Daily Archives: 14 July 2015

July 14th

Quintino Sella Hut to Margherita Hut
Distance: 10,6 km
Time taken: 7 hours 20 minutes.
Vertical distance: 1440 m uphill; 470 m downhill

Main summits:

Ludwigshōhe, 4341 m
Parrotspitze, 4432 m
Signalkuppe/Punta Gnifetti, 4554 m

We left the hut just before 5 a.m.  The next summit should have been the Lyskamm but other guides and the hut warden all said that nobody had done the traverse of the critical knife-edge ridge this year; also there was still a strong north wind over the ridges. So we had to bypass this summit.  This involves crossing Il Naso, a snow-covered spur going south from the Lyskamm.  Steep icy slope to get over it. Euan did well here, leading three 60-metre pitches with ice-screw belays.

The rest of the day was just plodding up snow fields. Beautiful snow ridges at the top of the first two of today’s summits. Clear weather, very windy on all the ridges, good hard snow mainly. Crampons worn all day, from hut to hut, same as yesterday.  The Italian-run Margherita Hut on the top of Signalkuppe is the highest mountain hut in the Alps.

Photos:

1. On Ludwigshöhe, Monte Rosa behind
2. Rifugio Margherita (CAI)