Valais Alps— a first unguided Alpine mountaineering expedition Mike Frost
With rope experience from rock climbing, 3 alpine mountaineering training courses, and some long conversations with Bryn behind me I felt able to tackle some unguided Alpine mountaineering. Accompanying me on the trip were Carolyn (current NMC secretary) and an old motorcycling buddy Steve, who hasn't got around to full NMC membership yet but who had done the training courses. The plan was a borrowed one I had nurtured in various forms for several years, a traverse along the Swiss/Italian border from the Breithorn at one end to the Dufourspitze (Monte Rosa) at the other. There is some scope for variation in the chosen route but we used routes rated PD (Peu Difficile) or F (Facile) in the Alpine Club guide (Valais Alps East). Carolyn and I flew into Geneva a few days ahead of Steve on 17 August 2007. Zermatt in Switzerland was to be our
valley base. The Youth hostel is large, reasonably priced even for non-members and can be booked on-line. Travel to Zermatt was by train. It is (or was) cheaper to buy an advance through-ticket with Swiss railways (SBB) on the internet and also worth bearing in mind that the last connecting train leaves Geneva Airport at 6pm. I failed on both counts so instead we had a stopover at Burchen near Visp. The next day saw us getting the train from Visp to Zermatt and, after availing ourselves of the left luggage lockers at Zermatt station, we took a cable car most of the way up to the Berghaus Flue (2600m). The weather was sunny with excellent views of the Matterhorn and grazing goats. I can recommend the Berghaus Flue, English is spoken, there is a bar, a sun patio with perspex screens to deal with any early evening chilly breezes and the usual amazing scenery all around. The following day saw an early start as we ascended the Stockhorn for general fitness and acclimatisation purposes. This proved a tiring and chastening experience and we were slower than we expected. Initially we descended from Flue down the
Mike, Steve and Carolyn on the summit of Breithorn NMC Quarterly Magazine
June 2008
page 4 of 22