When I was young some of the first mountains I heard about were Everest, K2, and the Matterhorn. I think I recognized the Matterhorn before I knew the name of most my local mountains. I only recently looked into climbing the Matterhorn. Up until a few years ago I thought it’s pointy summit was unobtainable. Crowds, costs and technical skills made the peak seem out of reach. I had heard that long lines up the Hörnli Route could turn a day out into a horrible 20 hour nightmare. People I spoke with who had climbed it claimed that route finding after the Hörnlihütte was impossible without a guide. A guide in Zermatt lectured me with a strong parental tone about the dangers of climbing it’s 4,000ft razor ridge with even a dusting of snow. All these things can be true but in the back of my mind I kept replaying the video I saw of Killian running down from its summit in shorts. So I rolled the dice for a 3rd time and convinced Chase and Aaron to go out there and give it a shot. It was the driest, hottest summer on record in parts of Europe but of course the week before our departure it rained and snowed heavily across Italy and Switzerland. We were certain that once again this summit would be out of reach but decided to give it a go anyway. Our hopes were bolstered by a video posted by Amateur fan @adventurestothemax who climbed the Matterhorn 2 weeks before our arrival in conditions we hoped would be similar.
I mention in the video choices that we made that worked out FOR US. I was referring to the Decision to start late in the morning and to not put on our crampons until further up the mountain. When we got to Zermatt at 12:30am we debated starting late or waiting until the following morning (we even went as far as to get a reservation at the Hornlihut the following day). In the end we decided to start late. Our thinking was that starting late would give the ice time to thaw since the forecast called for warm conditions and sun. We also thought starting late would allow those who started early to clear off the summit and technical sections by the time we arrived at that point. For the most part both those predictions came true and we only encountered about an hour to an hour and a half of delay due to crowding on the route. The snow and ice was relatively soft until 14,000ft and that meant we could go crampon free for most the mountain. Being crampon free resulted in a faster pace. In the end these were decisions that worked well FOR US and it made for an awesome day. For some these choices could result in death or an expensive rescue.