Smiler Cuthbertson - Mountain Guide

August 24^th to 28^th

Moving into the end of August in the Alps is always a slight gamble with the weather. Tim and I had planned, together with my good friend and colleague, Murray, and his client Neil, to traverse the Matterhorn, up the Lion Arête from Cervinia and down the Hornli Ridge. Tim and I spent a day on my now familiar Brevent-linked

The superb final wall of Cracoukass

 routes, all excellently climbed in mountain boots, not rock shoes. Our second acclimatising day was unfortunately brought to a standstill when poor weather hit us on the Guides’ crag. However, as we were off to Zermatt next day, we could prepare properly and be ready.

In deteriorating weather, we drove in my car to Tasch and having parked in the new car park, we took the train to Zermatt. At the Bahnof Hotel, we met Murray and discussed our doubts on the intended route. We did have a good weather forecast for the next two days but, after talking to the Zermatt guides’ office about the idea of the Italian Ridge, they steered me away from it. With Tim alongside, I had no explaining to do –too much snow to make a safe ascent at that time. Even the Hornli Ridge was being reserved by the Zermatt guides for clients they were happy with, not just anybody paying their fees (which can be quite normal). Tim had but one aim, the Traverse, and suggested if we did the Hornli, which was certainly possible to go for, he would probably never come back for his Italian Ridge, so he said ‘Let’s do

The superb Dufourspitz

 something else!’ We chose to climb the Dufourspitz from the Monte Rosa Hut, and I was happy to go for this peak because I could see for myself the location where Henri had fallen.

Murray and his client were happy to do the Hornli Ridge and indeed were successful, but our teams were now separate. Our day on Monte Rosa was superb and an exciting ridge proved the climax to a long snow approach. Tim and I got back to the hut around 1.30pm and, after a short break and a beer, we re-packed, changed socks and returned to the Gornergrat and Zermatt.

It’s the Matterhorn next. Talk to you later on this plan.

Smiler

August 17^th to 23rd

I love Americans, especially one guy - Danny from Omaha. Folks say, ‘What’s it like there’ and the standard answer is…’Flat as a pancake!’

Danny has been coming over to climb with me for many years, and I always relish the

la Someone

 time together. He’s a true friend.

Times are changing though. The last trip over from Nebraska was four years ago and we grabbed the famous Cassin route on the Badile, even though he hadn’t done much rock climbing in preparation.

This year was the same, but perhaps Danny was not so well prepared. With great acclimatising rock climbs on the Brevent, this location was ideal for our first outing.  la Someone proved to be the top end of Danny’s capabilities on this, our first day, but I still sneaked the best (top) pitch of Crakoukass in, to stretch Danny and to finish a good, but strenuous day.

Next day, we agreed we were still unsure of high peak routes, and with the weather

Hotel California

 superb and dry, another test day (again on the Brevent) was on the cards. Taking the cable car, this time only to Plan Praz, Hotel California (5a) was our target. The climb sounded superb, and from a distance looked good but the route in the guidebook didn’t really match the various lines available. Traverses along steep paths to continue links between crags caused me problems and obvious lines were difficult to locate, so we pulled off onto descent tracks and made an early dart for the Office Bar.  I’ll go back and find the correct line next time.

We both knew Omaha was a long way to come, without achieving some of the bigger-style routes we’d done together on several previous trips. So if we were going higher, a good but not too serious warm up was needed. The Cosmiques Arête was perfect

A dry Cosmiques Arete

for this task. We had a great day, taking about 4½ hours, but it did prove very demanding for Danny, and he opted for a rest day afterwards. Cruising the shops in Chamonix, he bought presents for someone I have not yet met (although I’d do my best to get to Indonesia for the wedding!)

With three days still to go before flying back to the flatlands of Omaha, we realised big snow routes for Danny were very optimistic, so agreement was reached to continue the rock climbs in this great weather. The Brunat/Godfroy Perroux (5c) (I still need to lead that last pitch!) on the Aiguille du Index on one of the days, then back to the Brevent and the Aiguille Charleron for a

Eperon Droite-Aiguille Charleron

 route I had not climbed, called Eperon de droite (5b) – why, oh why had I not done this great route before? Our last day was spent on Ed Grindley’s superb route on the buttress to the right of the Aiguille du Index couloir,

Geodfrey Perroux route on the Index

called Modern Times (5a). It is printed as Modern Time in the recent new guidebook, although Ed assures me the name was misspelt by Piola, when writing the current guide. I looked up at thee lovely final pitch of Mani Puliti, and turned right on our easier pitch. Maybe next year, Danny?

Danny’s 2009 trip results were not what he or I had

Mani puliti

 expected, mostly rock climbing and no prestigious alpine routes. But Danny was philosophical as always, and made the best of his lack of training, and I believe he had another great trip.

I’m off to Switzerland again soon. Even new peaks for me! Looking forward to telling you about the trip. Speak soon.

Smiler