Matterhorn

July 2017

I guess climbing the Matterhorn is kind of obligatory for every mountain enthusiast. I would visit the Italian side of the monta Rosa with a couple of friends and took that chance to cross over to Zermatt and make the climb. My friends were not feeling confident enough to make the attempt so I made use of a local mountain guide.

After having confirmed the reservation in Zermatt I settled down in the Zermatt youth hostel, what I expected to be the only cheap accommodation in the entire area. From the hotel I could already look over the Matterhorn peak. It looked rather intimidating, how on earth were you supposed to climb that sharp rock anyway?

In the morning I said goodbye to my fellow travelers who would climb another peak in the area and slowly started my way towards the Hornli hutte. I decided not to take the cable car as I did not have much better to do anyway. Besides, hey, it would save my a couple of euro’s. No matter how slow I walked I was there way too early anyway. I slept and wandered around till my guide showed up late in the evening. A old hardened Zermatter.

We left for at 3 am and walked like the wind. My guide had clearly done this too many times and had become extremely efficient in it. I kept up as I feared me failing to do so would increase chances for him to turn his back on the operation.

The route over the Hornli ridge is nowhere extremely difficult, but is the most exposed route I have ever been on. You are unlikely to fall, but if you do you fall to your death at pretty much any point on the route. At around the Solvay hutte the sun began to rise. The climb got even steeper. The view over the Hornli ridge was stunning.

The last stretch to the top is by fart the steepest and almost completely along fixed ropes. I was tired from the fast phase of walking and only realized we were about to get to the top when we were as god as there already.

The weather was amazing and we could see all the major peaks around: Mont Blanc, dufourspitze, Grand Paradiso etc. After about 15 minutes on the top we turned back. As we went down the Californian guy was just about to reach the top. We congratulated one another and went on.

I was no longer in a hurry and the descent actually took us longer than the way up. After about 3,5 hours we were back in the Hornli hutte to eat our fries.