Tag Archives: Pigne D’Arolla

Alpine Introductions Course, Arolla Switzerland. Final Day, 1st July 2011

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Sleeping in mountain huts is never easy. You hear every snore, moan, toss and turn of each person in there with you. Every sound is amplified too, as you are so far up in the mountains for there to be not even the slightest hint of any noise outside, and also you are cooked up together – in this case we are 9 people in a 8 x 10 foot bedroom.

And so here we are, the four of us who barely know each other, sleeping with another five people whom we have never met. Everyone snores. I snore too I am told :), but when you are listening to other people snore, that thought doesn’t help you at all. And so begins my final day up in the mountains!

I am also nervous. Looking out last evening at what faced us is a scary proposition. It is literally a case of fall and you will die. There is a 1,000m drop to the valley floor, and we must traverse across the top of it on ice. Being roped in helps hugely of course, but you don’t want to take three other people with you either. Worse still than being in fear of your own destiny is thinking that it may not even be in your own hands. If one of the others falls then that could take me down too. We have all heard the news this week on the Pic de Neige Cordier just over the border in France, where six climbers lost their lives in an apparent avalanche. They were all experienced, and just walking along roped up in two groups of three when tragedy struck.

So when I wake at 1am this morning, my heart is racing. I am at over 10,000 feet in the Alps, and this is the day I am looking forward to more than any other, and also the one I am dreading. I do not know if my increased heart rate (it feels about 120 to me) is due to the altitude or trepidation or both. I resolve try to get back to sleep, although I am not sure that I properly did.

And so 4am arrives. I feel shattered. Everyone in the dorm gets themselves ready and troops zombie-like to breakfast, which is the hut is 4.30am sharp. Just putting my contact lenses in at this time of day is hard enough, but with no mirror, and very dry air and eyes, I use up about three pairs before I am ready to see even slightly straight. By 5am everyone has crampons, helmets and full mountain gear on, and is roped up. It is -7 degrees C, and it is stunningly beautiful outside. It is only just light, the sun yet to climb over the 4,000m+ peaks that crowd the Italian border to our east.

I feel so tired that I am not ready to make a conscious decision that I want to do this or not, but decide that my desire to get to the top is the overarching thought. It is why I am here. The summit is everything, or thereabouts.

Here are the views at 5am as we step out of the door of the hut:

The view as day breaks from the hut looking back down the valley - the cloud level below us at about 2,500m.

After an initial traverse which is fairly scary, principally because there has been another serac fall in the night across our path, we set off for the ridge which will lead us up to the summit glacier.

The snow on the glacier is perfect for crampons. It is very cold and so the crampons bite perfectly, the snow and ice having frozen overnight. There are about four other groups going for the summit alongside us, and everyone is a fairly similar pace, crawling up the glacier like some bizarrely slow ant chain.

As the sun rises (or reaches us in any case) at about 6am we are making good progress, and for me I am just delighted that I am apparently not holding anyone up. The views meanwhile are utterly spectacular. Before long the Matterhorn, Breithorn, Monte Rosa, and Dent Blanche come into view, and we have a panorama of snowy 4,000m peaks, shining like lighthouses in a sea of tranquility, as the cloud level in the distance sits below each of them, and indeed of us. I think there are something like a hundred 4,000m peaks in the Alps, and it almost feels this morning like you could reach out and touch all of them.

The ascent begins and the sun finds its way onto us, as the mountains in the distance come into view

The trek up towards the summit of Pigne D'Arolla, looking back down as we take a breather.

I check my altimeter – we have reached 3,600m, only 200 or so vertical metres to go. I feel for the first time that I am going to make it, although our own summit is not yet in view. I am drinking copious amounts of fluid in the fiercely cold and dry air. I carried four litres with me, and ended up drinking it all. The amazing thing is the air. It is so crisp and clear. This is what it is all about. I am for one moment completely overwhelmed by it all, and feel a surge of emotion come over me. I now know that wild horses will not stop me getting to the top of this thing – I will be carried on adrenaline alone.

And then after another hour or so of very hard effort, there it is, the summit of the Pigne D’Arolla – I am almost there! The very top is all of a sudden incredibly windy, and really cold – it feels like 20 or more below. Reaching the summit at 3,800m I am utterly elated, I hug Andy and Kelly, and reach for my camera and take some shots of the view, which is out of this world:

Summit panorama shot, Pigne D'Arolla - 1st July 2011. Breathtaking.

In a moment of total emotion, I realise why I am here. The utter joy of a summit top is so many things, but it is the culmination and indeed conglomeration of so many emotions and tribulations which makes it such an event. The summit is always the climax, the achievement, a pinnacle in both physical and emotional senses. The Pigne D’Arolla does not disappoint at all. I have the (almost) same feeling of elation as I did when I reached the summit of Kilimanjaro, but without the altitude difficulties, so it is just wonderful. I feel actually invincible, for just that brief moment in time. I lift my ice axe above my head and punch the air in delight.

The moment of unbridled happiness.

Andy, Kelly, myself and Tim - a moment to celebrate.

We did not linger on the summit much past taking a few photographs. It was too cold, and we need to get out of the wind. But what a fantastic (and that is an understatement) feeling it is.

We thus head down and make our way back down the glacier, and it is still just 7.45am.

At around 9am we pass the Vignettes hut again, and the view of it from the other direction is even more staggering. I wonder how these things are built in the first place, and am grateful that I had not realised just how precariously perched we were when I was lying in bed last night.

The Vignettes Hut, seemingly hanging from the side of the mountain (middle right of picture).

Another shot of the Vignettes Hut on our way down.

The rest of the descent down the mountain is fairly straightforward, if very tiring. Kelly in particular has ‘jelly legs’ but we are all feeling it. We ended up doing just under 800m of vertical ascent since this morning, all on crampons, and then 2km of vertical descent, about 1.2km on crampons.

The views of the summit on the way down make it look improbable that we were even there in the first place.

Looking back up to the Pigne D'Arolla from the glacier on the way down.

The views of Arolla coming down the mountain are quite beautiful – it really is a beautiful valley;

Arolla finally comes into view in the valley below.

We reach Arolla at 12.20, and stop for a well earned beer, and then have lunch in the only restaurant in town. Arolla has two shops, a post office, and three hotels. It is lovely though.

The garden of the Kurhaus Hotel in Arolla - the snowy summit of the Pigne D'Arolla in the distance.

After a much needed bath and a few hours shut-eye, we join Andy for our last dinner in Arolla, and we have Raclette, which is great. We are also joined the four other guys from the other Jagged Globe trip whom we shared the dorm with last night in the hut. They are staying at the Mont Collon for the night, and The Shining jokes come out once more. It is really strange if only because this is the first time in the week that there has been anyone in the hotel at all apart from us. It’s a shame for the hotel really, about which I should say more in a subsequent post, but it has all been fine, and better than that really, despite my initial reservations and recoil. The hospitality, food, and service have all been really excellent. The family who run the place simply could not do enough for you in any regard. I shall miss the place, I really will.

So tomorrow morning I will leave here by two bus, train, plane and finally car to get home. I will be sad to leave. The week has been everything I hoped it would be, and a whole lot more. To anyone considering going on this course I would just say “go” – you will learn so much; about the mountains, about alpinism, about technical glacier travel, and ultimately about yourself.

Alpine Introductions Course, Arolla. Day Six, 30th June 2011

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Day Six began in rather slow fashion, as today would be the day we went up to the Mountain hut at Vignettes (3,140m) ready for the summit attempt of Pigne D’Arolla (c. 3,900m) early the following day. We therefore effectively had a lie in, as we did not need to leave the hotel until 9.30am.

Just packing for this journey was difficult however, as the weather had turned against us and it had rained all night. It was due to be cold overnight also, certainly below zero, and therefore we needed wet weather gear, a lot of layers and warm clothes, as well as crampons, ice-axe, harness, helmet etc., and then plenty of water (I took four litres) and snacks etc for the two day trip. My rucksack, despite me depserately wanting to travel as light as I could for this one, was absolutely bursting at the seams.

We set off from Arolla (2005m) right on time and began the ascent through woods and alpine pasture – it was quite serene:

A calm and gentle start at the bottom of the valley.....

....before stopping for a breather on the way up.

The walk from there got tough as the path wended its way up the mountain, and steadily approached the glacier up towards the Vignettes Hut. The weather began to get steadily warmer, and I began shedding layers and drinking copiously as the sweat began to pour. All week I have been the weakest climbing uphill of the four of us, and this began to show again as I lagged probably 40m behind at times. I began to wonder if I had it in me to get up the glacier, particularly as we would be roped in – there would be no room lagging behind then.

The walk was great however, and began to open up views of the glacier:

The Piece glacier comes into view

Some of the rocks on the path on the way up were steep, necessitating handily placed ladders screwed into place to get up them:

On the trek up to the glacier, ladders lead the way.

And the mountain itself, which still seemed impossibly high from even where we were.

The top of the Pigne D'Arolla is up there somewhere - looks like mountain madness has gotten hold of me though!

We eventually got to the Pièce glacier at about noon. I seriously thought about telling Andy that I would stand down if he asked me to. I knew his answer would be something along the lines of “well it is up to you”, and so that made my mind up – I was going on. I hadn’t come here to quit anything – I was here to climb mountains!

The walk up the glacier was unmercilessly hard and slow, basically because it was now very hot and sunny, making the effort of climbing in crampons very hot work with all that weight on your back, but moreover because the snow on top of the glacier was melting. This meant that every footstep sunk into the snow, up to your knees at times, and on the steep sections this was really tough.

View from the start of the glacier towards the Vignettes hut, which is over the ridge at the top.

I was happy overall in that I struggled no more than the others, but the walk seemed to take forever. We reached the hut at about 3.30pm, having spent about 3 hours on the glacier, and six hours in total, to get to the hut. It just never seemed to get any nearer. I have almost never been so glad to get anywhere, ever.

The hut in sight at last - so near and yet so far.....

The hut itself was perched improbably on a ledge facing a number of peaks, in an absolutely breathtaking position, and not one for vertigo sufferers:

The top of the Cabane de Vignettes, at 3,150m

Don't drop your crisps over the edge of the balcony whatever you do 🙂

And here is a panorama shot from the door of the hut:

The hut is a step above the Aguilles Rouges we stayed in earlier in the week. It accommodates 120 people and the facilities are second to none. The bathroom and eating facilities were superb. We had a dormitory which slept 10, and we shared it with another Jagged Globe group who were doing the Haute Route (a seven day trek from Chamonix to Zermatt, using huts all the way along). Probably around 30 or so people were staying in the hut altogether.

Our dormitory for the night, quite cosy really.

After a very pleasant beer on the balcony bar, you could walk up to the summit just above the hut and see the route for the following day. It looked really intimidating. I was not sure at all whether I was up for it, and shared this with Kelly. She said that she hated the thought of crevasses, which bother me less, so it just shows you how we are all wired differently.

A view of the route for Friday........

Looking at the massive drop from the terrace bar, all of a sudden there was a huge avalanche/serac fall. It is the first time I have heard and seen an avalanche, and the noise is deafening, even from some distance away. Strictly speaking this was not an avalanche, it was actually serac fall. A serac is a large chunk of glacial ice, and in this case it was huge, and incredibly powerful as it cascaded and broke on its way down the sheer face of Mont Collon. Seeing this sort of thing puts life in perspective, and you realise that if one of these things fell whilst you were underneath it, you would have no chance of survival.

Mont Collon (far left) - moments later the seracs at the top would come tumbling down.

As the sun began to set, the temperature outside plummetted. We were at 3,188m (10,490 feet), and the forecast was for -7 degrees overnight. Time to head into the warmth of the hut!

So after a great dinner of minestrone soup, pasta with pork and ratatouille, and then chocolate eclairs (washed down with a few glasses of red wine for good measure – we made three bottles disappear this time :)) it was off to bed. I think we made it until 9pm until we retired.

4am would arrive way way too early tomorrow for our summit push, but the forecast was at least for clear (and cold, which is good) weather…..I lay there very determined now, despite my anxieties, that I could make it. I would at least try – this was what I had come for – it was my day of days. Come on!!

Alpine Introductions Course – Arolla 07/07/11 – Day Five

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Today I was really really not looking forward to in the slightest. It was a rock climbing day. The reason I wasn’t looking forward to it is simple – fear. I am not at all great with heights, I just get nervous, and the thought of hanging on by your fingernails on some vertical cliff face is my idea of hell. Similarly, the thought of edging yourself backwards to walk down several hundred feet of rock, hanging by a thread, with your back facing the ground (or abseiling, to give it its proper name), is just terrifying, pure and simple.

I woke up at 3am initially, and was instantly wide awake. Should I just back out of today’s events? I don’t need to do them, as the chances of me wanting or needing to climb vertical rock-faces again have to be fairly slim don’t they? Or maybe they aren’t. Who knows. I didn’t want to just be a chicken though, and I am after all paying good money for someone to teach me these things. But then again why put yourself in danger? I know that ropes are there to hold you etc., but what if I slip and fall? I am not quite ready to die yet. These thoughts consumed me for about an hour, but I eventually got back to a troubled sleep and got up finally at about 6.30.

Sitting at breakfast, the talk was of Friday’s ascent of Pigne D’Arolla. Everyone’s legs were sore from yesterday’s summit of Pointe de Vouasson, and looking at Pigne D’Arolla through the window of the hotel, it really does look a formidable beast. It stands at about 3,900 metres, and is apparently quite a step-up in difficulty from what we just achieved. Talk was of (half in jest, but with a very serious undertone) of ‘getting injured’ to get out of the ascent.

Pigne D'Arolla from the hotel (the snow capped one) - it's a long way up......

This provided a bit of a nice distraction for me, and I didn’t let on that today, not tomorrow, was my terror day. I decided I would get ready, go down to the crag, and see how I felt.

So all of a sudden, here I am at a rock face which literally goes straight up, and to me looks as smooth as a baby’s backside. I am wearing a climbing harness, a helmet, and rock shoes, which feel like my feet are in a vice. The perspiration is coming out of me so hard and fast I may well have been standing under a shower. I am however going to go for it.

We take it in turns to climb up the ‘crag’. We are very much split in two in terms of ability/fear factor. Tim whooshes up the face almost as fast as Andy the instructor. He has done this before, and is clearly a natural. Kelly too, does great. She has experience too, and makes it look easy.

Kelly hurtling up the rock face

Andreas is clearly in my camp however. He gets about half way, but is clearly far from happy, and comes back down. Strangely his ‘failure’ spurs me on, and I decide that I am going to try to get further than he did. I can’t, of course. I get probably a third of the way up and can hardly breathe. I am wrapping myself to the face of the rock face like it is the only thing on earth that can save my life, which in fact it is. I have to get down, and am belayed back to safety. I probably went no more than 25 feet.

Me, in a state of semi-paralysis on the rock face.

My feet and wobbly legs back on terra firma, I let on to Andy and the others that I was thinking about not even making it out of bed today because of how scary it was to me. I perhaps expected (or just needed more like) a bit of stroking at that point, a sort of “well at least you tried”, but that was never going to happen, and why the hell should it. Good for Andy, actually.

Then Andy roped another route up the crag, and this time Andreas got up to the top. I decided that I could do the same, probably, and so set off after he got down. This time I did it too, it was a bit slow going, but I punched the air in delight when I got to the top. I was amazed and delighted.

Better progress this time......

After we had finished climbing we went back to the top of the crag by a slightly easier means and abseiled back down again. This time, although I was extremely wary at the top, I was much more relaxed on the actual descent. I am not going to be rushing back to climbing or abseiling, it is just beyond my comfort zone, but I was so glad in the end of the experience.

And abseiling back down again.

Can I breathe yet??

In the afternoon we did some simulated crevasse self-rescue techniques, and I also got some jumar and fixed line training from Andy. The weather changed considerably for the worse, and so we did some of the crevasse rescue dangling from the fire escape steps at the hotel!

The crevasse self-rescue techniques involve French prussiks, English prussiks, and hauling yourself up a rope using a larks-footed sling on your foot. Sounds complicated? Actually it isn’t, and I really enjoyed doing it, and got a lot out of it. Here is a picture of Kelly deploying it before the rains came in:

Crevasse 'self-rescue' training techniques

Me tieing a prussik knot before attempting the same exercise

The fixed line training showed me basically how fiddly and awkward this can be. Considering this took place in the ‘warmth’ of a Swiss Hotel car park, then I can imagine that up a Himalayan peak at 6,000m with your faculties only half with you, and minus-something temperatures, that it will be a whole different ball game. I made a note to myself to get some practice just clipping in and out when I get back home, so that it gets to become second nature. I might rig me a rope and a couple of simulated anchor points up my stairs at home even !

So tomorrow we set off for the Pigne D’Arolla. It is a two day trek, and with the exception of Kilimanjaro, will be the highest I have ever been. The conditions will be against us, as the snow is soft and wet on the glacier apparently – about the worst we could have, and rain is forecast too. I may be ready, and I may not be – this week has been tougher than I expected, and the next two days will be the toughest of them all. I’ll be giving it my best shot….,,,

Switzerland Awaits!

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So my Alpine adventure to Switzerland is very nearly upon me. I will by the weekend be in a place called Arolla, Switzerland. I will be there for a week, staying alternatively in a hotel in the town or in mountain huts, depending upon what the day’s activities are at the time. I have to say that I am ridiculously excited, but also not a little nervous. The course will include ‘proper’ climbing up 4,000m or so mountains, and that makes me a little edgy as I am just so inexperienced in that area, although that is of course why I am going in the first place:)

The internet reliably informs me that Arolla is tiny. It sits at the end of a the Vall d’Herens in the south of Switzerland in the municipality of Evolene. It is at about 2,000m, and has a population of just 200. There is not even a bank. It looks quite pretty, and has a number of 4,000m peaks surrounding it, some of which I will (I trust) get to see from the very top. It sits on one of the most famous of all mountaineering trails, the so called ‘Haute Route’ which connects Mont Blanc in France to the Matterhorn in Switzerland. Here is a link to the Arolla website:

http://wanderland.myswitzerland.com/en/orte_detail.cfm?id=313286

And a piccie of some of the mountains – I think the one at the back in this picture is called Pigne d’Arolla, one of the ones we will climb next week:

The mountains around Arolla....

And this is a closer view of the summit ridge on the Pigne D’Arolla itself, and where I believe the glacier training will take place:

The snowfields/glacier on the Pigne D'Arolla.

The hotel I am staying in on the other hand, looks like it needs a bit of updating, to say the least. A few reviews of it I have read online have used descriptions like ‘comedic’, and ‘like that place in The Shining’. Comedic I can cope with, I believe, but I don’t need Jack Nicholson pouncing on me with an axe in the middle of the night!

The journey looks quite eventful too. The trip does not include travel, so it is ‘make your own way there’. After a flight to Geneva I have to catch a train to Sion, and then I believe two different buses to get me up to the resort. It should take about 4 to 5 hours all in. Should be interesting, but I am sure with typical Swiss efficiency it will all be pretty smooth. I look forward to the trip – it all adds greatly to the adventure.

I am finally nearly ready with all of my kit, I think. Over the last week I have had a bit of a splurge, and bought myself a new climbing rucksack (Deuter Guide 35+), a new Primaloft climbing jacket (Rab Generator Alpine), a new Mountain Equipment holdall, and various other bits and pieces like gaiters, glacier glasses, Sigg Bottles (they don’t recommend Camelbacks), a buff (!) and several pairs of climbing gloves. I have also packed my fixed rope system that I bought for Island Peak, in the hope that I will get some help and tuition with it too, although fixed lines are not part of the teaching for the week. I will be amazed if I get below the weight limit of 23kg for the plane, so there may well not be many ‘normal’ clothes coming with me!

Some of the kit that I will hire over there includes helmet, ice axe, plastic boots, belay equipment and ropes, and also crampons. I look forward to the glacier travel and also crevasse rescue parts of the course in particular. Crevasse rescue looks terrifying!

I’ll do one more post on Friday before I go with some pictures of all my kit. It all feels like this is the start of a new part of my journey, and almost of my life. If next week is successful for me, then not only does it springboard me into being able to climb Island Peak in October (and of course if it doesn’t go well then I won’t be climbing it at all), but also towards climbing more mountains. My ultimate goal from here is as many of the Seven Summits as I can – it may take some time, and it will certainly take a hell of a lot of resolve, effort and money, but I am very determined. I don’t want anything to get in my way, and certainly not Jack Nicholson!