From Kent To 4,000 Metres Via A Hobbit Hole...

We had been fairly unlucky with the weather, but now the outlook was good for the weekend so on Thursday evening we decided it was time to attempt our first 4,000m peak. We chose the Alalinhorn (4,027m). After visiting to the tourist office in Saas Fee and an interesting conversation with the Hut Keeper - he selfishly didn't speak English - we secured three beds in the Langflue Hut for Friday night.

On Friday morning we made our way to Saas Fee once more, this time to take a cable car up to the Langflue hut. That might sound incredibly lazy but in insulated mountain boots, the prospect of ascending 1,200 metres of footpath in 35 degree heat didn't seem like a good one - our feet had taken punishment from similar walks earlier in the week.

Don't Jump...

Rather up here than down there... Crevassed glacier viewed from the cable car.

The cable car journey was done in two stages. The first one was a tiny orange box that seated four which wobbled around alarmingly; the second stage was a much larger car that had a 'driver'. The cable car driver acted as a bit of a tourist guide pointing out interesting features. He noticed us looking into the crevasses about 100m below us and stopped the gondola and opened the doors. We took a few photos and Simon C considered playing the "saved you" game by giving me a nudge towards the door and yanking me back; he thought better of it THANK GOD!

We got to the top, disembarked from the cable car in more conventional style and set off for the hut. We walked past the cable station café and explored the other buildings in the vicinity, none of which were open. We walked back to the café to find out where the hut was. As we walked in we saw the hut shoes - white surgeons-style clogs - and realised we had arrived.

Hut Life

We introduced ourselves to Matthias the Hut keeper, paid out 60 CHF (about £28) changed into our clogs, left all our sharp axes, poles and crampons on a shelf with our boots and were

The Langflue Hut, built in traditional Swiss chalet style, erm, not...

shown up to the rooms. We found a room that was about one metre high and collectively decided it would be a laugh to stay in this one; Simon was banging his head at every opportunity at this stage. The beds were a continuous row of mattresses which were numbered, by the numbering scheme used it was clear that you don't get a mattress each and it would get quite cosy in there, fortunately there were only three of us sharing.

We went downstairs for dinner and met a couple of guys from Norway who were having a quick coffee before setting up their tent on the glacier. Dinner was served at 6 pm, maybe it was tea? It consisted of soup with sausages, spaghetti bolognaise and some sort of Danish pastry. We washed it down with a beer and discussed what time we should start walking. We had sort of settled for 6 am but the look on Matthias's face suggested it was a bit late so we decided to do a real alpine start and set our alarms for 3 am get out at 4 am while it was dark.

In The Hobbit Hole...

Hobbits in their cosy hobbit hole...

At 9 pm we headed for the hobbit hole which was swathed in daylight so I used spare blankets to cover up the window. We all slept fitfully aware that there was much less oxygen than our bodies expected. At about 1 am I woke to find myself desperate for air, it was hot, stuffy and very claustrophobic. I pulled all the blankets down from the window, found my head torch and went to stretch my legs. Jon C saw I was up and asked how I was feeling; I had to admit that I wasn't too good and I needed air. Simon C then sat up and said that's all of us awake then. None of us were happy with our surroundings. We settled back to bed and decided if we were still awake at 2 am we would get ready to go.

Alpine Start

At 3 am the alarms sounded and we started to rise. It was a relief to be out of the room! We headed downstairs and made breakfast from the bread, cheese and jams Matthias had put out for us. By 4.30 am we were about 200 meters from the hut. The views we were experiencing were breathtaking. Saas Fee glittered in the distance, rocks and ice towered above us and a fresh fall of snow seemed to have cleaned everything. We were putting the rope on at this stage, we had really just set foot on the glacier ant the crevasses were clearly visible. Simon led, I was second (knife in hand) and Jon C was last.

Our plan was to follow the chairlift most of the way to Mittel Allalin (3,456m) (Europe's highest tube station). As we walked we were incredibly short of breath, we were breathing in as deep as our lungs would allow us and we still felt we weren't getting enough oxygen. We were making our way uphill with a steady plod, physically we were all fine, the air was making things difficult and we were only at 2,900m. We snaked in and out of the chair lift avoiding crevasses and slowly making height. Simon was avoiding the crevasses expertly, keeping a straight rope between me and him when ever he had to jump or stretch his step a but further than usual, I think the thought of my knife slicing through the rope was focussing his mind a little too.

We stopped for a toilet break at Mittel Allalin where we decided to get rid of the rope for a while. With it safely stowed in Jon's pack we headed through the skiers, who were whizzing past us at tremendous speed, to a footpath the other side of the pistes where we put our crampons on and got our ice axes out. To be honest, we weren't that sure where we should be going. We saw some walkers in the distance and decided to follow them to see where they were heading. As we walked away from the skiers a path was fairly visible so we made our way along it as it climbed steadily up hill.

We decided to put the rope on as the slope to our right got steeper, we were traversing a 50 degree slope with a gaping crevasse that was full of icicles and the rope made the traverse a bit more secure. Somehow I'd managed to get on the front of the rope, the plan was to put Simon in front so I could get material for my book. We were really struggling with the air, a few groups overtook us as we struggled up a relatively straight forward footpath. We got to a point on the path where it took a radical change of direction and decided to have a good rest. We discussed how we should approach the summit as we were still only at about 3,700m and we couldn't breathe: what it would be like at 4,000m didn't bear thinking about.

Alpine Nausea

We decided to do short hops, so I'd pick a point and go for it, resting only when alongside or past it. It wasn't the best way to ascend but it seemed to be the only way we could manage it. Slowly we got higher and as we went through the 3,900m mark Jon C was feeling nauseous. He heroically kept on going until he was eventually sick. He was also beginning to get a headache, but whether it was dehydration, altitude sickness or he was just being ginger we don't know.

Halleluljah! The summit, reached at noon, just three hours late, still, if you've learned to climb in Kent...

When we were very close to the top we had to pass through a narrow rocky pass. There were lots of people coming down so we allowed them through first as we got our breath back. We were hugely aware that stopping for breath half way up the pass would have been extremely embarrassing. We plodded up to a natural shelf that was about 5 metres from the summit where we threw our rucksacks off, un-roped ourselves and sat down; we had a cursory snowball fight and thought about the final 5 meters. When a party of Saas Fee old aged pensioners arrived we decided it was time to go for the top. We walked along the ridge towards the cross that marked the summit, took photos and went back down again. Thankfully the OAPs didn't overtake us on the way up. The time was 12 noon - the route had taken us seven and a half hours instead of the four and a half the book had said.

We roped up and descended quickly, aware that Jon was suffering with his general gingerness. We were asked several times how far to the top by people on the way up, but it's difficult to gauge someone else's speed so we avoided answering. We were all very pleased with ourselves and managed to get down to where we put our crampons on in one hour. We took our crampons off, Simon and Jon popped some pain killers and we walked back to Mittel Allalin for some pink cake and a cup of coffee.

The end.