Gene Yore is a member of the Climbing Committee, Chair of the Aid and Big Wall subcommittee and member of the Small Party Self Rescue Pilot subcommittee.

On our first Alps climbing trip (6/20-8/4/01) Rich Draves, Rich Karstens and I found the reality of the Alps bigger and with more accommodations and access than our well-prepared expectations. The Alps are about 500 mi. long, 100 mi. wide and run from southeast France to coast into Albania. They have 3 peaks over 15,000', 8 higher than Mt. Whitney and about 60 major peaks over 4,000 meters (13,123').

Huts are great. Switzerland alone has over 70 huts that furnish shelter, dorms, pillow and blankets, dinners, breakfasts, bottled water, beer and wine. Most are high up where we would usually set up base camp. All the necessary gear for a glacier climb will fit in a daypack. Nice.

Crowds of climbers go with the territory. Most of Europe is within four hours of the Alps by train, the time it takes us to drive from Seattle to Washington Pass for a day of climbing. There is such easy access (via cable cars, rather than a day of hiking as in the Pacific Northwest) that less experienced folks can get into very serious mountains and a lot of trouble. More people die each year on Mont Blanc (triple digits) than in the whole history of climbing on Denali. The rescue folks are professional and very well equipped with helicopters, etc.

We summitted: Mont Blanc (15,771'), highest peak in the Alps, France, and Italy; Dufourspitze (15,203'), Zumsteinspitze (14,970'), and Signalkuppe (14,947', all part of Monte Rosa, the highest peak in Switzerland); The Matterhorn (14,692'), Mont Blanc du Tacul (13,937'), Breithorn (13,661') and others.

The Matterhorn took 7 hours up and 8 down. Rich Karstens best captured our initial emotions while viewing the Matterhorn from Zermatt -- "Oh my God, we're going to die." It's not as technically hard as it is intimidating, but has lots of objective hazards (falling rock and people) and requires 15 hours of total concentration. Rich Karstens got a thumbs up from another rope team when he caught a falling member. They were simul-climbing and had placed no pro.

From where we first put hand to rock near the Hornlihutte, we gained 4,000 feet. Mostly rock but some snow, wet snow over slick sloping rock or hard ice and some Verglas. All Class 4 to 5.2-3, so we only roped up for about the top half and simul-climbed all of that. An ice axe and crampons were a must for some sections. During our descent we observed Air Zermatt recovering the body of a German climber who fell coming down the day before we climbed.

Mont Blanc and Dufourspitze were both long glacier slogs. Dufourspitze also has a rock ridge near the summit, not completely without hazards. A start from either hut (Grande Mulets Hut at 10,030' or Monte Rosa hut at 9,170') requires more than 6,000' elevation gain. Toss in down climbing the rock west ridge on Dufourspitze to traverse Zumsteinspitze and Signalkuppe and it's a 6,857' day. After that the Margarita hut at 14,947' on the top of Signalkuppe was a very welcome site. BTW the Margherita hut was first built in 1893 and rebuilt in about 1980 into a two-storied wooden box covered with sheet copper. At just under 15,000' it's the highest construction in Europe.

The hills were alive with the sounds of Mountaineers... Unexpectedly we bumped into Chris Madden and Pat, of the Mountaineers and Seattle Mountain Rescue, preparing to climb Mont Blanc, as well as Peter Pond and Robin at the Hornlihutte, waiting to climb the Matterhorn. We missed Marc Richardson, a Seattle Mountaineer, who was climbing for two months in the Dolomites and doing the Haute Route.

Gear is more about what not to bring. We regretted bringing, lugging, and never using bivy sacks, Therm-a-Rest pad, sleeping bag, stove, fuel, pots, 3+ days of freeze dried food, cups and eating utensils. We had too many sets of clothes (laundries are easy, cheap and fast on rest days). We were glad we brought our aluminum crampons and light weight SMC Glissade Ice Axe. We were sorry that we did not bring our AAC card (for big discounts at the Huts), earplugs, sheet liner (lots of previous climbers had used the blankets and pillows), small day pack instead of our larger overnight pack used in the Cascades.

The Hotel Bahnhoff was a good place to stay and base in Zermatt. It's a short block from the Zermatt train station, clean, modern, has dorms, doubles, quads, a kitchen, friendly and problem solving receptionists, caters to climbers, has lots of useful information and storage for while your are out climbing and using huts - a home away from home. Additional storage is available across the street at the train station. [A campground is about 2 blocks down the Valley from the Bahnhoff.]

Remaining connected by phone and email. Both MCI and ATT have toll free numbers that you can use to charge calls on your VISA cards. Past experiences have been very expensive lessons with local phone companies and hotel's phones. Both Zermatt and Chamonix have easy and reasonable Internet access.

We highly recommend just doing it. We've already started a list of peaks and partners for the next time.