The normal route of Matterhorn which I climbed in the summer of 2003 (red line)
The city of Visp is the main entry to the valley of Zermatt and Matterhorn. Mostly a traffic-hub but if you take a closer look at the city you will realize that it is worthwhile to spend an afternoon walking around in the narrow streets surrounded by old and beautiful buildings.
Zermatt is car-free, but still it's crowded with tourists. I just love this little mountain village because of the stunning sceneries in all directions. Zermatt is surrounded by sixteen 4000-meters peaks, and this makes it a perfect and convenient base-camp for climbers. Here one can take a beer, shop around in the sport-outlets, refill food-supplies at Coop and have a nice meal in an expensive restaurant or save money at McDonalds.
Walking around at the grave yard in Zermatt will give you a insight to life and death on Matterhorn. Many guides and climbers rest in peace her, also the ones who fell to death during the first ascent of Matterhorn in 1865.
Matterhorn dominates the skyline bejoynd Zermatt
There are also farmers in Zermatt....
Matterhorn is a two days climb (assuming that one already is acclimatized). This pictures is from the hut-walk, starting at Schwarzee (2584m) and walking for 2 hours up to Hörnli Hut (3260m). Maybe one of the most famous walks in the world. Yes the trail is crowded, but it is still a pleasant walk with stunning views.
One more picture from Schwarzee. The hut climb has just started.
Stunning sceneries from the hut climb. From left to right: Obergabelhorn, Zinalrothorn and Weisshorn. The latter one partly hidden in clouds.
After the horrors of a night spent in the hideously overcrowded Hörnli Hut, the climb begins in the middle of the night (4.15 AM) with scrambling and walking terrain to the left of the crest, over rocky steps not infrequently bombarded by salvos of stonefall. It is terrifying to hear all these noises without seeing a shit. When the sun rises (see picture) I am already high above the hut.
Mosley slab is a vertical step, just below the Solvay Refuge hut. Grade III-
There was another steep wall, not far beyond the Solvay Refuge . Fixed ropes are nice to have here. But actually I found it easier to climb the rock instead of hauling myself up the thick and sometimes icy ropes.
Luckily we were in front of 100-200 climbers on the way up, so we did not experience any major bottlenecks, compared to the climbers further below.
Reaching the shoulder and the beginning of the final summit-ridge to Matterhorn. A few meters beyond this point one have to balance on the narrow ridge, and always keep in mind that the steep northface (outside picture) are dropping more than thousand meters below. One can imagine what a serious undertaking it was when Franz and Toni Schmid climbed that wall in 1931 (the first ascend of the Northface)
Beyond the shoulder, the final ridge to the summit contained a lot of fixed ropes
This is the airy summit-ridge, where the Nortface is dropping to the left and Eastface to the right in the picture. It is much more exposed than the picture indicates, mainly because of the iced up slabs and frequent rock-falls. If you slip here and are not belayed, it will be the last thing you do. Crampons (and sometimes ice-axe) are essential to use. By the way this was the crucial place when Whymper and his 6 companions were descending from Matterhorn after the first accent of the mountain in the year of 1865. The inexperienced Hadow slipped, knocking off Croz, and dragging Douglas and Hudson from their stances. The rope broke and the four fell to their deaths, leaving Whymper and the traumatized Taugwalders to make their sad descent to Zermatt with a tale of triumph and tragedy that horrified and scandalized the world.
Finally on the summit, early enough (7.45 AM) to know that most of the lowlanders are still in bed. They really dont know what they are missing!!!!
Behind the statue one can see the prominent summit of Dent Blanche or is it Dent Herens? (please correct me if I am wrong)
Thanks to Freddy (left) and his brother (who took this picture) for showing me the way to the summit. Without them I would have spent a lot more time on route-finding and solo-belaying.
The stunning views to Breithorn, Castor, Pollux, Lysskam and some part of the Monte Rosa massif
Views to the north with Obergabelhorn, Zinalrothorn and Weisshorn.
The last few meters to the summit is less steep, but the snow and ice can easily cause a very critical slide here. Be patient when down-climbing, especially when there is a traffic-jam like in this picture. Climbing down Matterhorn can be even more time-consuming than climbing up. In my case 3,5 hours up and 4 hours down. Nevertheless I was down by 12 PM, when most of the climbers were still up there. The evening before I noticed that many slow climbers did not return before 6 o'clock in the evening. Considering the big risk for afternoon thunderstorms, I will say that is quite stupid and in worst case fatal. The sad statistics confirms that.
