Strahlhorn (30-31 May 2015)
Last tour of the year, June already!
Claudio proposes Strahlhorn with a biwak at the Mattmark dam. Hiking from Saas Almagell to the lake, the bag is not exactly light (tent + skis + glacier gear)! Four star bivy with risotto al’porcini 🙂 Renato, the third guy supposed to join never shows up and Claudio can’t reach him because of a locked sim card!
We wake up at 2am and leave at 2.30 for +2000m up. From the first hundred meters, it feels like Claudio is constantly running ahead (although he’s only ascending at ≈350m/h!), not a fit day for me. We reach the Allalingletscher at the Hanged Gletscher Joch. Beautiful scenery, perfect weather! Starting from 3600m, I start feeling the height… once we reach Adlerpass (3800m), I decide to stop there: Claudio continues on the ridge. I dig a comfortable hole in the snow and enjoy the rare experience of spending 1h in such a grandiose scenery (Cervin on one hand, Weissmies on the other). I see a guy coming on the glacier: he’s Renato! He hiked up to the alp above the dam yesterday night and couldn’t find us (he had no stove for his pasta dinner…). He continues on his way to the summit.
Claudio is already lower than me when I see him again. I do my best to catch up rapidly. He’s so enthusiastic about the catwalk he’s done on the summit ridge, just above the clouds in the valley! We ski down on spring snow, getting heavier and heavier as we descend… Less than 100m before the end of the snow, I fall and got a ski released. No wait! there’s still a ski attached to my boot!?! It took me a few second to realise that my ski is broken between the boot front and the spatula… I do my best to ski with weight on one foot only, with the feeling that it was really not my day.
Lesson learnt: Wallis’ 4000s require acclimation! I’ll come back 🙂