Swiss Alps part 5 - Much peril on the Nadelhorn

The plan for Thursday was some rock climbing on the Jegihorn but morning arrived with clouds and intermittent rain so that plan got shelved. Friday's forecast looked more promising so we made the decision to walk into a hut and do a 4000m peak on the Friday. After much eating and drinking of coffee we decided to walk up to the Mischabel hut and do the North-East ridge on the Nadelhorn, 4327m - our highest peak yet.

We set off up to the hut in the afternoon, according to the guidebook it had one of the harder approaches with some steep zig-zagging paths followed by steep scrambling up a rocky rib up to 3340m. The guide didn't lie, the paths were both steep and torturous, the scrambling seemed to go on forever with the rain sucking all the fun out of it. I really started to feel the affects of the altitude which was pretty strange given I'd been to 4000m the day before - strange stuff, altitude. I was moving very slowly and feeling tired, sick and dizzy. We eventually arrived at the hut, had a really nice dinner, then went to bed with an 0330 alarm call.

Hut dining room:



We were up and out by 0420, as part of a line of headtorches picking it's way up the rock rib behind the hut. It had been snowing all night so we were climbing snow-covered rocks, with the shear quantity of snow a cause for concern. We arrived at the point we were to drop onto the glacier just as dawn started to break. The first inky blue light revealed another perfect cloud inversion at 2500m with all the snow-capped peaks popping though the cloud sea. So beautiful.

We crossed the glacier and zig-zagged up the opposite slope to reach a col called the Nadeljoch - everything in the Alps has a name! In procession we made our way up onto the ridge that leads to the summit of the Nadelhorn. The guidebook grades the route PD and says that the ridge starts as snow but becomes rockier as it narrows and is good, solid rock by the summit. Unfortunately the ridge was snow all the way to the top. About a metre of unconsolidated powder which made the going quite tricky - getting firm footholds was tricky and you couldn't risk falling through the cornice on one side or sliding down the steep slope on the other. Careful precise footwork was required as James and I progressed up the ridge and passed the magical 4000m mark on my altimeter watch.

On a couple of occasions I plunged my ice axe through the cornice which isn't a nice sensation - when you remove it you can see the glacier far below through the round hole. Scary stuff. There was a short period when the wind started gusting around us, filling the tracks in and blinding us with spindrift. That really scared me and made me aware of how exposed we were on that high ridge, luckily the wind didn't persist else I'd have been suggesting we turned back.

At two points the snow ridge reared up in angle and we had to drop down slightly to pass rock towers on the right. The snow was really dodgy here - thin power on hard ice. We really struggled to get good foot placements and stay stable. We were roped together without runners so a fall from either one of us would pull the other off if they couldn't arrest it. Luckily that didn't happen but we were both concerned about coming back down once the sun had softened the snow further. We let a couple or continental teams pass us on the way up and as we neared the summit and ridge had a final steep snow step everyone bunched together in a traffic jam as people who'd already been to the summit were trying to pass teams trying to ascent very steep, slidey snow. It felt really dangerous, no one had any anchors and the continentals don't really do queueing so everyone ends up trying to climb the same patch at the same time. I was starting to worry that we were climbing ourselves into a bad situation that could only get worse. James was having the same thoughts, but in this melee of climbers and guides all thrashing around to get to the summit we kinda did what everyone else did and went on. James did a fine lead of that treturous final snow slope and found a natural rock anchor for us to hang ourselves on and wait for our turn on the summit pinnacle.

We touched the summit cross exactly four hours after leaving the hut so we made guidebook time despite the clusterfuck on the ridge. We snapped a couple of pictures (I have a really special pic of the Matterhorn with a cloud inversion around it on the camera) then started heading down, both of us feeling really uncomfortable with our situation and wanting off the thing.

The snow had got worse with the traffic and the sun so we belayed each other down off of rock anchors for some additional security. We got to the really dodgy snow slope, watched the continentals controlled-falling down it, and decided we couldn't accept that risk. Utter lunatics! We found an appropriate rock and abbed down 25m to where the snow was better. We then gingerly made our way down the melting ridge, falling behind everyone else but maximising our own safety. James was in front and twice the snow beneath him collapsed and I had to hold him while he tried to arrest. It had become really risky but we could do was head down as safely as we could. As we passed the final tower we started to feel a little more in control as the slopes weren't as steep. The proximity of the track to the cornice was really concerning but the track had consolidated somewhat so that was a safer bet than digging our own trench further down.

We passed two teams on the way down who were heading up to the summit at around 1000 - that's really, really late to be heading to the summit, particularly given the snow conditions. We did warn them to be careful, fingers crossed they got up and down safely as it would be so easy to have a serious accident up there.

Eventually get got down off the ridge and onto the glacier and could relax a little and sort ourselves out. We weren't out of harms way yet though as we had to cross a wet glacier on a hot day. On the way across the Nadelhorn face started avalanching - only small ones caused by the rocks heating and shedding snow and no immediate threat to us but it really hammered home how dangerous it can be in less than idea conditions.

We hot-footed it down to the hut, collected the few things we'd left there and headed on back down to the valley; tired, dehydrated and glad that it was over. Once we'd got below the snowline the scrambling on the ridge became rather fun. Sliding down the cables and clambering down the iron rungs was like an adventure playground. The steep paths afterwards shut my knees down completely though - they've been pretty good all week but this epic decent from 4300m to 1560m was the final straw and it took me hours to slowly hobble downhill and back to the campsite.

I've got mixed feelings about the day: it's great to have set an altitude high point, James and I worked really well as a team in testing situations and I took some amazing photos. The level of risk wasn't acceptable to me though, things could have easily gone horribly wrong. I'm not sure whether pressing to the summit was a good idea or not. There's definitely technical skills I could do with refining - we probably could have made better use of natural anchors. Unconsolidated snow is a bitch however you look at it, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with ascending and descending it the continental way - I've got too much to live for!

We're going to start the journey home tomorrow so our week of Alpinism is now over. I definitely feel like a Alpinist now, I'm probably fitter than I've ever been in my life, I've learnt new and refined existing mountain skills and I've seen some amazing scenery. Not a bad ticklist for a week either. =o)

Monte Moropass 2985m
Joderhorn 3037m, North-West face
Allallinhorn 4027m, up Hohlaubgrat AD, down West-North-West ridge F
Weismeiss 4023m, North-West flank and South-West ridge PD
Nadelhorn 4327m, North-East ridge PD (AD at least given conditions)



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