I recently had my first trip climbing in the Alps. There were so many routes I wanted to do, but most notably the Matterhorn; unguided. If you don’t know it, this is possibly one of the most recognizable mountains in the world standing at 4478 meters.
This mountain means a lot to me on a personal level, it’s made me want to become a mountaineer in the first place. However, it doesn’t feel like a true ascent if I don’t lead any of it. Climbing the Matterhorn most people use a guide and that entails, dragging you up and lowering you down most of the route. Reaching the summit also staples this as my first peak above 4000m
I’m not saying don’t use a guide, guides are great. I use them for learning, I’m not a fan of guided ascents personally. Guides make this climb a lot safer and quicker as it’s hard to read the route. Even though from afar it looks obvious.
Additionally, increasing popularity means lots of people attempt to summit daily during the peak season meaning it can be quite busy and have a lot of massive rock falls (which I’ll get into later in the post).
Climbing The Matterhorn
On Monday the 22st of July, my climbing partner Rob and I arrived at the Hornli hut. Not one group made it to the summit that day. However, the next day the conditions looked perfect… We had to go for it!
On Tuesday the 23nd of July, me and Rob woke up at 3 after both getting around 2 hours of sleep, ready to leave the hut at 4 am we got lucky and somehow were let out with the guides (they usually stagger the start, local guides, guides and then unguided).
From the hut, it’s about a 5-minute walk up to the base of the climb where we had a small wait to get on the ridge (we were climbing it via the Hornli Ridge). It was pitch black and we were climbing with a mix of head torches and the moonlight for about 1:30. Annoyingly my head torch died, but I just powered through as it started to become lighter.
We arrived at the Solvay Hut in about 2 hours and up to then it was going smoothly, Rob and I were moving well. However here is where the traffic began on the Mosley slabs. We had about 30-45 minutes of waiting till we could pull back onto the rock and start moving upwards again.
The snow slopes
As we came to the bottom of the shoulder, it was time we had to get our crampons and axe out for the final 300 meters or so. The snow was good for the most part, but here is where we came to the first challenge.
After roughly 100m on the snow, we started to be faced with climbers coming down, snow and ice were flying everywhere making it very hard to make upward progress. Here is where I also started to struggle, and the last 7 days of climbing in Chamonix plus 2 hours of sleep caught up with me. I had to dig deep and start pushing here, I also became quite irritable, especially towards other guides who were just getting in the way.
My struggling and other climbers weren’t the only issues here. Rob has less experience when it comes to snow and ice, so he is quite worried due to the lack of protection available. He and I knew it would be fine, but with the exposure, it was quite scary for him, but he was more than happy to continue to the summit.
We pushed on and summited the Matterhorn at 9 am. After 5 hours of climbing to the summit, we’re only halfway done. We still had to get back down. “Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory” – Ed Viesturs.
Descending the Matterhorn
After reaching both the Swiss (main) and Italian summits, it was time to start our descent. This part worried Rob, as down climbing the snow with essentially no protection, is (and was) a lot scarier than going up. I did my best to lower him on a spike. This meant I was going down the snow almost completely solo. The fall could have been up to 60 meters if I had fallen.
Other than the nerves, we descended the snow as quickly, but safely as we could, and I lowered rob of the odd spike that you find up there every chance I could. Rob is a lot fitter than me so had no issues going up with his fitness, however down climbing is a tough skill in which he didn’t feel extremely confident.
Because of this, for a lot of the down climbing, I lowered him off a spike or kept the rope tight for added security (I knew he was capable, but fatigue and fear could result in a mistake which we can’t have. I subsequently had to downclimb everything essentially solo, apart from the two abseils that we did down the slabs and off the Solvay Hut.
Even with lowering Rob, a huge block came loose luckily it didn’t fall. However, with the Matterhorn, we had to be vigilant and test almost every rock we touched. Just because it looks secure doesn’t mean it is. It’s very loose and is prone to a lot of rock fall.
Speaking of rock fall, not far from getting back to the hut, a party above knocked a block off about 200m above which smacked down, no more than 2 meters away from me. If that hit me, simply put I’d have been dead. Rock falls are super common on the Matterhorn and people have died because of this. We were constantly listening out for rocks.
Now the final tricky route reading part of the descent. Not technically difficult, but the route reading was incredibly tough and we easily could have gone off course (which we almost did). Luckily for us, we had a guide not far behind us. For safety and ease of getting back to the hut, we slowed our descent down and waited for him to catch up so that we could essentially follow him down.
Doing this added time, but I don’t mind about that, it made it smoother and easier to stay on route for the rest of the descent. From here, we arrived back at the Hornli Hut at 3 pm which means it took us roughly 11 hours to climb the Matterhorn. 5 up and 6 down.
Conclusion
This was an amazing achievement and my biggest achievement in mountaineering and life so far. It was hard work, especially after minimal rest and only 2 hours of sleep, but it got sent. The Matterhorn is an extremely dangerous mountain, but the self-fulfilment and sense of achievement are amazing.
I have wanted to climb this mountain for a long time and it has a personal meaning to me (that I am going to keep to myself). The feeling of reaching the summit of the Matterhorn unguided was the best feeling ever. It was my first 4000er too.
FAQ: Since completing this I’ve had loads of questions, so I thought I’d add an FAQ, but feel free to message me on Instagram @alexlee01, @outdoorascent or contact us for anything else. I have also written a full post on how to climb the Matterhorn.
What gear did you use?
For personal kit I just had standard mountaineering gear, I had a coat in my bag, but I didn’t wear it. As for climbing gear, we took some DMM offsets a size 0,1, and 2 Dragon Cam, of which we only placed 3 pieces on the descent and nothing on the ascent.
Is it more technically difficult or physically difficult?
Technically it’s easy. As I said above, I placed no gear climbing up. It is, however, extremely physically and mentally demanding. You also have a lot of other factors making it a challenge too. Such as the altitude, route reading, and other climbers. I don’t recommend placing any gear.
How does leaving the hut work?
Starting with local guides leaving first at around 3:50, then other guides, and finally unguided parties. The starts are staggered to help ease congestion. However, we got lucky and left with the guides just after 4 am.
Disclaimer: This is just my account on the Matterhorn. If you decide to climb it, do so responsibly and get a guide if you aren’t comfortable doing it unguided. Outdoor Ascent and its writers can’t be held responsible if anything goes wrong. Mountaineering can be extremely dangerous, in some cases resulting in injury or death. Stay safe, responsible, and happy climbing.
