Sunday 5 August 2012

Alps 2012 Part 2

Despite a bad forecast it was clear and sunny when we woke up this morning. So we packed light, got our free lift passes, and headed up to the first station of the Hosaas uplift. From here we hiked up a trail to the Weissmiess Hut and pushed on towards the Lagginhorn (4010m), our first target. We had no intention to make an attempt. Instead we scouted the first part of the route and looked for potential bivy spots. We hoped to get all the way to the first glacier, but a thunderstorm rolled in and we descended rapidly from circa 2900m. However, it looked fairly straightforward, so we shouldn't have any problems navigating at night.

Rather than go all the way down we got back on the lift and rode up through the rain and clouds to the top station some 3140m high. It would be valuable acclimatisation. Here the weather cleared again and we pushed up another path to the base of a rotten glacier at c3250m. Neither of us had any problem with the fast altitude gain. We hung around awhile longer before catching the lift back down to the valley. A further night spent sleeping around 3000m will hopefully see us fully acclimatised. Once the weather clears up we will have a go at the Lagginhorn.

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