The North Faces of the Alps

Breithorn North Face.

I had been in Zermatt for over a week climbing with Walter. We had planned on trying the Matterhorn. The weather had been unseasonably cold and wet. That meant a lot of snow up on the peaks. We managed to make it up Pollux in near white out conditions. We nearly got lost on our way back to the tram in the fog and wind. The standard route up the Matterhorn, the Hörnli Ridge, was plastered in snow and was, thus, out of condition. We opted for an ascent of the Weissmies by the Northwest Face, a relatively straightforward and easy ascent. The weather cooperated for a day and we were successful. Walter left and Cindy arrived. Her intention was to climb as many of the “Classic North Faces of the Alps” as possible in three and a half weeks.
The weather continued in the cold and wet pattern it had been in. The North Face of the Matterhorn was blanketed in snow and looked quite wintery. However, a good covering of snow would could make that route prime for a quick ascent. Cindy and I got excited at the possibility of taking a stab at this ultra classic route. We were forecasted to get a short respite in the weather. After consulting with the Matterhorn Hut warden, it sounded like this may not be our best choice for first route of the season in the Alps. There was still a lot of fresh, unconsolidated snow up high, which would make some of the rock climbing on the smooth slabs quite difficult to say the least. Also, the Hörnli Ridge was still very snowy and coming down that route late in the day after the first warmth would likely be slushy and treacherous. So, we needed to find something else to do first.
The North Face of the Breithorn, though not one of the the “six classics”, was still a classic in its own right and a beautiful and highly prized ascent. This route was almost entirely on snow and ice and the descent was very straightforward and short down the easy South Face to the top of the Klein Matterhorn lift station. Conditions looked great for this climb. We decided to give the Welzenbach route on this face a try.
We took the short ride up the tram to the mid station and then walked about twenty minutes to the Hut which overlooked the glacier and the entire face. We basked in the late afternoon sun, drank beers and scoped out our route for the following morning. It looked like there would be a few hours of approach on a glacier and, then traversing the face under some menacing looking seracs near the summit to the safety of a central rib. Some mixed pitches up a gully on a rocky buttress would put us on the rib where we would climb steeply up snow and ice towards the summit wandering around a few more rocky steps near the top.
After a hot and fairly sleepless night in a crowded, smelly room at the Gandegg Hut, we got up at 3:30. We quickly ate our breakfast of bread, jam and tea and headed out shortly after 4:00. The approach was straightforward and uneventful. As we neared the traverse below the seracs, the sun began to shine and the first glow of the day was upon these towering, ugly white beasts 4,000 feet above us. We quickened the pace and moved steadily across the 35º slopes towards the rib on the far side. Cindy was red lining it and breathing very hard. Though we were fifteen feet apart, I could hear her heavy breathing like it was right into my ear. I tried not to look up and just kept my head down and my pace steady. We were in the line of fire for about 20 minutes; not bad. Once on the far side, we took a brief rest while I lengthened the rope between us. We crossed a bergschrund and ascended steeper ground. Shortly afterwards, we moved a bit further to our left and entered the gully system breaking through the steep rock headwall that led to the ridge.
We climbed three great mixed pitches in this gully. There was even some new water ice that had formed dung the stormy weather. There was one short section on the second pitch that was tenuous, narrow and steep for a few meters. It was great to be doing some real climbing again! Once on the ridge, we were in the sun and the way to the summit was clear. We moved together up the ever steepening snow slope/rib. Eventually, the angle got too steep and the snow changed to ice so we stopped moving together and started climbing it pitched out. I would lead out on our single 60 meter rope and then, with the use of a Ropeman, we would climb simultaneously for another 60 meters then belay. We did two of these then broke out onto the crest of the rib where the terrain was a little less steep and broken. Again, we moved together, wandering around and over some short rocky steps. This then yielded to the final summit slopes and a few minutes later we were standing on the top with the hordes of people coming up from the South side. We saw probably several hundred people on the top and coming up. It was quite the show. One hour later we were back at the tram station and heading down to sunny Zermatt. It was a great climb and though the approach and descent were very easy, surprisingly unpopular. This is probably because conditions are not always that good on it and the Seracs were nothing that I would want to travel under many times. It was the perfect start to the North Faces of the Alps trip.

On the way down, we got great views of the Matterhorn. It looked inspiring. We would have to check the forecast again and decide if it would be worth staying around Zermatt longer to take a stab at it.