For this month’s Mellow Expeditions, we spoke with @poulsonmax who spoke about his trip to the Alps for an ascent that tested everything before it even began. From injuries, admin chaos, and getting lost on the way down, this story is about persistence, perspective, and why some mountains are worth the struggle.
From the start its wasn’t exactly plain-sailing. The mountain hut wouldn’t accept our booking without a guide. Then two weeks before heading to the alps my climbing partner, @Kian_patel17 got a back injury. And to top it off @alexangusfelton, who was coming as-well, realised his passport was out of date. This all kinda felt like the universe didn’t want us on this mountain. We didn’t listen.
When we got to Zermatt, all the doubt vanished and we felt electric. We had no time to acclimatise because the hut only had room the next day. So we set up a campsite, prepped our gear and got a good night sleep. Before leaving Zermatt we stopped at a shop to get some last minute bits. Thats when we got told someone had died the night before on the mountain. The realisation kicked in, this wasn’t something to be taken lightly. We set our alarms for 4am and went to bed.
Spirits were high again in the morning. The first half of the assent was really enjoyable, easy scrambling and the sunrise was beautiful. After the Solvay hut (4003m) the climb started to get steeper and more technical, this is when we started seeing people throw in the towel and head down. Me and Kian still felt good so we pushed on, hitting the glacier, putting on our crampons and getting our ice axe out. Shortly after we made it to the top, around 11am. We had the summit to ourselves and took in the view for maybe a bit longer than we should have.
When we decided to head down the big crowd of climbers had vanished. Most accidents happen on the way down so we were being extra careful but this costs time. Before we knew it we, and another pair, were the only ones on the mountain and route finding is very tricky without a guide. So of course we got lost. It took us 12 hours to get down, we ran out of water and food, things got so dire we ended up splitting an energy gel between four people.
But we eventually got down, our room was full so we ended up sleeping on armchairs in the lobby. Waited till the cable cars were running again and went straight to the pub to get a well deserved pint and to looks at the mountain from Zermatt and feel pretty proud that the day before we were stood on top of it.
