First light on Breithorn

For our last night on the Swiss side of the Monte Rosa massif, we found a fine spot to camp just off the popular hiking track on the Gornergrat. And early next morning, long before any hikers would come by, we were rewarded with great views of the mountains. Breithorn (4164m), SW of our camp site, dominates most of the picture. The main summit is on the far right of the long ridge. By the normal route it is one of the easiest 4000-ers in the Alps, with the final ascent on the other side, thanks to the Klein Matterhorn cable car that quickly brings people as high as 3817m. Mind you, if you're not acclimatized you may find that ascending 450 m at altitude is tiresome. And the route from the cable car station to the summit is on the glacier all the way (F). The two much smaller peaks on the left, to the south, are Castor (4223m) and Pollux (4092m). If you are a bit acclimatized, climbing either Pollux or Castor in a day from the Klein Matterhorn cable car are possibilities too. You have to traverse the upper slopes of Breithorn (on the other side) to get to the base of Pollux, at around 3800 m, from where you can choose between a couple of routes to the summit. If conditions are good (i.e. no avalanche danger and not too icy) the snow covered west face is the easiest (PD). A fine alternative is the SW ridge, which starts out on the rocks (up to UIAA grade III), with the last part being a wide and easy snow ridge (PD+). Castor is easier than Pollox. From the west it's a snow plod all the way up to the summit (PD-). If you're on a one day outing, you then have no choice but to embark on the long plod back to the cable car. However, for a much more exhilarating experience I recommend a multi-day trip that includes the traverse: the SE ridge (on the far left in the photo), while not steep at all, is exposed and narrow (PD). I crossed it in 2012, and it was great fun. 4 July 2013.