EXPEDITION REPORTS

An Eventful Ascent of Matterhorn (4478m) We should have understood that the mountain was not in state the moment we entered the Hörnli Hut. It is said that, on a normal day, when the Hörnli Ridge is relatively ice and snow free and climbable, there could be up to 200 climbers in the hut, ready for their attempt on Matterhorn next morning. As we entered the hut, we noticed that there were no more than 20 people, many of them climbers, several of them guides and a few tourists who had hiked up from Zermatt and had no intention of scaling the mountain. We did not need to come up all the way to the Hörnli Hut to know why there were so few people planning to climb the mountain that day. We could have seen from the valley that Matterhorn was covered in snow and ice and that scaling of the ridge would require use of crampons from very early on.   After the dinner, a guide approached a couple of people sitting next to us and gave them instructions about what to do next morning: “come down dressed and have your harnesses on; we will start at once after having breakfast and we will ascent rapidly.” What he did not mention, but we all knew perfectly well was that the reason for this haste was to shake off any “free riders” who could tail the guided teams at the start of the climb, where large number of false trails often mislead climbers. On Matterhorn, there are no cairns, no marks or no clear path...