Climbing in the Alps - Part 1

go here to view Keith's most recent posts

This is the first of three posts covering a mountain climbing trip in the Alps from 7-30-12 to 8-6-12. 

The three of us, Frank Cabron (Rochester, NY),  David Drum (Hammondsport, NY) and Keith House (Corning, NY) started plans for this trip late in 2011.   Frank suggested we sign up with a guide agency called Le Pays d'en Haut for their Eiger + Matterhorn Course in order to climb both of these famous peaks.   Dave and I had no previous experience with technical climbing, but being the optimitist adventurists (or fools) that we are, we said SURE!

In January Dave and I began our training with a 3 day ice-climbing class in Lake Placid. Soon after that we started 2-3 months of weekly climbing wall sessions at Cornell's Lindseth Wall. Then Dave arranged for the two of us to do two days of rock climbing in the Shawangunks (New Paltz, NY) with his nephew Jesse Littleton as our guide/instructor. (This was a great experience. Jesse is an excellent guide/instructor, and the  Gunks are the among best cliffs in the world for technical rock climbing.)  In early July, as a final preparation step, Dave, Frank and I took on a guided climb of the Grand Teton in Jackson Hole Wyoming. This was another excellent adventure (July 16th, July 10th).

In Chamonix, France on July 30th at 6 AM the three of us were met at our hotel (Hotel de l'Arve) by our lead guide from Le Pays, Nicolas Bezard (age 40). With our other two guides, Pierre Beuscar (age 55) and Pierrot Favre (age 50), the six of us rode/drove to the end of the Chamonix valley and up over the mountains into Switzerland and the Rhone Valley.  We traveled several hours further into Switzerland, including a 20 min car on train trip through a mountain tunnel.  We passed through Interlaken and eventually arrived in the region of Mount Eiger.  We left our car in a parking garage in Lauterbrennen then rode trains up to our take-off point for the Eiger.

The highest train took us into a 100 year old tunnel carved into the mountains. We got off at a station inside the mountain donned our packs then walked out to an area with a steep rock slope and snow and glacier at 3800m elevation.

link for more info on this train station

windows and entrance/exit passage to the train station

Our first destination was a refuge, or hut, only 200m higher.  Getting there involved a 2hr traverse across a sloped rock face.  Dave, Frank and I were surprised at the loose and fractured rock - much of what grabbed for handholds crumbled and flaked off. The ledges we walked on were largely covered with loose rock debris.  The poor handholds and footing made us tense and we over exerted and were slow. Our guides were very unhappy with this.

Arriving at the Mitellegi refuge 

Frank, Keith and Dave

We arrived at the Mitellegi refuge to find a beautifully crafted wood lighe with sleeping space for 30. The bunks were all in a common room and stacked in 3 levels from the floor. We took our bunks on the top level.

About 25 climbers stayed over in the hut that night. Two women associated with the lodge prepared the food on propane stove in the main dining/gathering room and they served us dinner in two groups, one after the other.   An attractive young Swiss woman who introduced herself as Cheif, and who had at one time lived a year in California, was the departing cook. She had been at the hut since it had opened for the season just one  week earlier and was due to climb out the next morning. Later Pierre Beuscar (chatty Pierre, as we came to refer to him) and I saw Cheif and her climbing partner at the peak of the Eiger - it was clear she was a very adept climber.  Pierre said she was also a commercial pilot.

Based on our performance in the 2hr climb to the hut, our guides determined that it was best that Frank and Dave not try to ascend to the peak of the Eiger the next morning.

Chatty Pierre told me he thought my chances were good and that he would guide me to the peak.  Our plan would be to wake at 4am, eat breakfast then gear up and go.

Mittellegi ridge as viewed from the hut the evening  before our climb.  The peak is 2000 ft above.
The ridge off to the left connects to Mönch

We departed the hut at 4:45am with our headlamps lighting the way.  As we started up the Mittellegi ridge the temperature was near 5C.  My backpack load was 25 lbs.  From the start, the route was a narrow rock strewn pathway atop a peaked ridge with 50 degree drop-offs on both sides.  In the first 2 hours of the climb I was hit with vertigo - maybe it was from the lack of sleep, or maybe from the darkness with stars and a huge planet shining above and the arrays of village lights visible below.  I pushed through the vertigo and climbed on. Eventually the fear and associated tensness faded.   But those first 2 hours sapped a lot more of my energy than they should have.

Pierre was intent on a safe and quick climb that avoided queues with other climbers, and that got us to our destination without the risks of daytime running out.   At the start there were only 4 to 6 climbers ahead of us.   We passed 2 to 4 of these on the ascent.   We passed a Japanese team of 2, they passed us, then we passed them again.

Soon after starting we came to our first fixed rope.   There were maybe 20 more that followed.  The ropes  were 4 cm thick thick and had three tightly twisted primary strands.  Typical anchors consisted of 2cm diameter rebar topped with welded on steel rings set into holes in the rock .   A lot of the fixed ropes were  about 3m in length and were of 1 straight section. Others were 6m in length and were of two sections at different angles. Most of the fixed rope sections were angled.  About 1/3 were vertical.   Climbing the vertical ones required a lot of upper body strength (at least the way I did it) - but I managed my way up them without issue.

Pierre on the Eiger

The biggest challenge for me in the climb was shortness of breath.   To keep with Pierre's pace I was breathing at my max 70% to 80% of the 10 hour climb.

from the peak looking a small distance back the way we came

At 9:30am, 4 hrs and 45 minutes after leaving the hut, we reached the Eiger peak.  The top was a narrow ridge with partial snow cover.  The breeze was mild and temperatures were a bit above freezing.  The sky was clear, the sun bright and the views in all directions were magnificent!

Keith at the Eiger peak

shadow of the Eiger

The village below  - last stop before the train enters the mountain

We did not linger.  We proceeded down a ridge toward a neighboring mountain, the Mönch.   Jungfrau dominated the skyline in our view to the right.  To our left and below the top of the Mönch was the glacier that we would trek across at the end of our climb.  Pierre sent me to the lead and abseiled be down several pitches. At first my motions were awkward and jerky.  But I soon became accustomed to Pierre's fast abseiling pace.  I put 90% of my weight to the rope and fairly sailed down the near vertical pitches.  What fun!

The ridge ahead leading up to the Mönch - as viewed from near the top of the Eiger

An hour or two into our trek toward the Mönch we reached the low point of the ridge and then began to ascend again.  I found this section particularly enjoyable.  The ridge became almost a knife edge with 75+ deg drops on both sides. We zipped up and over, by hand and by foot, often walking upright atop the narrow peaked  ridge. Several sections like this were with 2-4 meters high forward pitches and with forward angles of 45 deg or more.  My vertigo was several hours in the past.  What came through now was joy in the touch of the wind, the brightness of the sun in the open sky, pleasant physical exertion and contact with the rock.

Along most of the Mittellegi ridge we got by without crampons. As we proceed along the ridge on the way to the Mönch we donned the crampons 50% of the time - taking then off and putting them back on several times. The change-overs made nice 5 minute breathing breaks for me. I was kind of shaky with the crampons at the start, particularly when stepping over narrow rock strewn paths bordered with drop-offs to oblivion. But after a couple of hours I warmed considerably to these steel pointed devices that so readily snag anything and will trip you quckly and surely if you don't use them just right. It turns out that having a set of 10 knife points on the bottom of each foot can do wonders in crossing ice and snow and climbing rocks and ice.  As Dave put it two days later when on the Pollux, "who would of thought?",  and "it would have been impossible without them".

The final part of our Eiger trek was a 2 hr hike across glacier and snowfields.  This was not the greatest of  fun.  The 8 hrs of climbing to this point had left me tired, and I still hadn't had enough of a break to eat my lunch.  With every 4th step I would sink to knee deep with one foot or the other.  Walking the snow covered glacier was tiring, hot and generally boring.  Eventually we made it to the "Top of Europe" - a train stop mostly for tourists, and we proceeded into the tunnels and caught the 3pm train down.

The first two days had been challenging and exciting.  In one word - excellent!

                                                                  link to Part 2