Hornlihutte

The climbing route on the Hornli ridge starts at the Hornlihutte

It was one of those days when to use the term “running” would really have been stretching the realms of credibility. The slope was covered in a fine scree like stuff making it a real slog to climb and despite being able to see the ant like procession of people moving across the ridge in front and above me, perpendicular to the slope I was climbing, there was no one actually climbing the same slope as me although I did pass a couple of folk on their way down. Clearly my route wasn’t a popular one. No wonder really as it was an unstable heap of fine scree and sand leading down to the boulder strewn glacial moraine below. Eventually I reached the shoulder of the ridge and turned to face that most iconic of mountain peaks, the Matterhorn, and its knife like Hornli ridge disappearing into the darkening cloud.

The Matterhorn with its summit in the cloud

The Hornlihutte is perched on the ridge to the left hand side of the photo

I started to climb towards my target, the Hornlihutte, which is probably the last point on the Matterhorn that can be reached without it becoming “mountaineering” and requiring ropes and crampons etc (unless of course you are Killian Jornet in which case you can just run up it in a couple of hours)

Looking towards Trockner Steg

Dark clouds gathering

Slightly concerningly I wasn’t passing many people at all who were going in the same direction as me up the mountain but there were certainly a lot of people on their way down the mountainside. Maybe I had foolishly started out on my adventure too late in the day? If that was the case then all of these other people must have started out REALLY early in the morning. Oh well, nothing else for it but to continue climbing upwards. Even more concerning were the black clouds gathering ominously overhead. I did pass an American couple who seemed to be making very heavy weather of the climb and were moving very slowly and a lot of the people coming down the trail were obviously serious mountaineers who had been climbing the Matterhorn. It may be my imagination but I did feel that I, as a mere runner, was regarded somewhat with some scorn by these real mountaineers – or maybe its because I was running uphill wearing shorts and t-shirt when everyone else was in full mountaineering kit. Who knows. It was probably my imagination. Despite the rapidly decreasing air temperature I was still in shorts at this point and moving fast enough to stay comfortably warm and I was also carrying a full pack of clothes so I gave little thought to what the American couple were wearing (not a lot) and were carrying with them (nothing). Rain and possible thunderstorms had been forecast for late afternoon so I took the risk and went for it that day hoping that I would be lower down the mountain and on my way back to Zermatt when the rain started. The weather report had neglected to say anything about hailstones and freezing temperatures though.

There it is!

Made it!

 The ridge reminded me of the spine of a dinosaur. It was steep in places and while not exactly “exposed” there was a long, rocky drop to the side. The path along this ridge is obviously very well used and has been fixed with steel ladders and ropes to help people over the most exposed sections of this rocky spine so there is nothing too tricky at all on this trail although a glance downwards confirmed that you probably wouldn’t want to take an unplanned step off the path. Eventually I hauled myself up on to the terrace of the Hornlihutte at 3200m altitude and not a minute too soon as the weather broke and a storm of hail stones descended. That totally stuffed up my plan for a nice coffee and maybe a piece of apple strudel while sat out on the terrace admiring the view. I sheltered in the Hornlihutte for a wee while wondering what to do. If I was weather bound then a wee unplanned night there might be fun if a tad expensive. And you wouldn’t get much sleep as these mountaineering types get up before dawn for their assault on the mountain. Eventually in the face of possibly worsening weather I made the decision to head back down the mountain as quickly as I could. Wearing everything I had brought with me I stepped out on to the timber deck now slippery with ice and gingerly started the descent then promptly speeding up and charging down the path in an effort to keep warm. 

Not many people were taking advantage of the terrace...

That way to the summit

As I descended I met the American couple again, still making their way up and now moving even more slowly than before if that was possible and clad only in shorts and T shirts, soaked through to the skin. They asked me how far it was to the hut and I was very hesitant in replying. Distance wise it wasn’t far at all but at the speed they were moving….. I muttered something about being “nearly there” figuring that their best chances would be to get to the hut as at least there would be people there equipped to look after them. I had noticed a sign board at the hut saying “last cable car 16:30” and it suddenly dawned on me that the majority of folk get the cable car a substantial distance up the mountain before only walking the last section to the hut, there were not too many muppets like me who walked of jogged all the way up from Zermatt. I glanced at my watch and quickly calculated that the American couple were really going to have to get a move on to make the last cable car. Reaching the shoulder of the ridge I decided to descend via the cable car station at Schwarzsee rather than via the path that I had climbed up via Stafelalp. The path to the cable car station was fixed with metal walkways over the exposed bits so it wasn’t too tricky. 

The path downwards

The are fixed ropes on the trickiest sections

An umbrella! Now why didnt i think of that?!

I was quickly overtaking people on the way down and happily the hailstones gave way to heavy rain and eventually the ground levelled out and I reached the cable car station at Schwarzsee. The restaurant there seemed like too good an opportunity to miss so I dived in and ordered a hot chocolate in an attempt to get the feeling back into my fingers as the windows of the restaurant steamed up as a result of the number of very wet people coming in. As I sat there nursing the cup in both hands and American family staggered in, absolutely soaked through and wearing, yes you’ve guessed it, shorts and T shirts. People from the restaurants and other climbers were giving them blankets and spare gear. To their credit though they had actually walked up to Schwarzsee from Zermatt. The rain was hammering down so it was fortunate that they had only a 100m walk to the cable car station from the restaurant. I pulled on a waterproof and started the descent to Zermatt. The good thing about the weather however was that I didn’t see a soul on the trail as I descended trough the larch forest above Furi, a site of special scientific interest and a nature reserve.

The cable car station and restaurant at Schwarzsee

Looking back at the ridge

Larch forest

Back at the tent I attempted to work out how to get a mountain of wet kit dry in a tent. While it was still raining heavily. Oh joy. So how did I solve this particular conundrum? I went to the pub.

Trying to dry out

The Breithorn

The Breithorn (4164m)

It was a quite strange stepping out of the cable car station built into the mountain, there was something quite James Bond-ish about it. But it was very cold and damp with water dripping from the rock ceiling of the cable car station so a Bond girl bikini wouldn’t really have been an appropriate outfit, if it ever is. At 3,883m Klein Matterhorn is the highest cable car station in the world and I am guessing the views are spectacular however the weather was distinctly “Scottish” basically foggy and raining so I didn’t see a thing at that point in the morning. 

Klein Matterhorn (3883m) with the Matterhorn behind

We followed Andrei, our guide, out of the cable car station which was already packed with enthusiastic skiers despite the early start – yes, you can ski in Zermatt in August! Excellent news! – and followed the ski lift to the glacier. Away from the ski tows and on the glacier we roped up and put on crampons and I was already re-discovering the “joy” of being in a group where the other members were not people I knew in advance of the climb. As we stepped out the cable car into the thick fog Andrei assured us that the cloud was due to clear a bit and that the summit, if not the surrounding valleys, would be clear of fog for at least a short while during the day but already one of the group, a woman whose mission it appeared was to get on my nerves all day, had been checking the internet and telling Andrei that his weather forecast was wrong and that it was going to be thick fog and snowing on the summit while I did my best to disguise my eye rolling. Its not like Andrei hasn’t spent just about everyday of his life in these mountains is it?

We set off across the glacier, still in the mist, Andrei in the lead, myself next and then 3 others behind me and headed toward the smoothly curved dome shape of the mountain. There were quite a few instances as I walked where I felt the rope suddenly go tight and jerk me backwards so after about half an hour of this I flicked the rope backwards quite hard to register my displeasure and the instances did reduce and when they did happened they were accompanied by a “sorry!”. I was not sure at all what the woman behind me was doing but it was certainly getting irritating. This was the same woman who had told Andrei that his forecast was wrong.

Andrei the guide in the lead

Crossing the glacier

Atmospheric!

The fog lifted from the summits

Looking back down on to the glacier

The climb

Sure enough, as we walked out across the glacier the mist and fog slowly began to dissipate and the summit of the Matterhorn began to materialise before us in an almost ghostly fashion. The sun came out and all of sudden all round us summits appeared as far as the eye could see. It was an amazing sight, Mont Blanc was visible as was Gran Paradiso, the highest summit entirely in Italy. White clouds skimmed the nearer summits and the temperature had risen noticeably. The sunlight reflected off the glacier was almost blinding and I was starting to regret the number of layers I was wearing which was equalled by the number of layers stowed in my bag – plus a down jacket. Well, you can’t be too careful can you?

Mont Blanc in the distance

The Matterhorn with fog in the valley and over the glacier below

Clouds skimming the summits

After a couple of hours of walking at a slow pace upwards, the group obviously having to move at the pace of the slowest member, on a gentle gradient, we reached the summit ridge and Andrei stopped. Andrei was looking along the ridge presumably to see how much space there was and was trying to work out which group was about to move off as there were a couple of groups on the summit. To my right there was a slope of a few hundred meters down on to the glacier from where we had just come although the slope wasn’t massively steep and to my left there again wasn’t a massively steep slope disappearing downwards into the mist but the mist concealed a substantial drop. 

The summit of Breithorn was busy

Looking down on the glacier

The view north east

The fog closed in again on the Matterhorn

I had stopped as instructed as had the other group members – all except that woman who raced forward, phone in hand, to get that all important summit selfie. Andrei also rushed forward to stop her selfie induced suicide mission. The problem for me was that Andrei and the rope were on my right hand side and she ran past me on my left hand side meaning I was swept clear off my feet by the rope. It was fair to say I was somewhat displeased and questioned her climbing abilities quite loudly. In front of everyone. Andrei however had done a pretty impressive job of pre-empting my reaction and he swiftly intervened to prevent me from killing her and she was given the appropriate bollocking.

The summit of the Matterhorn appearing again out of the fog

That all important summit photo.

The Matterhorn. Again.

The Breithorn ridge leading to Castor and Pollux

We didn’t seem to stay at the summit for long enough although we were probably there for a good 20 minutes, it just didn’t feel long enough to take it all in. The panorama was magnificent, the Matterhorn appeared again through the clouds like a ghostly apparition and the cloud drifted over the ridge between the Breithorn (4159m) and the summits of Castor (4223m) and Pollux (4092m) with the huge bulk of Monte Rosa and its summit peak of Dufourspitze (4634m) behind the cloud moving over them and giving tantalising glimpses of these mountain tops. Sadly, Zermatt and the valley was still in the fog as was the Theodul glacier with the summit of Klein Matterhorn just poking up out of the cloud. Reluctantly I pulled myself away and we started the descent. We had to descend in reverse order so while I was at the front of the group on the climb I was at the rear of the group on the way down which gave me a chance to observe exactly what this woman was doing as she seemed to be making very heavy weather of what was a very simple climb. I quickly saw that the reason why I had kept being jolted by the rope on the way up was that, despite Andrei’s pleas and threats about stepping on his rope while wearing crampons she was doing exactly that, she kept standing on the rope. Basically, she was unable to walk in crampons. Or more accurately she would have been able to walk in crampons if she had just shut up for two minutes and did as Andrei instructed.

It was easy to tell that Andrei was an accomplished mountaineer and therefore probably worth listening to. Like so many who are very good at what they do he was pretty taciturn and getting him to talk about his mountaineering was like drawing teeth but I eventually established that he had been to the summit of the Matterhorn some 125 times and had climbed Annapurna in Nepal. I am sure he was more than qualified to give the days weather forecast for the climb.

Although it had seemed a very obvious and easy ascent and on the way up I was wondering if I could do it myself, reality struck on the way down when I looked down on the glacier only to see the dark gaping crevasses ready to swallow up the unwary. That bashed that idea on its head! Nobody was walking solo and everybody was roped up. I watched jealously as a group made their way towards Castor and Pollux. Maybe next time.

A group of climbers on the glacier below skirting round a crevasse

We seemed to get back to Klein Matterhorn in no time at all descending into the encroaching fog and we all went our separate ways. My first stop (after enviously watching the skiers) was the café as it had been a long time since breakfast. I pondered the climb over a cup of coffee and a packet of maltesers. I can see how climbing mountains could become addictive…..hmmm….what should I climb next….? I wandered out to the viewing platform from where apparently its possible to see some 38 summits over 4000m but nothing was visible in the thick fog and there were some very disappointed tourists sitting there gazing hopefully at the sporadic patches of blue sky above that appeared and disappeared as quickly. I think I would have been disappointed too as that cable car ride was pretty expensive just to look at fog and go for a cup of tea. I wandered back into the café and resisted the temptation to buy a Matterhorn pen, or Matterhorn keyring, or Matterhorn tea towel, or Matterhorn cookie cutter….you get the idea…before joining the queue to get the cable car back down the mountain.

Disappointed tourists on the viewing platform

Klein Matterhorn was in thick fog by the time I got back

Cloud clearing above Zermatt