| Breithorn solo Trip Report |
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| Breithorn solo   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Italy/Switzerland, Europe Lat/Lon: 45.94150°N / 7.74670°E Date Climbed/Hiked: Jan 1, 2005 | Page By: camp-1 Created/Edited: Mar 17, 2005 / Object ID: 169925 Hits: 1013 Loading... Page Score: 79.95% - 1 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
After a week of fantastic hiking ( Mettelhorn, Stockhorn, Rothorn, Matterhorn and the end of the Gorner glacier) i thought the time was right to make an attempt on the breithorn.
The weather was realy good (27C). Although the fóhn wind was blowing for a day or two i picked thursday to be the day of my climb.
I got up around six and to my horror everything was obscured by cloud's and it was raining. Lucky for me the rain stopt after a few minutes so i could sit outside my tent. Still the summit of the breithorn was invisible.
I made a deal with myself to give the mountain two hours to show herself, if she did i would go up. Just before the two hours were over the summit showed itself for a brief moment. My call that the climb was on, i rushed to the lift station and in half an hour i stood on the Klein Matterhorn. There were no other climbers that came up with me so i started alone. the moment i stept outside the tunnel i nearly got blown of my feet by the wind, i never seen such strong gusting winds and i come from a fairly windy country. I started the descent to the breithorn plateau which was free of wind. From here on i did thing's i never should have done. I crossed the glacier on my one, unropped and with no one to rescue me if something went wrong. At the point where the plateau joins the Breithorn pass i met two climbers who came from the d'Ayas hut, the first since i left the Rosa plateau. They offered me a harness because one of them wanted to go down, i could return the harness in the evening when i got back at the campsite. I declined the offer, getting this far i wanted to get to the summit solo all the way. Very stupid indeed. Being higher up, the wind returned in full force making the climb a lot harder then the books tell you. Getting at this point i still hadn't seen the mountain or any off the surrounding area. Being in the mountains for a week with good acclimatisation walk's i believed to be well prepared. Nothing can be further from the truth, altitude is a strange thing and it got to me making me sick and giving me a head ache. This should have been the wake up call to start descending, again i didn't. By the time i got to the summit i was very tired and cold and still everything was covered in cloud's, getting on the final stredge of the summit ridge i nearly got blown off, something that wouldn't have happened if i was ropped up and in a climbing group. I stayed for about twenty minutes made some pictures and video, after that i descended and reached the Breithorn pass in half an hour. Again i was alone and had to cross the glacier ones more on my own. I'm not really proud of what i did and it show's how easy it is to loose yourself. I wanted the summit because i had failed twice before. I have not only put myself in danger but also the lives of those who had come to my rescue. I also underestimated the weather in the mountain's. The day's prior to the climb the fohn started to blow and for some time lenticular cloud's formed in the early evening around the surrounding peak's. These are all clear sign's of a weather change. My thursday turned out to be the worst day of that week. The next day i spent the entire day on the ridge that leads to the Stockhorn in blazing sun and had an exellent view of the Breithorn with it's snowy peak in the sunlight. It was my first solo climb and it will be my last for a long time
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Monte Rosa group > Breithorn > Breithorn solo
