Daily Archives: 17 July 2015

Soft snow on the glacier = danger!

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July 16th

Start: Monte Rosa Hut; summit: Cima di Jazzi, 3803 m; finish: Gornergrat

Distance: 18,2 km
Time taken:  11 hours 45 minutes, of which 1 hour 15 for the stops
Vertical distance:  1220 m uphill, 1010 m downhill

Left the hut at 5 a.m.  We crossed moraines, polished rocks and streams under the Monte Rosa Glacier to reach the naked ice of the upper part of the Gorner Glacier.  Going up it, we reach snow fields, but the surface is hard, there are few crevasses and we progress rapidly to the summit.  We had planned to reach a bivouac hut only 2-3 km away but the snow was very soft on that side, exposed to the sun.  What a contrast!  Moreover, gaping crevasses crossed the whole the glacier.  Even if we found snow bridges to cross them, one could hardly have confidence in them: the risk of collapse was already too great (at noon!)  Hence the wise and disappointing decision to turn back and aim for the Stockhorn and the Gornergrat in order to go down to Zermatt.