Zermatt – The Alps

Our summer climbing quest to save lives, begins in the storybook town of Zermatt, Switzerland which is nestled in the southern Swiss Alps. Zermatt’s most recognizable landmark is the Matterhorn and it’s second most recognizable landmark is the ultra expensive prices for everything; including the $100 I spent to have my clothes laundered, but that’s another story.  That being said, we were not there for the Matterhorn nor the overpriced goods. We arrived there to train for the Eiger and to climb Monte Rosa (15203 ft / 4634 m), Western Europe’s second tallest peak.

Our guides for the trip were Zoe Hart and Matt Farmer , who are certifiably incredible climbers on their own.  Zoe and Farmer (he goes by his last name) would be our companions for the entire Alps trip. The climbers consisted of Brooks Talley , Armand Musey , CFK director  Dr. Peter Wall and of course myself .

The training began high upon a small rocky peak called the Riffelhorn (9603 ft / 2927 m), which required us to board a cograil to reach. This outcrop of rock is situated in between the grand peaks of the area and provides stunning views of glaciated mountains in every direction.  We spent this first day acclimatizing to the altitude and testing our rock climbing skills while wearing mountaineering boots. The climbing was relatively easy (class 5.6/5.7) but the exposure and bulky gear provided challenges none of us were used to. This was the exact type of climbing we’d be privy to on the Eiger. Here’s a link to the photos.

The second day at altitude provided a much heftier challenge. We were to scale the eastern flank of the Breithorn (13661 ft / 4164 m).  Now the easy route to the summit of the Breithorn is your standard snow slog.  The eastern route which we climbed is a lengthy traverse over many rocky spires at high altitudes with great exposure (1,000+ ft  drop on both sides).

With our only brief acclimitization to date, all of us were gasping for air as we climbed each rocky pitch.  Personally, this was one of my toughest climbing days ever, as with each lost breath I became more and more exhausted. With exhaustion, my ability to cope with extreme exposure also dwindled. Each step on to a narrow ridge frightened me and caused our team to slow down considerably. I learned that opportunities for rest and food consumption are limited on big exposed rocks, and that also did not help my mental state either. 

As we finally stepped off the rocky ridge, we slogged for about 45 minutes to the true summit of the Breithorn. I was weary and tired, but happy we finally reached the top of large peak. Truly it was fun, but damn it was a hard day.  The rest of the Breithorn photos can be found here.

After we climbed the Breithorn, the rain gods descended on the Alps. Our plans to climb Monte Rosa were thwarted by snow at high altitude and climbing our first objective had to be ruled out due to avalanche conditions.  The weather report for the next 4 days was bleak. Thus we turned our eye to our second objective, the Mittellegi route of the Eiger. Now the Eiger is in another portion of the Alps, up North near Grindelwald and Wengen. The weather up there was also predicted to be nasty, and in fact we got word that the hut on the Mittellegi was not even open due to snow. We inquired about the easier southern route, and that too was snowed in.  In the span of a day, our two major climbing objectives of this trip had to be canceled.

Dejected, our options were not that good. We seriously toyed around with the notion of heading to the sun of Southern France for rock climbing, but cooler heads prevailed. Zoe suggested we might have better luck in Chamonix, thus when given lemon, you make lemonade. We were off to Chamonix.

NOTE: Photos from Zermatt can be found on Flickr. These photos are from all the participants and retain all the rights entitled to each person. No photo may be reproduced without the permission of Climb For Kids or the original photographer.