Climbing Gran Paradiso
I was looking for a new adventure in the alps and was considering trying the matterhorn with a guide. Eventually I found a gentleman in Italy that would be keen to take me up there.
We talked for a while and finally he talked me out of it. Even though I had some experience in alpin style high mountains, matterhorn is actually no joke and people die on it every year.
Instead, my italian friend convinced me to go climb Gran Paradiso, but here is the twitch : I was going to do the north face, which goes right to the summit at 4061m.
This mountain lies in the Aoste region of Italy and is actually quite accessible by car from Zürich where I live. After negotiating a price of 600 Euros for the whole expedition I jumped in the car and met my guide in Aosta on saturday morning.
We bought some stuff and rented a pair of alpin shoes for me, picked the crampons and the ice axes and went over to the start of the trail. The first part of the day was alright, getting used to the shoes and slowly making my way to the Rifugio Federico Chabod (2750m). My guide was actually not yet sure if he was going to take me on the north face or not and told me that this would depend on my condition this first day. Appart from the freaking shoes hurting like hell, I was feeling well and happy to be there.
We arrived at the Rifugio and then chilled the rest of the afternoon watching the beautiful north face of the grand paradiso. We ate with the rest of the people a hearthy meal of pasta and soup and then went to sleep.
At 2 in the morning, frederico (my guide) woke me up, we packed quickly and got breakfast. I fill my water bottle and eat some bread. It’s 3 hours of walk to the north wall and you don’t want to be stuck on the wall when it is hot mid day, so it is rather advised to get up really early and start climbing the wall when it is still dark.
We then setup in the dark, using our headlamps to find our way and we climb during 3 hours to the basis of the wall. We already have our crampons as we are walking on snow and ice. Here is the first fun surprise, there is a huge crevasse at the basis of the wall that you have to cross. I looked quickly inside and realized that if I fall off the wall I will probably end up in this thing. Chills.
Anyway, we cross it and now we start the fun part of this trip. I take my ice axes and start going up. It is important to always have at least three points of attachment to the ice wall, so you move one foot, the other foot, one arm, the other arm, one foot, the other foot.. And you start to get into a rythm.
I start to feel confident and go faster, and my foot slip. I fall 2 meters and somehow stick my ice axe and get back on track. I can see on the face of my guide that he is worried. Encouraging !
We keep on going, it is exhausting, there is no room for resting as you are on a wall, you can stop but then your calves start hurting. 1 hour passes, 2 hour passes and we are only at the middle of the wall which is 600m high.
Another pair of climbers on our right has troubles to keep going and one of them fell at least 3 times, luckily saved by his roped partner. Forgot to mention, we are only attached by a rope with my guide, no fix attache so If I fell, he fells with me if he can’t somehow stop my fall.
After 3 hours on the wall the sun comes up and we reach the higher part of the wall, which is actually more steep than the start and more hard. I am super tired, I am also super thirsty as I had the good idea to only take 1.5L of water that I drank in the first half of the wall. I have troubles to stick my crampons into the ice and I am actually afraid as I look down. But then, what choice do I have besides going up ?
Another hour and finally I reach the upper ridge. Words cannot express how relieved I am. it was a 4 hour battle and finally I made it ! From there it is a short climb to the actual summit where you can have a picture with a statue of a lady. We spend a few moments admiring the panorama. As the Gran Paradiso is south from the alps, you can actually see the whole ridge, we see the mont blanc, the matterhorn, the monte rosa in a single glance.
We then start our descent. Which is painfull as I am exhausted and deshydrated, I eat some snow on the way. I can finally relax when we reached the refugio where I can finally appreciate the taste of victory with an ice cold cola in my hands.
Here is the video :
