Mont Blanc Cybercasts: July 2014

Hello from the Val D’ayes hut in Italy.

Today all climbers summited the Breithorn (4159m)! We had an amazing weather day with clear skies and calm winds.

After climbing to the top of the Breithorn, we traversed across the massive Breithorn plateau bringing us to the Italian Val D’ayes hut at 3420m.

Tomorrow we will make a summit attempt on Pollux and return to the Val D’ayes hut.

We will be in touch tomorrow.

Jonathon Spitzer
IFMGA licensed mountain guide

Hello from Zermatt, Switzerland!

Today we rode up the Gornergrat railway up to 2700m and climbed the Rifflehorn. Despite the marginal weather and wet rock, our team was one of the few teams outside today in Zermatt and only a couple other people on the Rifflehorn. We got to practice moving on rock with our boots on over varying terrain. We also got to practice some fixed rope ascension just below the summit.

Tomorrow we are currently planning on heading up the Klein Matterhorn lift (3800m) and make a summit attempt on Pollux peak. We will be spending the next 2 days out in the field and climbing other peaks around the Monta Rosa and Breithorn Massif. The goal is to climb some more technical peaks as well as acclimate for our summit attempt on the Matterhorn early next week.

We will be in touch from our mountain huts over the next couple days.

Thanks for following our cybercast!

Jonathon

IFMGA license mountain guide
Alps Program Director
Alpine Ascents International

Below are some photos from today:

Hello from Zermatt, Switzerland!

Last night all our climbers arrived safely with all of their climbing gear in Zermatt. We went out for a good meal and got to know each other as we talked about our plans for the next week of climbing. We have a great group of climbers from the United States; some of them have lots of climbing experience all around the world.

Today, we are going to head up the Gornergrat train and do some climbing on the Riffelhorn (2,979m). The Riffelhorn is a great way for climbers to practice and remember some of those footwork techniques for alpine rock climbing in boots.

Here is a picture from climbers on the Riffelhorn from two weeks ago:

Conditions on the Matterhorn continue to be extremely unseasonably snowy this year. Earlier last week local Swiss guides started to reset fixed ropes and anchors on the upper part of the mountain. However another quick moving storm ending yesterday just deposited another 50cm+ of snow on the Matterhorn. Forecasts are calling for improving weather this week with a clearing trend. We are hopeful by the time we get to our Matterhorn summit opportunity, conditions will improve.

Thanks for following our cybercast and we will be in touch during the next 7 days of climbing.

Jonathon

Jonathon Spitzer
IFMGA license mountain guide
Alps Program Director
Alpine Ascents International

Hello from Val D’Ayas hut on the border of Italy and Switzerland!

Today we departed from Zermatt and rode up the Klein Matterhorn then traversed the back on the backside of the Breithorn to reach the base of Polux.

We ascended the Southwest ride to the summit, climbing up fixed ropes and steep snow and rock to the summit. Tonight is our final night in the field and we are at a beautiful private Italian hut at 3420m.

Tomorrow we plan to climb the Breithorn Traverse back towards the Klein Matterhorn lift. Will plan to be back in Zermatt tomorrow afternoon (July 17th).

Thanks for following our cybercast.

Jonathon

Jonathon Spitzer
IFMGA licensed mountain guide

Greetings from Zermatt, Switzerland!

Yesterday we departed Chamonix after spending over 10 days there and came to Zermatt. The 3 hour train ride let us enjoy the views of the countryside as we relaxed on the Swiss Railway. Last night we had a team dinner in Zermatt as we got our first views of the Matterhorn. This morning we woke up to clear skies and amazing views. Today was the nicest weather day we have had on our trip so far.

With the good weather, we got on the Gornergrat railway up to Rotenboden to climb the Riffelhorn. The Riffelhorn is a technical rock climb on the south side that overlooks the Gorner Gletscher Glacier, the Monta Rosa, and the Matterhorn. We did an 800 ft vertical rock climb to the top of the summit. Below are some pictures of our great day in Zermatt.

Tomorrow we are heading up the Klien Matterhorn lift to make summit attempts on three peaks over 4,000 meters (Polux, Castor, and Briethorn). We will be spending tomorrow night (July 16th) at the Val D’Ayes hut. We will return to Zermatt on July 17th in the afternoon.

Enjoy the pictures and thanks for following our cybercast!

Jonathon

Hello and greetings from Chamonix, France!

Today is Sunday, July 13th. Our team of three climbers and two guides made an amazing effort on Mont Blanc over the past three days. Deep snow, avalanche danger, and difficult climbing conditions caused the team to turn around approx. 350m from the summit. Typically Mont Blanc has many climbers on the mountain working their way towards the summit. This team encountered less than 10 other climbers on the upper mountain during the past three days.

Despite not reaching the summit of Mont Blanc the team feels like they achieved a major goal by helping to push the route towards the summit and sticking their heads out in the bad weather over the past three days.

Tomorrow we are going to switch paces and head to Zermatt, Switzerland. Our goal of climbing the Matterhorn has been changed due to the massive amount of snow and wet summer. We will be making summit attempts on the Briethorn, Castor, and Polux. All three peaks are over 4,000m and on the Italian/Swiss boarder.

Below are a couple pictures when the sun came out for a brief moment yesterday (July 12th).

Thanks for following our cybercast and we will have more updates from Zermatt!

Jonathon Spitzer
IFMGA license mountain guide
Alps Program Director
Alpine Ascents International

Hello this is Jonathon Spitzer with the Mont Blanc and Matterhorn extension. Today is July 12th and we are currently up at the Gouter Hut, high up on Mont Blanc above 3800 meters. Today we woke up from the Tete Rousse with kind of broken skies and a couple different cloud bands; big cloud band below us and some clouds up high that were dumping a little bit of snow but we were able to manage to climb up to the Gouter Hut.

All of our three climbers who have joined us on our trip are staying positive and you know we’re trying to just work on climbing up Mont Blanc here with the conditions that we’ve been having with unusually cold and snowy Alps this year.

We’re going to wait and see what happens tomorrow with the weather and hopefully make a summit attempt up on the upper mountain. And we’ll be in touch. If all goes well, we might be back in town tomorrow or we might just spend another night here at the Gouter hut. Either way, we’ll be in touch and have a great weekend. Thanks.

Bonjour from Chamonix France

Today our group of climbers found out what doing a via ferrata is like. Via Ferrata (Iron Way) is a very common outdoor climbing/mountaineering activity in the Alps. We drove about 30mins away from Chamonix and got to do the D’passy Plateau Via Ferrata despite the heavy rain and poor weather.

Below are a couple photos from todays adventure.

Tonight is our last night in Chamonix and we plan to have a group dinner to celebrate our new friendships, adventures and goals we achieved over the past week. Our main goal of climbing Mont Blanc didn’t happen, but the goal of having a fun trip and great adventure was had by all.

Many of these climbers plan to come back in the near future to make another attempt on Mont Blanc.

Thanks for following our cybercast!

Jonathon

Jonathon Spitzer
IFMGA license mountain guide
Alps Program Director
Alpine Ascents International

Greeting from Chamonix, France.

Today, July 9th some team members enjoyed the lovely sightseeing of Chamonix riding up the Aig du Midi tram station. The Aig du Midi, which tanslates literally as Needle of le Midi is the third busiest tourist attraction in all of France. Some of our other climbers did the Aiguille Crochues Traverse which is a mixed rock and snow exposed ridge traverse in the Aig Rouges part of the Mont Blanc Massif.

The three climbers that joined us on the Croches Traverse found it to be an amazing climbing adventure and had a great time. One climber said, “I’ve never done anything like that before and love it!”

Tomorrow with more rain and snow forecasted the avalanche danger has continue to increase. One of the best things about Mont Blanc and Chamonix is there are plenty of options. So tomorrow, we plan on checking out more of those options by taking our climbers on a via ferrata about 30mins outside of Chamonix. Via Ferrata’s are not common in North America but are often found in the Alps. Check out this link to learn more about what a via ferrata is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_ferrata

We hope to get some good photos tomorrow and will update when we get back from having fun.