Summer Alpine Programme 2024 Round Up, Part 3: Swiss Technical Summits

This year’s Summer Alpine programme was a great success, and we’re taking the chance to look back, reflect, and celebrate everyone’s Alpine mountaineering achievements.

We’ll start with a big thank you to all of our clients who joined us this summer, both those we had met previously and those who were new to us. Everyone worked hard with many big days in the mountains and early starts. It’s a real team effort when working together in the mountains and everyone was very receptive to the new skills, and performed well when putting these to use on Alpine climbs and summits. It is a real pleasure being part of your learning journey and your alpine mountaineering achievements. This is part three of our 2024 Summer Alpine round up, recapping the third week of the programme and the 6-day Swiss Technical Summits.

Everyone on this course had done an alpine course with us the previous year, so were strong and already familiar with operating in the alps. It’s always great seeing folk again and seeing the progression in their alpine mountaineering and climbing. The aim of this course is to take the mountaineering into the next grade, involving more climbing and technical routes including multi pitch rock climbing. An ideal introduction to alpine routes and mountains with a grade AD.

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Day 1

The weather forecast for the week looked good and conditions in the mountains were just right. Still good amounts of snow high up and cold temperatures at night meant the conditions were quite stable and not hotting up too much. Looking into the week ahead this meant for no real change of plans and less need to explore alternatives. We hadn’t committed to anything for the last two days of the course, keeping our options open which is easier when operating as a small team. The first 4 days were pre-planned and started with a multi pitch rock climb on the Jegihorn. First lift the next day meant we had all day rock climbing; the routes here range from 8 to 14 pitches long and are all well equipped with bolts and belays. Superb climbing and a great day to focus on climbing techniques, ropework and some acclimatization too. The day proved a good warm up and an opportunity to review your systems and equipment.

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Day 2

After the evening at our guesthouse base, next was a 3-day trip to the Almageller hut (2892m), where we used this as our base to climb routes near to the hut and stay there for 2 nights. The walk up to the hut on our 2^nd day of the course was around 3 hrs, with some added breaks on the way too. There’s a lovely mountain hut halfway at Almageller Alp, which is perfect for a halfway drink stop. Once at the Almageller hut we had a short break before heading out for a few pitches of climbing before dinner. This was done on the Dri Horlini which sit across from the hut a short walk away. This was a great way to end the day as much of it had just been walking with heavy rucksacks.

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Day 3

The next day we climbed the Dri Horlini, which is a great rock climbing/mountaineering traverse of the rock wall and towers. A normal start is required for this so not a long day. The route provides a good introduction to all Alpine ropework, skills and techniques, such as pitch climbing and moving together. Climbing in big boots for the entire route gives a real mountaineering feel and provides good practice and insight to climbing routes at alpine grade AD.

Day 4

The next day the plan was to traverse the Portjengrat (3656m), a longer and more technical route that bit further from the hut. This required an earlier start, of breakfast at 04:00am. The approach took around 1.5hrs and there was still quite a bit of snow. The team moved well and were at the start of the route by first light; the rock was dry and quite steep to start. Around 80m of steeper climbing soon got us to the ridge where we were able to move together or short pitched sections. This continued in a similar style for the next couple of hours with continuous movement and climbing. We had a lunch stop close to the last section of climbing before the summit, it was a good natural stop and a big, sheltered ledge in the sun for us all to sit comfortably. Everyone was moving well and the weather perfect. We could see the summit so after a little break we pushed on. Apart from the steep buttress at the start, most of the climbing follows the ridge directly, with the odd turn of a tower. Good quality rock mainly throughout and good progression of altitude too with the summit at around 3800m.

We all arrived at the summit at the same time, taking in the views and having a short break. Before making the descent, a little metal case was found and inside was a little summit notebook, to note our names and log our ascent. It was a really fun climbing adventure with a strong team. The descent was a mix of more climbing and mountaineering, then a steep long snow slope to descend to the base of the mountain on the other side. The snow slope was easy and made for a quicker descent, and after a couple of hours from the summit we were down at the base with only the walk to the hut remaining. Back at the hut it was sunny, and we were able to sit outside and enjoy some food and drinks before a quick pack up and walk back down to the valley.

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Back in the valley that evening, we reviewed the week so far and decided what we should do for the last two days of the course. We had lots of flexibility, and the weather looked good too. It was decided that we aim for two single day hits from the valley using uplift to climb 4000m peaks and in keeping with the theme of the course, to climb via more technical routes of AD.

Day 5

We took the first lift out of Saas Fee that morning to climb the Hohlaubgrat on the Allalinihorn (4027m). Everyone was excited and feeling ready after a good night’s sleep in the valley, one small advantage of staying in the guesthouse compared with a busy mountain hut. The lift access in Saas Fee is amazing and soon we were out onto the glacier and making our way to the snowy arete of the Hohlaubgrat. The route is mainly a steep snow arete and as it’s a popular route it often has a good track to follow. Right at the very top of the climb is a small rock buttress to climb through. This is done in a few pitches and often wearing crampons too, so feels quite like a mixed climbing style. There’s a fixed chain to pull on at the start and soon you’re topping out back onto snow to the final snow ridge to the summit. We followed the normal route on the other side of the mountain for our descent. This is relatively straight forward with sometimes the odd crevasse to negotiate. This summer was quite snowy so there were no big crevasses to navigate and after a couple of hours descent we were in the top station restaurant having some food and drinks.

We were back in the valley at our guesthouse base for around mid-afternoon, giving us plenty of time to rest and enjoy an afternoon nap before dinner.

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Day 6

The next day we planned to drive round to Zermatt and take the lift to Klein Matterhorn, aiming to climb the half traverse of the Breithorn. This meant an early start from Saas Grund, for the short drive round to Tasch. As you can’t drive in Zermatt, a train or taxi must be taken from Tasch, where we parked up and took the train. Once in Zermatt it’s a short walk through the village to the lift station at the other end of town. At that time of morning, all the other alpinists were gathered waiting for the first lift too, most are going for routes on the 4000m peaks of Breithorn (4160m), Pollux (4089m) or Castor (4225m). This is also where the 6-day itinerary of the Monta Rosa traverse starts taking in the summit Breithorn on day 1 and descending to the Val d Ayas hut in Italy.

Once at the top station of Klein Matterhorn, we roped up and started our glacial travel towards the start of the Breithorn traverse. There’s a steep snow slope to start the route, which was hard work at this stage of the week, having been out every day either climbing alpine routes or walking to and from mountain huts. We all agreed it felt tough, however everyone concluded it was worth the effort after being in the mountains every day.

Once on the ridge we started the traverse proper. The route climbs over three rock walls/buttress most of which was a mix of easy rock climbing and snow aretes. It was a great last day, and the views were amazing. After a couple of hours climbing with breaks along the way, we were at the end of the traverse and only a snow arete remained before the summit. We all stood on the summit together and celebrated a great week out in the mountains! All that remained was the easy descent down the normal route back to the Klein Matterhorn lift station. Back in Zermatt we had some well-earned food and drinks while chatting over the highlights of the week.  Everyone put in so much effort and worked well as a team; it was a real pleasure and we all were left looking forward to our next time in the mountains together.

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This marked the end of our Summer Alpine courses; 3 weeks of mountain adventures and skills! It’s great to see friends returning for more and developing their alpine climbing and mountaineering with Glenmore Lodge. Here’s hoping for another great summer in 2025, and with bookings already coming in, we’re all look forward to meeting you in Scotland this winter or back out in Switzerland next summer.

Explore our 2025 Summer Alpine programme

Keep an eye out for the next blogs, which will be recapping 1:1 tailormade Alpine climbing and mountaineering adventures!

About Stuart McAleese

“Originally from Northern Cumbria I started out hill walking in the Lake District when I was at school. I soon become interested in rock climbing and mountaineering, and was lucky enough to work and climb with Mountain Guides during my first job leaving school. Since then I’ve been working full time in the mountains for around 25 years.

At the same time as working, I enjoy climbing in my free time and have been lucky enough to go on many expeditions around the world, climbing new mountains, first ascents and tough remote summits. Places such as Patagonia, Alaska, Himalaya, Peru, Baffin Island, Yosemite and China. In 2004 I was nominated for the prestigious Piolet d’Or in Grenoble, France, for a 1st ascent of the ‘Supa Dupa Couloir’ in Alaska.

I love my job as a Mountain Guide, teaching and exploring big mountains in all weather all year round. I joined the Glenmore Lodge team in 2019 and head up the Summer Alpine programme as well as delivering on the Rock & Mountain programme of training courses”.