Matterhorn 4478m and Swiss Alps

This post is a draft. Here is a summary of 6 days in Switzerland with primary objective of summiting the Matterhorn.

Flew to Switzerland and met guide Aaron in Interlaken. We stayed that night in an Interlaken Hotel and had a leisurely 10am start the next morning.

Went straight up Jungfrau railway which goes through the Eiger, got out at the last stop which is Jungfraujoch, trekked 40 minutes up to the Mönchsjoch hut, dropped our things and then did a little warm up run up Mönch, a peak next to the hut.

First hill down, nice warm up, first day at altitude, feeling good

Next morning we left the hut at 4am to climb Jungfrau herself. Was a pretty long day. I think we summitted around 10am, then descended back to the Jungfraujoch, then back to the hut to collect our things, and finally returned to back to Interlaken to eat burgers, drink beer and rest for the night in a hotel.

Moving towards Jungfrau. Darkness receeding

Next day travel day to Zurich. After a picturesque train ride cutting through Switzerland, we arrived in the afternoon and checked into our hotel. The owner is a Matterhorn vetteran with over 130 summits to his name, he knew the Mountain, the weather and the best places to eat in Zurich! We went out to eat pizza and drink beer.

Next day we got the train to the Rifflehorn to practice my rock climbing (Rifflehorn is like 5% of the Matterhorn).

Riffelhorn Summit looking towards Matterhorn

Riffelhorn descent – train back down to Zermatt

Next morning sorted gear for Matterhorn, got the cable car and then trekked up to the Hornlihut (best mountain hut ever!). Ate amazing meal (for a mountain hut) and got an early night. Tomorrow we would climb THE MATTERHORN.

Make our way up towards Hörnlihütte under the Matterhorn

Finally arrived at Hörnlihütte, been waiting a long time to be here. For the hut itself and of course, what is above it

Hörnlihütte – Ice Axe and Walking pole racks (nice touch)

Started at 4am. Was grueling from the moment we left the hut. There were only a few other climbers and they turned back after a few hours. After a slow hard 6 hour climb where we had a lot of trouble staying on the right route (one of the downsides of being on an empty mountain), we finally got to the summit around 10:45am.

The summit was spectacular and without a doubt my best and most rewarding, was truly a knife edge ridge up there. There was this odd black statue near the summit which looked a lot like Batman. I thought I was hallucinating due to exhaustion. Turns out it is the Saint Bernhard Statue. I will remember him as The Dark Knight.

The descent was a living hell and the hardest thing I’ve done for sure! It went on and on and on and on. There was no end in sight. Every peak we got over we saw another 5. The Hornlihut seemed to never get any bigger. The definition of soul destroying. We finally stumbled into the hut around 6pm and had missed the last cable car back down to Zurich which meant we had to spend another night in the Hornlihut.

Matterhorn climb. First light. Looking back down to Zermatt

Matterhorn climb. Aaron negotiating the route

Matterhorn climb – half way – Salvoy hut (emergency only hut)

Matterhorn climb – wind starting to rip up top, we are behind schedule, hope weather holds

Matterhorn Summit – 4478m Took around 6 hours 30 min from Hörnlihütte. Too slow but route finding was difficult early on in the season

Matterhorn Summit – 4478m – Italy to the right, Switzerland to the left

Matterhorn Descent – took longer than the ascent

Matterhorn Descent – not even one slip is an option on this hill

Matterhorn Descent – losing the will to live

Matterhorn Descent – I take a moment to chill out and admire my new boots

Matterhorn Descent – off the top and now making our way across to the (never ending – soul destroying) ridge line

After sitting around watching the Alpenglow of the sunset, eating leftover snacks and drinking Fanta I decided I REALLY wanted a shower so opted to trek 3.5 hours back down to Zurich. Aaron my guide was keen.

We missed the last cable car out so either spend another night at the (showerless) Hörnlihütte or trek another 3 hours down to Zermatt. We chose the latter.

Back in Zermatt. I turn around to see what all the tourists were taking photos of. This unforgiving pyramid of rock of course. Total time Hut to Summit to Zermatt = 18.5 hours. That was a tough day!

Got back to the hotel around 10:30pm destroyed after 18.5 hours of climbing and trekking.

We wanted to get a train to the Eiger the next morning and climb the following day but the huts were closed as they were still snowed in so we decided to cut our losses, call it a success and head home. I was back home in Barcleona that night

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