The 7am alarm was difficult to rise for despite being in bed by 10pm! My first night at altitude never results in a good night's sleep - I tend to have the strangest dreams and last night was no exception :)
The Balfrin and Gross Bigerhorn were chosen as our training and acclimitisation route. After a simple yet effective breakfast, off we set... only to discover, once we were out of sight of the hut, that I had left my sunhat, sunglasses and camera behind :(
With the sound of the Mountain Guide's heckling still ringing round my head, I rejoined the group and we set off in earnest.
The track from the hut twisted and turned ever upwards along the moraine until we reached the glacier.
Care was taken on the glacier as yesterday two people fell into crevasses. However, we successfully navigated our way through the crevasses to the plateau of the glacier.
From here we climbed to the crest of the South West Ridge via a scree slope. The rock on the scree slope was loose and not much better on the ridge - this lead to a few nervy moments...
Towards the top, the ridge narrows but we were able to climb in on the South side. I was beginning to feel the effects of altitude. My heart was thumping so hard I thought my ribs we going to crack. Maybe we needed to take longer to acclimatise...
Just as we reached the South summit, snow and hail began to fall, so we abandoned our plan of traversing the summit ridge to the slightly higher North summit (well it is only 12m higher!). Instead we traversed the main NW ridge towards the Gross Bigerhorn. As we rammed a quick sandwich down our gullets, I noticed a nick in the rope which may prove problematic...
Descending the steep snow slope off the summit was made tricky because of the knee deep, soft snow on the ground and the hard snow falling from the sky.
From the saddle at 3594m (Balfrinjoch), a rocky ridge led to the summit of Gross Bigerhorn. Despite the guidebook describing the ridge as an easy snowy ridge, we saw no evidence of either! There were some tricky gendarmes to climb around or over en-route to the summit.
We stopped on the summit of the Gross Bigerhorn long enough to take a few photos and a quick check of the rope... The cut was getting deeper. We then descended the West-South-West Ridge which was essentially the biggest collection of jumbled boulders I have ever seen.
Back at the Bordier Hut again - just in time for tea after nine and a half hours on the route - another rope check: I can now see the core of the rope. Not good. Maybe we need to rethink our plans!
The Balfrin and Gross Bigerhorn were chosen as our training and acclimitisation route. After a simple yet effective breakfast, off we set... only to discover, once we were out of sight of the hut, that I had left my sunhat, sunglasses and camera behind :(
With the sound of the Mountain Guide's heckling still ringing round my head, I rejoined the group and we set off in earnest.
The track from the hut twisted and turned ever upwards along the moraine until we reached the glacier.
Care was taken on the glacier as yesterday two people fell into crevasses. However, we successfully navigated our way through the crevasses to the plateau of the glacier.
From here we climbed to the crest of the South West Ridge via a scree slope. The rock on the scree slope was loose and not much better on the ridge - this lead to a few nervy moments...
Towards the top, the ridge narrows but we were able to climb in on the South side. I was beginning to feel the effects of altitude. My heart was thumping so hard I thought my ribs we going to crack. Maybe we needed to take longer to acclimatise...
Just as we reached the South summit, snow and hail began to fall, so we abandoned our plan of traversing the summit ridge to the slightly higher North summit (well it is only 12m higher!). Instead we traversed the main NW ridge towards the Gross Bigerhorn. As we rammed a quick sandwich down our gullets, I noticed a nick in the rope which may prove problematic...
Descending the steep snow slope off the summit was made tricky because of the knee deep, soft snow on the ground and the hard snow falling from the sky.
From the saddle at 3594m (Balfrinjoch), a rocky ridge led to the summit of Gross Bigerhorn. Despite the guidebook describing the ridge as an easy snowy ridge, we saw no evidence of either! There were some tricky gendarmes to climb around or over en-route to the summit.
We stopped on the summit of the Gross Bigerhorn long enough to take a few photos and a quick check of the rope... The cut was getting deeper. We then descended the West-South-West Ridge which was essentially the biggest collection of jumbled boulders I have ever seen.
Back at the Bordier Hut again - just in time for tea after nine and a half hours on the route - another rope check: I can now see the core of the rope. Not good. Maybe we need to rethink our plans!
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