From: luong@naxos.inria.fr (Quang-Tuan Luong)
Newsgroups: rec.climbing
Subject: Re: Europe bound => The Matterhorn
Date: 7 Apr 92 11:52:34 GMT
Reply-To: luong@sophia.inria.fr
Distribution: rec
Organization: Inria Sofia Antipolis

(Andy Waddington) writes an excellent posting in response to a 
question of  (David Kriegman) about Matterhorn. I agree globally
with him, but I have a few remarks.

|> depends on the weather in the preceding weeks or two. There is a diificult
|> slab with fixed rope high up on the Italian ridge - go too early and the
|> rope will not have been fixed, I'm not sure when the guides fix this, or if
|> the oldest bits of rope are left all year. If the ridge is out of condition,
|> the slab will be verglassed and the rope probably buried in snow or ice -
|> this makes it a LOT harder. The Italian ridge is the SW ridge, and is
|> steeper than the Hoernli (the NE), so is more likely to be in condition in
|> May. Again, there are a lot of fixed ropes near the top of the Hoernli,
|> which may not be there or may be iced up in early season.

I think unfortunately the fixed ropes are never removed. Perhaps they are 
changed from time to time. Anyway, putting fixed ropes on alpine routes is a
shame. Remember that the maximum difficulty, even on the Lion ridge, does not
exceed degree IV, and that it has been climbed in the middle of the XIX
century. If Carrel knew ! The fact that they are perhaps unusable in early
season (iced up or buried in snow or ice) is for me a good point. It gives
back to these ridges their original characteristics: a serious undertaking
even if there is no extreme difficulties.

|> On the other hand - if you are a competant (alpine, not telemark) skier, I
|> would recommend taking or hiring ski-mountaineering gear at this time of
|> year, either for ski ascents as the main objective, 

If you are a good telemark skier, you can go almost on each place alpine
skiers go, except perhaps some very (> 45 deg) steep slopes. The Valais
is a very good place for telemark skiing, because the slopes are generally
moderately steep, and are large. The "Haute Route", or the Mont Rose are
fine, for instance.

|>                                 or for skiing in to
|> rock climbing ascents (best based at Chamonix). 

Yes. The rock in Valais is usually very loose (Matterhorn is typical).
It is a good place only for snow/ice/mixed climbing, with some exceptions.


|> How long do the routes take ?
|> 
|> The guidebook time for the Hoernli is 4.5 - 5 hours, and I think is similar
|> for the Italian. Start time for the Hoernli is 4-5 am. We took ten hours,
|> as we weren't acclimatised. 

I have always found the timings of the Swiss guidebook to be very short.

|> Then for maximum acclimatisation with minimum effort,

Hmm ?

|>                                                   take the first Klein
|> Matterhorn cable car (to 3800m) of the morning and saunter up the Breithorn

I don't think it helps a lot. To my experience, acclimatisation is proportional
to the time you stay in altitude. It takes a couple of hours to get to the 
Breithorn, which has the reputation of beeing the easiest 4000 in the Alps.
That's not enought. Even doing Mont-Blanc-du-Tacul from Chamonix to acclimatise
for Mont-Blanc seems useless to me.

|> There are a vast number of almost deserted and very fine mountains in the
|> Maritime Alps, up to about 3500m. These, of course, are much nearer to Nice.
|> There is very fine ski-mountaineering (the French 1:25 000 and 1:50 000 maps
|> show ski-routes) here, although mid-May is getting a little late this far
|> south.

They are very fine for ski-mountaineering, but the alpine interest seems
low to me, especially in comparison with the higher Alps. As for ski, last
year, some of my friends have skied in the Maritime Alps at the end of May,
and they reported good conditions.

|>    [Weishorn]                                                It is a finer
|> route to climb than the Hoernli, 

Almost everything is finer to climb than the Hornl.

|> Hmm... another great hunk of verbiage. Well, hope its some help.     Andy.

Tuan.
Newsgroups: rec.climbing