West, in a circuitous route around the moraine and snow fields, basically following the ski route.

The hut was much as I remembered it from my previous visit, and
 we were very much at home.

Weissmeiss from the other side of the valley