http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygbNogXoexc

It has been almost 3 months since arriving in London from Kathmandu. A lot of that has been spent recovering, re-training and planning for the future but I have also just come back from the Alps after a fantastic 10 days climbing.

I first saw the Matterhorn aged 12 when I was skiing in Zermatt and it isn’t something that escapes one’s memory easily. It is an absolutely stunning mountain and eventhough I wasn’t into climbing at the time; getting to the top of it was definitely something that intrigued me. Fast forward almost 10 years and I was going to give it a go. The picture below isn’t mine (our weather wasn’t quite so good) but it is there just to give you an idea of the beauty of the thing.

Chamonix in the summer is a wonderfully vibrant place. I stayed in a few different hostels during my 1o day stay and met some fascinating people. I find that going anywhere alone gives one a much better indication of the place and there are hill-walkers, climbers, mountain bikers as well as sight-seeing tourists who all provide their own tales and insights.

I was climbing for the first few days with another young Brit called David and being guided by a Frenchman called Yannick. Yannick is one of the premier mountaineers in the world, a true purist of the sport and his advice will be invaluable. After a few days climbing, the weather was closing in and we had to head to Zermatt a few days earlier than expected.

A 3 hour trek into the Hornli Hut, a somewhat restless kip and at 4am we were ready to set off. A surreal sight takes place on the Matterhorn because people aren’t allowed to go for the summit until 4:20am so there is almost a queue of climbers waiting to depart. The time eventually comes and we head out in the dark. The route follows the long ridge on the photo above. It is very very exposed – steep scrambling and rock climbing are the norm and provide an exciting challenge. As a result of the expected weather, the speed was quickened and the sweat was glistening from other climbers faces as they were lit up by each others headtorches. After 4 hours we took our last few steps along the unnervingly narrow summit ridge and stood atop the Matterhorn.

It was a feeling of relief and happiness. A long and painful descent (the Matterhorn isn’t recommended when one has slightly suspect cruciate knee ligaments) resulted but after a good nights sleep, I deemed it a necessary sacrifice.

I was then rock climbing with an American guide called Kent for several days before attempting Mont Blanc. Once again, it was going to be a battle against time and the weather. Snow was prevalent several hundred metres earlier than expected and caused the alarm bells to ring especially when added to the news from other climbers of snow up to 1.5 metres at 4000m. We arrived at our hut planning to leave at 1am. When the time came it was still snowing so a few more hours rest before a 4am wake-up took place and we hoped Mother Nature would be kind to us.

It wasn’t to be…welcome to the world of mountaineering.

We were forced to descent. The route up was going to take us under some precarious couloirs and with unstable snow conditions, the avalanche risk too high.

It was a fantastic 10 days regardless. The real aim of the trip was to stand at the top of the Matterhorn and I managed to do that. I really really wanted to get to the top of a big mountain after what happened on Everest and I was especially happy with this one. Mont Blanc wasn’t to be this year but these things happen. The Matterhorn is a much harder climb and we were hugely fortunate with the weather there. It has hardly been climbed, if at all, since the day we summited. I am thankful for that.

I have made another video. The link is at the top of this post so please feel free to check it out.