On 7 August, after months of preparation and anxiety I dragged my wilting frame up the . I am really grateful to all of you who sponsored me both on-line and in person, as I seem to have earned over £4000 for . In fact the sum is still going up as I have been sponsored after the event by a number of people. Liz Sears, the Headmistress of Heaton School, is delighted with the donation and has informed me that the Education Council have given the school Performing Arts status. This will enable them to get government grants to complete the building of the art room.
I know some people will want to hear the whole story of the climb, so for those, here it is……….
I travelled to the on 31 July and climbed a number of peaks in the Piz Bernina and regions to acclimatise myself. These included the Breihthorn (4160m) and Castor (4200m). I walked to the Hornli hut on 6 August and met up with my guide in the evening. Robbie Fenlon is one of only two Irish Alpine mountain guides currently working. I chose him because I had heard that the local Swiss guides are not very sociable and are keener to get down the mountain for their next job rather than actually taking you to the top of the mountain. My Irish guide works from and had not climbed the for two years, so I estimated that he would be keen to repeat the job.
After dinner on 6 August, Robbie emptied my rucksack of all unnecessary kit and we set the alarm clock for . I slept with all my climbing clothes on in a bunk with five other people. Everybody bounced out of bed at 4 in the morning, went down for breakfast and we were kitted up and walking up by 4.30am. We wore head torches and the walking lasted only 100yards until we reached the first vertical face of the . There we queued for about 20 minutes to climb this and then we began ascending the rock at a fast rate to overtake a number of other climbers. Robbie impressed on me that the faster we go, the less likely we would be to be caught in “traffic jams”. I was panting too much to make any comment and scrambled on after him. We both climbed at the same time, but were roped together for safety.
At the light was sufficient that we could remove our head torches and I suddenly realised we had climbed about 400-500 vertical metres. There was quite a lot of fresh air up here and I was grateful I had not been able to see further than the end of my head torch for the previous 1 ½ hours. We soon reached the Solvay hut (a shed for people who get stuck up the mountain). The sections before and after this hut were vertical and there was a queue as usual!
By we were just underneath the shoulder of the . Robbie had been asking me if I had a headache or was tired for the five minutes before this, but due to my adequate preparation, I was fine. He suddenly turned to me and said that he thought this day would turn out to be an “epic” and he was not in the mood for an “epic”. He said it was in both our interests if we went down now. I was very upset at this suggestion as we were in the middle of the 70 man climbing party and seemed to be doing well. The night before at dinner he had suggested that we would make the summit by or and it was still only !
As we were on schedule I begged him to take me up the last 300metres, but he would not. It is hard to argue with a guy who is holding your life on the end of a rope, so I was suddenly overcome with emotion and I cried for about 15 minutes. I think I had been mentally psyching myself up for this climb for so long, that the disappointment was too much.
On the way down we passed many pairs of climbers still going up and I again challenged Robbie that all these guys were going for the summit. He said that they were going to have a very long and difficult day and that he was not prepared for this.
It annoyed me that though I was prepared for a long and difficult day, Robbie would not allow me to complete my mission. Descending was in many ways more difficult than ascending, as the sense of exposure was more acute. However we reached the Hornli hut by in the afternoon.
My son Dominic was only just stirring, so we had lunch with him and then we walked down to . We said goodbye to Robbie in and my parting words to him were that I was not happy with outcome of the day, but I would just have to live with it. Robbie had previously let slip that he had some clients in Chamonix that he was taking on a walking trip the next day and wanted to get back to meet them. However, I had hired him for the 7 and 8 August at a cost of 700euros, which I had paid in advance, so I was rather aggrieved that he was leaving me, having been with me for less than 24 hours. He had basically booked customers the next day and did not want a long climb on the as a result.
So for those that think I have not achieved my aim I am happy to return their money, but I can assure you that climbing three-quarters of the feels like climbing the whole thing. I will do it again one day and I will definitely not take a guide. I do not feel that they have the customers’ interest at heart. I would love to climb it with an interested friend in the future………any volunteers?!
