Smiler Cuthbertson – Mountain Guide

July 23rd to 30th

The moment Bill’s vacation ended, so too did the great weather. Richard and I sat in the Office Bar that night and watched the rain destroy much of any hope to do the Matterhorn via this famous route. We would need lots of good weather now to shift the newly-fallen snow.

The Matterhorn in July

There was little hope but we clung on to what was there anyway.
Our first morning together was a sorry state. Wet and miserable. Where had Bill’s great weather gone to? The forecast was equally as grim, for at least two to three days. I did what I normally suggest to Bill, Ian and Richard – “Let’s use my motor and get out of here for a couple of days?”
“Finale?”
After hearing all about the 2009 Finale trip last week, from Bill himself, Richard was keen to go, and was very keen to get some good rock climbs done, anywhere really?
So we were packed and on the road by 11am on the 24th.
We didn’t get very far! Traffic was at a complete standstill on the road up to the Mont Blanc tunnel entrance. Half an hour, turned into nearly two hours before we finally got going. Not a good start. Traffic was so tight I couldn’t even turn around when we were stationary. There was no crash, no fire, in fact no explanation. Simply a slow process of measuring distances between cars and lorries as they enter the tunnel, and all due to the big fire a couple of years ago. So we couldn’t complain (much!).
Aosta to Genova went quickly, with such wonderful motorways, and then I missed the Sevona turn-off and had to drive a little further east than necessary. Soon though, we had turned south and were going back west along the Mediteranean coast towards Finale.
This great little seaside resort turned out to be a dissapointment this year. The Italian holidays resulted in the place being mobbed. No parking spots where usually I found them, on the sea-front or the parallel road inside. It was getting late and we needed to find the

tourist offfice and some accommodation quickly.

The wonderful castle-like building which was the Youth Hostel, high above the town had been our initial target, but disaster, it was closed down for some reason? The friendly girl in the Tourist Office in Finale Borge gave us a couple of ideas and made some calls for us. She

got us booked into a very cheap (25 euros per person) place although it did seem a little bit out of the way, some 20 miles north of Finale in the mountains. Calligia was eventually reached after a massive climb out of Finale Borge, over 1000 metres higher than the coast and after many, many hairpin turns we finally reached the hotel. Basil Fawlty would have been proud! There seemed no other guests? The place was deserted and one could imagine why, being so far out into the mountains. We were, however, treated like royalty and soon were sleeping after quite a time on the road.
Next morning, Richard and I decided the place was good, cheap, but too far away from Finale, so after finding some car fuel, we drove back down the mountain into Finale Borge. Re-aquainting myself

Italian Morris dancers

 with the climbing shop in the square, with the added attraction of a band and flag dancers, all dressed in spectacular clothing, we soon had a business card of a B&B quite close to Finale Borge, which we rang and got booked into, and I bought the new guidebook, thick with new routes and a new layout, but terribly expensive (35 euros) and not that simple to find one’s way around? Still, I knew the first place to start off – Monte Cucco.

Having been there twice, I thought it would be easy to relocate those great two-pitch slab routes and start from there.
Locating the concrete road leading to the campsite prove time consuming. Parking the car I charged up the tracks which lead directly to the cliff face. Having forgotten about a 50 metre and easy- angled gully splitting the vertical cliffs, we spent a long time going

Richard at Monte Cucco

right and left under very difficult climbs until a friendly female climber pointed out the gully and us in the right direction. It was already very hot but we polished off the line I’d done before and then the right-hand slab, Richard doing his fair share of the leading. There were several other teams, mostly from the eastern block countries, and two

The slovak girls on the final pitch

 Slovakian girls impressed us with their leads of the big crack and buttress further left (La Torre - 5c plus). After our initial routes, I decided the ‘girl’s’ route had to be done. 5c plus in two very long pitches.
I attacked the finger crack going over the bulge with earnest, having seen a few climbers struggle on this pitch both this year and before. It probably was because of the traffic but it was so polished. I had a quick rest on the rope and then got over the bulge onto the long upper cracked-slab. By Jinks, it was hot!

Richard on La Torre pitch 1

Although steep and slippy, the pitch went well from there. I brought Richard up and was soon ensconsed on the laybacks of the top pitch. Totally committed now to getting up this pitch, I had to make several steep and fingery laybacks, feeling quite a way above the spaced bolt

runners. Superb climbing, which would have

Tough top pitch or what?

 been more wonderful had it been cooler.
Abseiling down the steep walls was exillerating, yet easy, and soon we were heading back to our B&B.
What a lovely place. Angelo made us welcome in this highly security-minded place, set back from the road leading north from Finale to Orca. Beautiful surroundings led to equally superb accomodation and equally wonderful hospitality, all at 35 euros per person. Well

worth the extra cost. It was a simple and quick car journey back into Finale that evening, where we found a restaurant and had Pizzas and drinks to round a good day off.

For some reason, neither of us were completely satisfied with Finale on this visit. Maybe too many cars and people, maybe because of the holiday period, and of course the exchange rate made everything quite expensive, but whatever the reason, we agreed that maybe we

should go back and continue our quest for the Matterhorn’s Italian Ridge? The weather forecast sounded much better now.

Next morning we packed up and were soon on the road back to Chamonix, this time avoiding directional errors and finding the Sevona turn-off more easily.
Soon we were motoring back through Torino, Aosta and back into Argentiere.
A flash trip but we both agreed, three great rock routes especially the big one. Now, where are those boots and crampons?

The Matterhorn in the rain

The weather had improved quite a lot, but unfortuately, the Matterhorn was plastered in snow now. Richard and I had a couple of so-so weather days on the Aiguille Rouge before finally deciding the Italian Ridge was not going to happen at this time, this year. I offered a couple of options – go to Sass Fee for the final climbing day (which was forecast to be good anyway) or go to Zermatt and prove to ourselves about the Matterhorn. Richard hadn’t been to this touristy, tacky place so chose this as the option.
It was wet when we arrived, the peak invisible in the cloud, and it was also raining at 6am next morning. We had decided to at least do the Breithorn as a consolation climb, albeit a very straightforward ascent, instead of just

The Breithorn climb

 being tourists.

Next morning at dawn, I had to wait until after several visits to the window in the Bahnof Hotel, to persuade myself and Richard it would be good later. Our Bahnof host and my good friend Fabian, also agreed the cloud cover was only valley deep and it would be good

high up.
The new cable car system is truly wonderful yet a little worrying that one is on the correct car for the Kliene Matterhorn? All went well and we exited the station together with what I assumed was half the Zermatt climbers and of course the summer skiers. It was obviously the only practical place to go after the storm, and with the weather so indefinite.
The climb was, as usual, a straightforward plod. Pleasent enough but no difficulties whatsoever, just a little chilly at time. The good views were

The crowds

 missing, the clouds hanging around the mountain throughout our time there. I was sure Richard wasn’t that impressed, seeing the hordes of climbers, presumably doing the only feasible route that wet morningt? Richard is such a very good alpine climber. My apologies for the day were readily accepted and we made our way back to the Bahnof. A quick shower and pack, and off down to Tasch and the car for the drive home to Argentiere.

We made plans for a possibly return trip from Richard later in August, but whether that comes off, we’d have to see?
Final meals and drinks in the Office Bar ending a not-so successful trip for Richard, apart from the initial five days with Bill on the Italian Job. I’m hoping Richard gets back and we can do this Matterhorn route? We’ll see.