With six weeks to go before my Broad Peak attempt, there were still a few gear items untested in snow. A long weekend was coming up, providing a nice opportunity for a few days of training and testing in the alps. I thought of the following scheme: Day 1 a long hike uphill to better walk in the Olympus Mons boots, and test endurance uphill, Day 2 test gear on a hike on a glacier, and Day 3 attempt to summit a nice peak.
My original thought was to return to Dachstein, having great memories from a previous visit, and unfinished business for not reaching the summit. Or, alternatively fulfill my wish to climb among Blanc. However as I found out, many resorts in the Alps close in May, so the village Zermatt, known for having Matterhorn next to it, was chosen instead. I jumped into the car and headed South.
Zermatt is nothing less but a pearl in the alps, and the view on the Matterhorn is simply stunning. Being a car-less village, it meant taking a 25€ electrical taxi every time you move from the hotel, if the hotel is a bit off. With my last-minute booking, my hotel was far from everything. Zermatt is a pearl, but incredibly expensive.
Following my plan, on day 1 I planned a trip from the village to the second station of the cableway, carrying a medium-heavy backpack. It was sunny, and it felt strange walking through the village with Himalaya 8000er boots, but it was necessary. And rewarding, since I had done 20km hikes in these boots in flat forests without issues, but uphill was different. After 2 hours, blisters started to form and I had to put thick plasters on my feet to continue. With the blisters and unexpected snow between station 1 and 2, progress slowed down and before reaching station 2 I turned around. It was a nice and tiring full day hike where I learned where to put preventive plasters to avoid blisters on Broad Peak.
Day 2 arrived…and with it snow and fog. Still, I decided to head up to Klein Matterhorn, the highest cable car station in Europe at 3883m, for the insane price of 100€. From there the safest route was to descend on the ski slope (which was completely empty) to stay within a controlled area. I first took a lunch in the cafeteria in the Klein Matterhorn station, which has the most unfriendly service in history, and headed off. The bad weather gave a unique opportunity to test some new gear such as goggles etc, apart from other tests such as energy drinks. Being all by myself on the mountain gave a great feeling. A very successful day!
Unfortunately, bad visibility is not a good starting point to climb one of the 4000er peaks in the area, so during breakfast on day 3 I was contemplating what to do. A quick look at the webcam of Klein Matterhorn revealed that though Zermatt was still covered in clouds, the 4000er Breithorn was for the moment in clear view. So I ordered a taxi to the cableway, took the cableway up, and arrived at Klein Matterhorn about 1.5 hours after watching the webcam. Clouds were coming in though: the weather had changed in the last 1.5 hours. Oh well, let’s try anyway. Snow was deep, very deep, which explained why nobody else was walking upward. I could spot two groups on tour skis coming down
The first group passed by me: two Americans “It’s crazy; the snow started to move underneath us when standing still for a rest. We suggest that you move off the normal route and move up over the rocks”. They had a good point, I’d follow their advice. “We’re going down and have some drinks in that cafeteria with those unfriendly people”. Apparently I was not alone in my opinion on the service in Klein Matterhorn.
So I moved up, now direction rocks which were still far away. But as I got higher, snow got deeper and visibility less and less. Reaching the rocks, I tagged 4000m, but realized going further at this speed will make me miss the last cable car home. No summit again, but a great day and very happy with my gear. Ready for Broad Peak! I rushed down in one of the highest heart rate zones, and just made it back for the last ride down. That night I drove back to the Netherlands, pleased with this weekend.
It was the second reminder of the beauty in the alps but now, having done an 8000er expedition, things are different. When climbing one of those 4000er, you don’t need to hike for a week to get there, you don’t need to sleep in a tent and drink nothing but boiled water for a month to be there. You go up for a day or two, and return to the usually beautiful village and treat yourself a cheese fondue and a cola. And some of the views are just as spectacular (see below). People take it for granted, but coming back from Broad Peak, I probably appreciate these kind of trips even more now, and will certainly do more. At least another attempt to summit Breithorn and Dachstein Hohe!
Ciao!
Robin
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