Swiss Alps part 2 - Allalinhorn success!

On Sunday we walked up to Saas Fee from the campsite in Saas Grund along the 13 chapels path - most of the chapels being slightly underwhelming white boxes with religious dolls in them! Things got a little confusing and expensive when booking our cablecar tickets but, a lot lighter on the cash front, we were deposited at 2567m at the Plattgen station. We then had a beautiful 2hr walk around the ramparts of Mittelhorn and Eddiger, up towards the Britainnia hut perched on a splendid ridge with stunning views across the Michabel chain. The day was cold and windy but bright and sunny with great views. It was fantastic looking across at the mountain in the distance we climbed yesterday.



We arrived at the hut and I dispensed James to work though the language barrier and hand over more large sums of money. Uplift and hut fees totalled a staggering £100 per person! Stupid exchange rate! =o( We took a wander up to a viewing point just above the hut to take in the utterly breathtaking 360 degree view of the snow plastered 4000m giants of the Alps with clouds boiling over the top of them. I've never been somewhere so beautiful and so humbling, pisses all over those twee beaches and warm seas that people get all excited about!

Looking up at the Allalinhorn and tracing out the AD route with 1000m of height gain we'd be starring at 0400 the following morning, I felt pretty scared and intimidated. I know it's one of the easiest 4000ers but from where I sat it looked bloody big, bloody steep and bloody dangerous. "That's just the foreshortening", James told me. I hoped he was right.




We were woken for breakfast at 0345, forced down some muesli and a couple of cups of coffee, and were out on the glacier shortly after 0400. I could just make out the mountains around us in the eerie moonlight. Slowly but surely we edged up the glacier, avoiding crevasses, while the sun started to rise and we were treated to the full palate of colours in an Alpine dawn. There was a complete cloud inversion across the Saas valley below with the snowy peaks of mountains poking through like islands in a sea of clouds as far as the eye could see.

After a couple of hours we crossed the bergshrund and started climbing the ridge proper. Close up it wasn't as steep as from a distance but it seemed to go on forever - over 3k of slogging up and down 50 degree snow! The night sleeping at 3000m had sorted my acclimatisation right out and I felt fit and strong - even my left knee which was painful when we started wasn't bothering me. We dropped over the top of a snow dome at 3500m then the ridge reared up steep and narrow to the 30m rock band we'd need to climb just below the summit. By now my legs were really hurting from all the effort of gaining hight, and I was getting more and more scared by my surroundings. I can't really describe how beautiful everything was, apart from James, but being on that steep snow ridge with huge drops either side was very intimidating. We were short roping so if one of of slipped and fell and wasn't able to arrest and stick, the other would have a second to arrest both of us or we'd both check out. It's all in the footwork, you can't really afford to make a mistake. Scary stuff, but I was confident in my crampon work and James was looking good so I had to rationalise and focus on making the summit.

Eventually we made it to the bottom of the rock band around 0930, the two teams in front of us were working their way up it and there were a number of parties further down the ridge behind us. In good conditions this band is dry rock and easy climbing, today it was snow, ice, meltwater and general unpleasantness. I got on the lead as I like this sort of thing, but found it more than a little tricky with a single walking axe and wet gloves, could've done with a pair of technical axes!

Shortly after setting off up the rock band everything got complicated with multiple parties trying to climb it at the same time - bloody continentals! I broke it into three short pitches and was more than happy to clip the pitons and pull on the gear to get moving! We finally got to the top and a short snow slope lead onto the summit ridge and the summit cross. The view was breathtaking, and I was so excited to see the Matterhorn on the other side, looking very smart with a covering of snow!




We both got token summit pics, soaked up the view some more then headed down the easy route on the other side of the mountain, down towards the ski area.

From the ski centre at 3200m, we got an underground funicular train down the mountain, then two big cablecars down to Saas Fee. A short (long) walk later and we were back at the campsite, absolutely wasted. So excited to have climbed my first 4000m peak, and by an AD route rather than the F tourist track we used to descend. Rest day tomorrow I think! =oD

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