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Matterhorn conditions?

PostPosted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:13 pm
by MountaingirlBC
Does anyone know what the current conditions are on the Matterhorn. There were good a few days ago but it was looking pretty wintery over there yesterday. Planning to do it from the Italian side on Wednesday or Thursday but will do Hornlei if that looks safer and/or in better condition.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:25 pm
by Moni
According to weather reports, freezing line is currently at 4000m. Wednesday is fairly good weather but Thursday the weather is supposed to get worse. Thunderstorms are indicated off and on all week. The Hörnli looks like it has a fair amount of snow on it - you would have to be comfortable doing a lot of it in mixed ground in crampons. I don't like the freeze line myself - it means the snow will be sloppy and footing even worse.

Call the guide's office for more details.

alpincenter@zermatt.ch tel: +41 (0)27 966 24 60

PostPosted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:21 pm
by MountaingirlBC
Thx so much. I will give them a call. We've just made it back to Chamonix after a bit of an epic attempting the Dent du Geant. We'll be lucky if our gear is dry by the time the sun comes out!

PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:36 pm
by JScoles
Watch out doing the Horni will you homesick for the skee piles of the Rockies :lol:

PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:44 am
by Sebastian Hamm
I was yesterday in Zermatt and tried to climb Matterhorn. Information of the alpin center: Not possible to much snow on the route. It was very sunny, but very cold the last days. So the much snow haven't melted enough. On the sunny from 08.07 - 10.07 nobody tried to climbed. Maybe it' possible on Friday (tomorrow) but the weather is changing in the afternoon.

See the webcam on www.zermatt.ch and talking with alpin Center

PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:49 pm
by MountaingirlBC
We decided to give it a whirl on the 9th along with about 20 other suckers. Were you one of those suckers Sebastion? The fact that there wasn't a single guide anywhere near the mountain sould have been our first clue that conditions were bad but it looked so purdy and the weather was so nice.... very deceptive! No one made it up. Too much snow/ice. Took us 6 hours to get to the Solvey(?) hut, and 12 hours to get down from there. Great group of people on the mountain and the weather was great so it was still a lot better than a sharp stick in the eye. No one was going up on the 10th. A few good hot days with no precip should improve matters greatly. A Russian team went up via the Italian Ridge the other day but it took them 28 hours. I figure if it took the Russians 28 hours, it would probably take mere mortal climbers a lot longer than that.

PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:03 pm
by Sebastian Hamm
MountaingirlBC wrote:We decided to give it a whirl on the 9th along with about 20 other suckers. Were you one of those suckers Sebastion? The fact that there wasn't a single guide anywhere near the mountain sould have been our first clue that conditions were bad but it looked so purdy and the weather was so nice.... very deceptive! No one made it up. Too much snow/ice. Took us 6 hours to get to the Solvey(?) hut, and 12 hours to get down from there. Great group of people on the mountain and the weather was great so it was still a lot better than a sharp stick in the eye. No one was going up on the 10th. A few good hot days with no precip should improve matters greatly. A Russian team went up via the Italian Ridge the other day but it took them 28 hours. I figure if it took the Russians 28 hours, it would probably take mere mortal climbers a lot longer than that.


I was in the guide office and asked about the conditions. Due to my solo trip to the alps, I wanted to climb with a guide, but they said that it were to risky and no swiss guide went up in the period I've written.

Cheers!