Climbing in the Alps - Part 2

This is Part 2  of a chronicle covering a mountain climbing trip in the Alps from 7-30-12 to 8-4-12 (link to Part 1). This account is first being posted on Aug 5th, 2012 and will be updated with corrections, additions, added photos, etc over the next couple of weeks.
  
In Switzerland, on day 2 of our 4 days of giuded climbs, soon after Pierre and I had started our way up the Mitellegi ridge, Dave, Frank, Pierrot and Nicolas had climbed and abseiled down from the hut and had treked over the glacier back to the train tunnels. 

The Mittellegi refuge as viewed from the Mittellegi ridge

They had then trained up to the next station and hiked the glacier there where Pierre and I were to later end our day.

We wrapped up day 2 (Aug 1st) by re-grouping in the train station just below the tunnels, riding the train down to Lauterbrunnen then driving several hours toward Zermatt.  Just before departing Lauterbrunnen, in the parking garage, we took the liberty of shedding our climbing attire in exchange for clothes better suited for the long drive. 

After the drive, we had dinner and spent the night in Hotel Etoile, a cozy Apart-Hotel & Spa in a village 30 km or so from Zermatt. 

Our guides had modified our plans so that we would climb Breithorn on day 3, spend the night at Valle d'Ayas Guides' Hut and then climb Pollux on Day 4.

We dropped Pierrot's car in a golfer's parking lot a few miles before parking Nicolas' car in a garage at a train station, gearing up and then boarding the next train for Zermatt. Visitors to Zermatt are required to leave their cars a few miles outside of town because only electric cars are permitted in the village.

Zermatt is a ski resort and climber village located right below the Matterhorn.   On this balmy August day we found it loaded with tourists the  riding the cable cars and consuming at the restraurants, the jewlery stores and the mountaineering and ski shops in town.  We stopped at a COOP complex to rent hiking poles and a couple of grocery items.  10 minutes of walking through the sunny and warm streets of the village brought us to the Klein Matterhorn cable car.  We rode this to its top, 3,820 m, and stepped off into Italy. 

Most of the crowd at the top of the cable car were skiiers.  We roped up and began hiking down and across a glacier on route to Breithorn.  The wetness and non-firmness of the snow slowed our walking.  In a couple of hours time we made it to a snow ridge on the Breithorn and soon worked our way to the peak  (4164 m). The views were excellent.  

The front slope (overlooking Zermatt) was maybe 45 deg.  We worked our way down the opposite 35 degree slope and trudged on toward Valle d'Ayas Guides' Hut.  Mostly boring up/down glacier walking filled the next few hours.  Because I had no gaiters, my rain/wind pants were soon badly ripped by my crampons.

We arrived at the refuge around 5 pm.  Frank and Dave immediatly hit the bunks to get some rest. Dinner (minestrone soup, ham slices and mashed potatoes, and, for desert, puddings) was a loud and animated event as there were perhaps 60 climbers convened for the meal.  Frank, Dave and I with our language abilities limited to English were left out of the party mainstream.  After finishing dinner Dave bought us a couple of  bottles of water for the next day (11 Swiss Franks per 1.5 liters!), then we retreated to our bunk room.  Dave gave me a patch kit and I set about repairing my ripped rainpants.  Frank and Dave set their alarms for our 4am wake-up time and we bedded down early to get some rest while we could.  

During dinner the weather taken a bad turn.  It began with ice. Then rain fell through most of the night. At 2am there were two flash-bangs of lightning and thunder, one quite close. Our bunkroom was on the 2nd floor. The toilets were one level below floor 0.

Day 4:  At 4am we dressed, loaded our packs and went down to the dining/meeting  area for a breakfast of bread, toast, butter and preserves - plus, for the coffee drinkers, some really awful coffee.  How bad was it? - after his first cup Dave(!!) switched to tea.

When we started out onto the glacier the dawn sky was just bright enough that our headlamps were not really needed. The rain had stopped.  A 5mm glaze of ice covered the hut rails and the rocks bordering the glacier.   Crampons were the order of the day.  From the bottom of my rainpants to halfway up to my knees I wrapped my rainpants with electrical tape to protect them from being re-ripped.  Later at one point along our course Pierrot commented with a smile "I like your gaiters".

A couple hours of un-fun laborious trudging up the glacier brought us to a crumbling and jagged rock face and ridges.  Up this was our route to the peak of Pollux.  Two of us left our packs to pick up on the return trip.  We roped up into guide/client pairs and started climbing the ice coated rocks.    

The first 40m was mostly walking along a steep switchbacked path.  After that it was steeper and each of us alternated betwen belaying and climbing while tethered to our guide with a 5-10m section of rope.  

Despite the ice glaze the climbing was very pleasant.  We ascended at a good pace.  I had started out with an uninsulated pair of leather gloves.  With the steep rock climbing my gloves soon became wet from the snowy and icy rocks.  The wind picked up to 20 and 30 kph at times and the temperature drropped.  About 3/4 of the way up the rock my hands were badly stinging from the cold.  Pierrot, who was my guide on this climb, stopped for a 2 minute break and suggested we change to our insulated gloves.  What an excellent thing to do right then!  I slipped my hands into my other gloves and the caressing warmth  inside was like..  well, let's just say it was very nice.

After 600 vertical meters on the rock we topped out onto a snow ridge and walked to the summit.  The Pollux peak was cold and windy.  We saw Castor across the way.

My toes were stinging and turning numb from the cold.   I had not dried my boots from the day before and was paying for this negelct.

We rapidly climbed and abseiled our way back down the same path we had taken up. We got back to the backpacks and from there we trudged down the snowfields and glaciers.  

We arrived at the top of the cable car around 11am.  To avoid overheating too much we had stripped off our outer layers of clothing along the way. On my top half I was down to just a light pair of long underware.  The wind was strong and cold near the lift, so to avoid being over-chilled I stepped up my pace - passing several returning skiers and tourists.  From a lady at the walkway to the lift I received an admiring look that said "there's one of those tough mountain-climbing guys".  I took the gift and smiled.

Pierrot was right along side of me.  Dave, Frank and the others were maybe 5 minutes behind.   Pierre and I took the first car to get to warmer temperatures sooner.  We waited for the others at the top of the main lift.  Then together in a 6 person gondola the 6 of us rode down to Zermatt.

After the short train ride then stripping down and changing next to Nicolas' car, we hit the road for Chamonix.  This ended another two memorable days of great adventure.  

Thanks Nicolas, Pierre and Pierrot!