The roof of Switzerland 4

July 15th

Start: Capanna Regina Margherita; finish: Refuge Monte Rosa (CAS)

Distance: 10,4 km
Time taken: 7 hours 10 minutes (plus 40 minutes for the stops)
Vertical distance: 400 m uphill, 2070 m downhill

Main summits:

Zumsteinspitze, 4452 m
Dufourspitze, 4634 m
Nordend, 4609 m

Euan and I left the hut at 5.20 a.m., heading for the Zumsteinspitze. Clear sky, cold wind.  Beautiful sunrise seen from this summit 20 minutes later.  The snow ridge connecting it with the Dufourspitze was a real knife-edge, the narrowest we had ever seen, some 200 metres requiring genuine tightrope walker skills.  I just looked at the next step without looking down into the abyss on either side!

Very pleasant climbing on good rock followed, with some snow fields. Half way up we witnessed a rescue operation first hand. About 7 a.m. a red Air Zermatt helicopter came and hovered over us, disappeared and came back moments later with a doctor/mountaineer dangling on a long rope. He was deposited next to a group of 3 climbers less than 20 metres from us.  Next, two of the climbers were attached to the large hook at the end of the rope and lifted off and away.  A few minutes later the helicopter came back and lifted off the doctor and an injured girl in a sort of stretcher. Amazing precision! We later learned that the climbers had spent all night waiting for their rescue.

More enjoyable climbing and scrambling took us to the top of the Dufourspitze, the highest mountain in Switzerland, about 300 m inside the frontier, at 8.20 a.m.  Later we climbed down some fixed ropes to the “Silbersattel” and did our third 4000-metre summit of the day, Nordend, which is the last of the big mountains of the Monte Rosa group.

Finally, a long plod down past interesting seracs and crevasses to the new Monte Rosa Hut with its striking shape and modern facilities.

Photos:

1. Sunrise seen from the Zumsteinspitze
2. One hour later