Climbing the Matterhorn

Written by Mont Team member Byron Muir 

We'd been the first to leave the Carrel Hut on the Italian Lion Ridge of the Matterhorn at 3am. We were a team of three, which always slows down roped climbing. We were stoked to get a good hour of climbing and route finding in the dark before other teams (of two) inevitably caught up.

An almost fatal decision

Most were guided ascents, with guides leading the clients. Team by team they would pass us on the way up. At one point I'd looked up and saw climbers on a flat section of the ridge as it trended left. There was a mild looking rock face between us, situated just below the ridge directly above us. To me it looked as though they had cut the face rather than continuing up the ridge, so I decided to follow them. This was almost a fatal decision, as the face gradually developed into a mix of ice and loose broken rock. We hadn't put our crampons on yet either - the route up til now, and the rest of the climb afterwards, was pure rock with no snow or ice. To make matters worse I could no longer find any nice rock to place gear and attach our rope to the mountain.

Suddenly we were climbing unprotected, even worse roped together, up terrain that was terrifyingly unstable. We couldn't securely stand on the ice without crampons, but the rock was so loose and fractured that it wasn't much better. And since we were roped together it only took one person slipping to drag all three of us off the mountain. But the end of this dreaded face was thirty metres away. We were almost up to the safe ridge, where I had seen those climbers previously.

We carefully and smoothly worked our way up to where I could put the other two on belay and finally secure ourselves. The rest of the climb, while it got steeper, was far safer as there were bolts leading to the summit. We climbed swiftly and summitted at 9:30am. I remember being warmer than how I look in the photo, but I still remember the joy of finally making it.

Byron wears the Mont Guide Hoodie 

The descent

Rest assured we avoided that dreaded face on the descent, and made it down to a bivy site on a grass meadow at 9:30pm, completing our long, memorable day.