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| Dufourspitze   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Valais, Switzerland, Europe Lat/Lon: 45.93720°N / 7.86730°E Date Climbed/Hiked: Aug 13, 2002 | Page By: sfeller Created/Edited: Aug 28, 2002 / Object ID: 168665 Hits: 2202 Loading... Page Score: 86.05% - 2 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Dufourspitze 8/12-14/2002
After coming down from the Breithorn attempt on August 10 we were surprised to see Zermatt covered in about 2 inches of snow. Snow in August? What the?? We asked several of the locals and they said it was an extreme rarity for it to snow in August in Zermatt. There was even a golf tournament scheduled the day it snowed in Zermatt! The next day (Sunday) it continued to drizzle and up high we could snow had accumulated quite a lot. It was time for Melanie to go so we said our goodbyes at the train station and Alton and I went to a bar, have some beers to cheer ourselves up, called home, and wrote on the internet about how bored we were in Zermatt.
Finally late in the day on Sunday we received good news the weather was forecasting for the better and we planned to head off to do the Dufourspitze the next morning which is the second tallest peak in the Europe area behind Mount Blanc. The Dufourspitze is also called the Monte Rosa because the mountain borders Italy and Switzerland and the Italians named it as such.
Alton and I take the famous Gornergrat train from Zermatt in the morning on Monday August 14 and the weather is excellent! We decided to head towards Gornergrat and play tourist where there is a 360 panoramic view of the mountains around before heading off towards the Monte Rosa hut. The train stops at various points letting off people at various hotels along the way that have unobstructed spectacular views. Finally we reach Gornergrat about 40 minutes later and there are throngs of Japanese. Yes, Japanese. I don’t think we really saw any Europeans. In addition there is snow about 14 inches deep, but not to fail, many of the Japanese have technical clothing for this sort of romp from the train to the viewpoint. In addition the clothes look excellent when you want that photo op with the Matterhorn in the background and the St. Bernard at your feet—there really were St. Bernards there for photo ops! Alton and I also see the Monte Rosa hut about 3 hours walking distance away and about 400 feet below in elevation from the scenic viewpoint.
Alton and I soon had enough of this Asian invasion, took several photos of the Matterhorn and multiple other peaks and head back down on the train to the Rotenboden station where we walk on packed snow down to the glacier. The walk to the hut went fine and without problems except for the constant bombardment every half hour of Japanese and their helicopter tour excursion buzzing overhead. It takes about 2.5 hours from the train station to the hut where it is situated about 600 feet above the glacier and stands at an elevation of 9200 feet. This hut is impressive. Four stories tall. It can accommodated up to 225 people. The hut has sleeping accommodations with nice comforters for blankets, and beer which is served from a keg—the cash register is one of those computer/cash register gizmos!
Alton and I lounge around and watch people come and go, drink beer while looking at the snow plastered Matterhorn, sleep, and meet some nice folks from Tennessee who also plan to climb the Dufourspitze with their guide from Bellingham. The situation of the hut and the mountains looming over it remind me of my Denali climb due to the scope of the mountains—all this only for 2.5 hours of hiking and 600 feet of elevation gain. Amazing.
Anyway, we have dinner with about 80 other people in the dining area and find out noone has climbed the Dufourspitze because snow is too deep from the last storm……
We awake to the electric light in our dormitory style room on Tuesday at 2:30 in the morning. Everybody gets up and has breakfast. Alton and I not being the breakfast type did not order breakfast and soon head out. We are the first ones. We head out on the trail and continue on. It is complete dark. Well guess what? We kept heading up and didn’t take the right cutoff! We finally realized our mistake around 4:30 in the morning and head back down, down, down, until we are about 800 feet of elevation gain from the hut. We calculate that we just did 1500 feet of wasteful elevation gain—boy was I angry at myself for missing the cutoff.
We quickly follow the pounded steps and soon realize that our mistake wasn’t such a bad one. I say this because we realize that whoever is in front is cutting steps where the snow is reaching just below knee level. Ugh! And at elevation too! Anyway within a couple of hours we start passing people and we finally catch up to the leaders who we keep about 30 minutes in front of us the remaining distance. I am even amazed at myself for this feat of catching up because the last section has been a real boring slog through a low angling glacier. It turns out the people who in front are some bad ass Swiss or Austrian dudes cutting the steps.
Huffing and puffing Alton I finally make it to col at 14,100. Now the climbing begins. We went up a steep snow ridge that then turns into a sporting class 3-4 ridge traverse section with snow on it, and now imagine doing this at 14,600 feet. Well I thought that class 3-4 ridge traverse was tough. Guess what? It was a warm up to the real thing. After the first ridge traverse you go up another steep snow embankment and another ridge traverse class 3-4 that is 3 times as long as the first! You don’t think at this point. You just do. You also have to be very careful because once in a while somebody passes you coming in the opposite direction. Luckily there was nobody being guided up there as the guides might push you to the side.
We finally make it to the 15,200 foot mountain and there isn’t much room for about the 10 of us there but we make do and look at all the trails of other people all around us. Amazing views. We could see the Austrian Alps, Mount Blanc and the surrounding peaks, and the Bernese Alps, and of course what is Italy—but is very flat. And then we notice about 5 kilometers away from us on another mountain is a hut on the Italian side. The Italians have put a hut on top of 4000 meter peak and it is being supplied by helicopters and there are throngs of people coming and going….I think the hut is called the Magherita Hut.
It turns out that about 80 people tried to climb the Dufourspitze that day but about 25 people made the summit. Many turned around once they saw the class 3-4 section. Alton and I came down slowly on the ridge traverse and baked on the glacier on the way out and back down to the Dom Hut. Exhaustion came over us and we decided to spend another night at the Monte Rosa Hut as well as practically everybody else that made the attempt on the Dufourspitze that day.
We slept well that night and ignored the lights that came on again at 2:30 for the next round of peak baggers……
Stefan Feller
Images
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Monte Rosa group
