Ski Mountaineering Tour of Monte Rosa Photo Diary

In April 2001 I did my last ski mountaineering trip before my bad back prevented me from continuing this sort of activity. There were just 3 of us with me Dave Butcher, good friend Mark and guide Jon de Montjoye. 

We decided to do the Tour of Monte Rosa, the highest mountain in Switzerland which is right on the border with Italy. We went around it rather than over it! The trip started and finished in Zermatt and we used ski lifts every day so that we could do a bit more skiing and also to help my bad back.

Originally, there were going to be 3 of us, plus guide Jon. Unfortunately, the trip had to be rearranged and moved from late March into early April quite late on when the 3rd member of the group dropped out unexpectedly. In the end, the trip was very enjoyable and we had one heli ski lift on the penultimate day to avoid the alternative of walking (carrying skis, etc) a lot of the 4 or 5 hour trip because of a lack of snow between Alagna and Macugnaga.

Ordering Black and White Fine Art Prints

If you would like a memento of your trip or a gift, all of the black and white images are available as fine art black and white prints. All of them were taken with a Mamiya 6 camera on Ilford 120 film and are available as high quality hand made darkroom prints in a range of sizes from 40x30cm to 70x70cm (size refers to mount and frame, image is a few cm smaller).

They all have a 6 digit number at the end of the title to uniquely identify the negative to help ordering – just type this number into the search box in the World Landscapes Gallery and it will show the image and ordering information. Not all images are included so if you can’t find the ones that interest you just send me an email using the Contact page form on this website and we’ll sort out the details between us.

Friday 6th April 2001 Travel to Zermatt

I managed to get an Air Miles ticket from Manchester to Geneva on British Airways so my flight was free, always a good start! Jan gave me a lift to Manchester airport in time to meet Mark, get our luggage checked in and catch the 7am flight which arrived in Geneva around 10am.

From the airport I used my Swiss Transfer Ticket (bought in the UK for return travel between any Swiss airport and most Swiss ski resorts). We took the mainline train from Geneva Airport to Visp then changed to the local train to Zermatt. 

From the Station in Zermatt it was a few minutes walk to the Hotel Antika where we had a twin room booked for 2 nights.

Saturday 7th April 2001 Zermatt Skiing

We had one day to find our ski legs before the ski mountaineering trip started. The closest lift to our hotel was the Sunnegga underground funicular railway so we took that and skied around that area and Gornergrat before moving up to the glaciers and Klein Matterhorn areas. There were a few crevasses roped off on the slopes below Klein Matterhorn that I hadn’t seen when skiing here before possibly indicating a lack of snowfall this winter.

After a full day skiing we headed down to the village for a beer or two, on to our hotel for a wash and brush up before going out to find somewhere to eat.

Sunday 8th April 2001 Zermatt to Gressoney

We met up with Jon late in the morning. He drove over from Vallorcine near Chamonix that morning. Then we made our way to the lift to Furi, then Trockener Steg followed by the cable car to Klein Matterhorn. As the weather was dreadful we stopped at the cafe, it’s just before the exit from the tunnel leading from the cable car to the pistes. We hoped that a cup of tea would encourage the weather to improve! It didn’t, so 40 minutes later we left. 

We followed the piste down to the end of the summer skiing drag lift cables but then continued skiing straight on up and over the Gobba di Rollin (3899m). From there we just followed Jon down as we couldn’t see very far. Eventually the snow ran out so we took our skis off and carried them for a few minutes into the small village of St Jacques (in the northwest of Italy near Aosta) and a bus stop. We just had a few minutes to wait then the bus took us a couple of miles down the road to a ski lift in Frachey. We bought ski lift tickets to get us over the Bettaforca Pass, from there Jon believed we could ski to our accommodation which was already booked.

There wasn’t much time left before the lifts shut for the day but we managed to take 2 lifts up and skied across from the top of the second lift to the foot of the lift to the Bettaforca col which was still running. From the top of Bettaforca we skied down to Stafal. The lifts had shut as we skied down so we put skins on to ski up to Gabiet Alp where we decided to stop for the night at Albergo del Ponte, a bed and breakfast chalet close to the lift, rather than press on to our booked accommodation on Col d’Olen quite a way above us. In fact, the Albergo was similar to a comfortable mountain hut inside, except that Mark and I shared a twin room and we seemed to be the only ones staying there. 

Interesting that there were very few skiers on the slopes towards the end of the day when the lifts were open even though it was a Sunday with reasonable snow on the slopes.

Monday 9th April 2001 Gressoney Skiing

We left the Albergo after breakfast and headed across to the lift to buy lift passes for all of us. Fortunately Jon, as an international mountain guide, is entitled to a huge discount on his lift pass. We mainly stayed in the Gressoney La Trinite area, using the lifts to access the off-piste snow. Using climbing skins on the skis every now and then to go further afield.

We made our way to the Rifugio Guglielmina on the Col d’Olen (2880m), where we should have been last night. It used to be a hotel, built in 1878, and was quite run down and scruffy looking with cables hanging down in several places as they seemed to be rewiring the place. The building was huge but wasn’t busy so Jon had a room to himself and Mark and I shared a twin room with fantastic views over the mountains.

Considering this is a mountain hut where all the food and drinks are brought up from the valley by ski lift and Skidoo the food was excellent. It even included a local variation of Parma Ham – fine cut dried donkey. We had this every night as a starter. The hut was also well known for its wine cellar. The local wine was Nebbiolo so we tried different ones each night. In fact Mark, who is a bit of a wine buff, liked them so much he convinced us to stay for 3 nights. Jon just had to work out how to change the planned route so that we could go from here to the Britannia Hut above Saas Fee in one day!

Note: The Rifugio Guglielmina was completely destroyed by fire in December 2011 and wasn’t rebuilt.

Tuesday 10th April 2001 Rifugio Guglielmina to Alagna return

The rifugio was about a half mile from the top of the ski lift from Gressoney. We skied across towards the top of the lift and then skied part way down the piste to Gabiet Alp when Jon veered off to the left and stopped. We put skins on to ski up to the Zube Pass (2874m). I took a photo of the view across to the Rifugio Guglielmina from near the pass. Then it was time to take the skins off and ski down through a few hamlets with old stone buildings and the Valle d’Otro hamlet of Follu (1664m) with the pretty Madonna della Neve Chapel. It was just patchy snow down from here to Alagna Valsesia so we carried the skis strapped to our rucksacks for a bit. 

Then we walked through the edge of Alagna to the lifts back up to Col d’Olen and skied a bit more off-piste using the Gressoney lifts before returning to the Rifugio Guglielmina for the evening. It felt like we had been ski mountaineering all day!

Wednesday 11th April 2001 Gressoney Skiing

I decided to ski without the camera today and left it hidden in the room at the Rifugio. We skied off-piste using the lifts around Col d’Olen, Stafal and Gressoney La Trinite as far as the Bettaforca Pass before returning to the Rifugio Guglielmina in late afternoon when we had worn ourselves out. I took a few around the Rifugio though.

Thursday 12th April 2001 Guglielmina, Scharzberg Weisstor, Britannia Hut

It was quite a busy morning at the hut after we came down with our gear after breakfast. Lots of skiers had come up on the first lifts to Col d’Olen and across to the Rifugio for heli skiing. In fact that was the way that Jon had sorted out the problem of getting to the Britannia Hut today. We had to wait for a helicopter ride and we were 3rd in the queue. 

When our turn came Jon told me to sit in the front with the pilot and he and Mark were in the back. That gave me the opportunity to take a few photos as we were flying. Unfortunately, I was taking photos through the plastic cockpit which wasn’t the best way so I tried to open the window beside me. Jon had put on headphones so that he could talk to the pilot during the flight and quickly told me to stop, the pilot had told him that he didn’t want the window open. I carried on taking photos through the plastic. It was a spectacular ride northwards along the east face of Monte Rosa but well below the summit. The cockpit had a see-through floor and the view down was as spectacular as the one in every other direction.

We could hear Jon and the pilot talking throughout the flight, Jon told us he was trying to get the pilot to land in a different place to the one he had booked. The pilot kept saying it wasn’t an approved landing site so we thought we had to go with the original plan and land at the Monte Moro landing area above Macugnaga. However, the pilot actually dropped us exactly where Jon had asked him to, apparently all radio conversations are listened to by the ground crew so he couldn’t let them know of the use of an unapproved landing area.

We jumped out and grabbed our gear from the long metal baskets strapped to the outside of the landing gear and got out of the way quickly. Seconds later the helicopter flew up vertically before turning and heading back to Col d’Olen for his next pickup. We were between Monte Rosa and the Strahlhorn on a flattish snow ridge just above the col called Schwarzberg Weisstor. After putting skis on I thought we were just skiing down from there but Jon told us to follow him along the ridge to the col. He was in quite a hurry, probably because it was very cold, so I only had time to take a couple of shots, one across to Weissmies and the other of Monte Rosa. I packed the camera away in my rucksack as I could sense that it might get in the way on the descent. It was a blue sky day with clear views in every direction.

Mark and I were told to side-slip the top section and not to put in any turns until he did. Also, we mustn’t ski directly above anyone else, in case we fell and took them out as well. Lastly there was a bergschrund (crevasse) at the foot of the slope, which we could see from the top as a black slot running across between the top edge of the glacier and the near-vertical slope we were about to ski down, so make sure that we came down where there was a snow bridge to ski across it onto the glacier. Nothing like a bit of reassurance before the tricky bits! 

The slope was terrifyingly steep at the top so there was no chance of either Mark or I putting in any turns so we side-slipped quite a way down, much further than Jon but then he does this for a living, Mark and I do it once a year! As the slope started to ease we were able to put in some turns and feel a bit more comfortable in what we were doing. I was last down because of the photos I took at the top so I could see where the other 2 were crossing the bergschrund and I headed there to join them on the glacier.

After a short pause Jon was off skiing down the left side of the glacier heading to the valley. The skiing was great and it was a little while before we stopped and I retrieved my camera to resume taking photos. As we descended to the lower slopes of the glacier we were in the clouds that were hanging low over the valley in an inversion but with odd spells of sunshine breaking through. 

Eventually, we came to the Mattmark road tunnel and took our skis off. There was a lot of snow at either end and in places where there were arches on one side allowing the snow to blow in. In between there were floor to ceiling icicles and a lot of sheet ice on the ground which was difficult to spot in the darkness as we walked through from one end to the other to put our skis on again where we came out.

Once out of the tunnel we skied down right to the edge of Saas Almagell village. We only had to walk a couple of hundred yards to find a bar for a beer to celebrate a great ski down. It had taken us about an hour and a half or so from the top of the glacier to the village.

From Saas Almagell we took a bus to Saas Fee, walked to the ski lift to Felskinn and at the top put skis on again and skied to the Britannia Hut to end a great day.

Friday 13th April 2001 Britannia Hut to Allalin Pass to Tasch

It was blue sky with no clouds anywhere as we left the Britannia hut. Most skiers left before we did as they were heading for the Strahlhorn, a 4000m mountain which Mark and I had skied with Jon 3 years earlier. We were ‘just’ going over the Allalin Pass and then down the Mellich Glacier to Tasch village, where Jon left us to return to his home in Vallorcine. Mark and I caught the train up to Zermatt for another two nights at the Hotel Antika. This time the hotel was very busy because it was Easter so, not having booked until mid-December, our room was next to the boiler room and under a bridge in the ground floor of the hotel. It was a large warm room!

Saturday 14th April 2001 Zermatt Skiing

Mark and I stayed on and had an extra day of skiing using the Zermatt lifts and pistes. I also wanted some more photos of the Matterhorn, weather permitting, and it was a sunny blue sky day so it was looking good. We had a good day skiing the slopes.

Sunday 15th April 2001 Travel Home

It was Easter Sunday and we left after breakfast by walking to the station and catching the train from Zermatt to Visp and then changing to the mainline train to Geneva Airport. There wasn’t a direct return flight to Manchester Airport available with British Airways Air Miles but there was if I went via Gatwick. I was on a 6.15pm flight and then had about an hour to wait at Gatwick for the BA shuttle to Manchester. It took a bit longer but it was all free! Mark caught a direct flight to Manchester so we said our goodbyes at Geneva Airport.

Jan picked me up from Manchester Airport and whisked me off home to the Peak District.

Cameras

Mamiya 6 MF camera, 75mm lens + Ilford FP4+ 220 film, carried in CCS Kobra Head case on neck strap and waist belt. I exposed 7 rolls of 220 film, 24 exposures per film.

Equipment

Ski Mountaineering Skis: Salomon X-Mountain 185cm skis + Fritschi Diamir bindings

Ski Crampons: Fritschi Diamir Harscheisen

Ski Climbing Skins: Fritschi Diamir Montana (purple colour on left of photo)

Ski Mountaineering Boots: Scarpa Denali

Crampons: Camp Arctic 10 lightweight 10 point step-in lightweight crampons

Ice Axe: Grivel Air Tech Mont Blanc 48cm

Rucksack: Outside Rock 40 litre