Allalinhorn (the easy way)

After our fairly epic 12 hour ascent of the Weismies, we took a rest day. Not surprising really – all four of us were in varying stages of pieces. It meant we had to abandon an ascent of the Lagginhorn – that looked like a full on day. In reality, I felt I might have made it up, but must admit I wasn’t too upset to find myself on a cable car going down the valley from the Weismies Hut. We were back in Saas Almagell by mid morning.

The following day we made our way up to the Britannia Hut via the Felskinn lifts. Dad was still in a bad way and ultimately decided he couldn’t manage it, which was a huge shame. Although, he dodged a bullet because the traverse from the lift to the hut, which was described as nothing more than than 30m odd ascent on a path across, is actually a godawful arrangement of scree and erratics and was the most hideous part of the whole trip. Thank God there was no snow! The potential for slipping off a rock and doing yourself some serious damage was immeasurable. We got to the hut, did a quick recce about and settled in for the night – ready for a 3am start the next day to ascend the Allalinhorn up the tricky route.

The route itself is an ascent of a huge glacier, and then a snow ridge and the summit. The only tricky bit, we were told, was a 30m ‘rock step’ at the top which would scare the shit out of most people. Well, after the Weismies, I figured anything was possible, and wasn’t too perturbed by this news.

But then the weather set in. By 7pm it was grey. By 9pm it was dark and overcast and the beginnings of snow. By 3am when we got up to inspect, we knew immediately that we weren’t going anywhere. Snow had fallen solidly throughout the night and it made the difficult ridge far too dangerous.

After some discussion we figured the best bet was to go back to the lift, get a different lift even further up, and go up the Allalinhorn via the route normale. So that meant crossing that fucking scree slope… now in snow. Great.

Yet another testament to Swiss engineering. The lift up to the foot of the range is… underground. Yes, it literally goes through a mountain. Albeit very expensive, but nonetheless impressive. Out of the lift, straight on to snow and ready to go up.

Half way up and you meet a snow ridge with a impressive view of the Zermatt region – engulfed by the Matterhorn.

The route normale up the Allalinhorn is nothing more than a trudge up, and you just keep going. It’s not technical at all and other than a ridge and some sizeable seracs, it’s fairly easy going. Compared to the ascent and traverse of the Weismies, this was a veritable conveyor belt. We were up and down within 3 hours. In fact, you could do from the valley bottom to top – i.e., 1800m to 4000m and back in an afternoon with some ease – thanks to the lift systems. Perhaps not your stereotypical alpinism, but very accessible.

So that was two 4,000m peaks with a few other smaller things thrown in for good measure. All in all a very enjoyable time… and certainly a nice intro in to alpine stuff for the future.

Saas Valley 2010

Holidays this year were a week in the Saas Valley in the Swiss Alps in Switzerland. It was my Dad’s idea, and when he suggested I join him and family friend Brian and mountain leader Mike for some climbing 4000m mountains, I thought why not? Bonding time with the old man, how bad could it be? Well, I made the mistake of checking out some video before going and was soon wondering what I’d let myself in for. I then found the blog of a group who had just got back from a trip doing moreorless the same thing as we were planning, I don’t think it put me at ease in the slightest. Don’t get me wrong, I’m probably above average fitness and fear levels, but still, photos of the Weismies traverse certainly had me wondering about my ability. After scavenging as much gear as possible, as well as a shiny pair of new Scarpa Cumbre boots and some Grivel 12 crampons, I thought I was all set. The one thing that had been reiterated to me over and over again – travel light! Whatever’s in your bag, you have to carry, so if you don’t need it, don’t take it. So with literally two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, some emergency food and zero luxuries (i.e., no iPad) we were set to leave Guernsey for Geneva.

Correction, the day before we were due to leave, Blue Islands called me to let me know that actually they’d made an “administrative error” and that we were now going to Zurich. Administrative error my arse – I eventually uncoverd that they had a group booking they wanted to fulfil (coinciding nicely with England vs Switzerland… in Switzerland) and obviously our flight was the one that got bumped. So our planned trip from Geneva to Saas Almagell went out the window. Fortunately though, Swiss public transport is by far the best I’ve ever used and it really made little odds to us. On arrival in Zurich, the station, in the airport, booked us a train, with four changes, to Saas Almagell. But our ticket showed us exactly where to change, at what time, at what platform, and when our connection would be there. Which was never more than a few minutes. In fact, at one point where we had to change at Saas Grund for a bus in to Saas Almagell, the bus was specifically there waiting for the connection. If ever there was a model of how an integrated travel network should run, the Swiss have built it, a not inconsiderable feat considering the array of geographical/topgraphical challenges they have faced in so doing.

So we arrived in Saas Almagell just a few hours after leaving Guernsey. The view was imposing, mountains all around, ready for a week of climbing.