It’s been a long and amazing journey and it’s not even finished…
So stoked I got to climb so many mountains last year, ski half of them, fly off some of them or just hike down.
So grateful I got to share all those summits with such amazing humans! Nothing would have been possible without them…
And so respectful to the mountains for all they gave and taught me.
Now there are two more summits to go, let’s keep it safe and keep it fun!
Watch the Movie on Salomon TV
Today is the the 21st of March, which means the first day of spring. And today we are skiing down back to Zermatt after climbing the second two highest peaks of the Alps, Dufourspitze and Nordend.
In total, and together with Colin Haley we have climbed 21 peaks out of the 82 above 4000m. Whoop whoop !
Below is what we did so far:
2nd and 3rd of March: we started with the Gran Paradiso (4061m #1) with Colin Haley and Anthony Bonello (film maker). On day 1 we got up to Vittorio Emanuele hut. On day 2 we did the summit and back down.
4th to 10th of March: we had 7 days of bad weather. I stayed at home in Cham, trained a bit, ski some powder, did some filming and spoke a lot with Laurent Valbert, our weather man ;)
11th – 12th of March: Colin Haley, Anthony Bonello and I climbed the Barre des Ecrins (4102m #2) and Dôme de neige (4015m #3) (Day 1 we got up to the Ecrins hut from Pelvoux, on day 2 we climbed Barre and Dome and skied down back to Pelvoux. Drove back to Cham the same day.
Early morning skinning up Barre des Ecrins – Photo:Colin Haley
Going down Barre des Ecrins to reach Dome de Neige – Photo: Anthony Bonello
13th of March: At home in Cham, resting and preparing the next days.
14th of March: Colin and I skin up on the piste to Testa Grigia and stayed at the Cervino guide hut with Guido Perrini (film maker) from Breuil Cervinia.
15th of March: Colin and I climbed and skied Breithorn West (4164m #4), Central (4159m #5) and East (4139m #6), the Gendarme (4106m #7), Roccia Nera (4075m #8) and we finished with Pollux (4092M #9) and Castor (4223m #10) going down to the Feliksjoch and then skied down to the Quintino Sella winter hut. Guido went with us at the base of the Breithorns to shoot with the drone. My carbon boot broke on the first descent and we taped it for the rest of the day.
Colin Haley climbing up the last meters of Castor
16th of March: from Quintino Sella hut Colin and I climbed the Lyskamm West (4479m #11) and traversed to the Lyskamm East (4527m #12). On the way down to the Lysjoch one of my pole broke. We decided to change our original plans: to leave Dufourspitze and Nordend to later on and do as many as possible of the 4000m peaks on the North – South axe before to get down to Gnifetti hut. So from the Lysjoch we headed up to Signalukuppe (4554m #13) and Zumsteinspitze (4563m #14). From there we went to the Parrotspitze (4432m #15), Ludwigshöle (4341m #16), Corno Nero 4321m #17) and Pyramid Vincent (4215m #18). We ended at the Gnifetti hut with awesome food and warmth welcome.
Myself on the south West face of Lyskamm West – Photo Colin Haley
17th of March: We skinned up to Punto Giordani (4046m #19) and down to Gressoney then back to Breuil Cervinia and drove back to Cham.
18th of March: Bad weather day and rest day
19th of March: Colin, my brother and I headed to Zermatt and skinned up the pist to Rotenboden. Then down to the Gorner Gletscher and up to the Monte Rosa hut.
20th of March : Dufourspitze (4634m #20) and Nordend (4609m #21).
Conditions were not easy. We had to go thru a big crevasse on the way up (and then on the way down). The fixed ropes of the normal route to Dufour had been removed. We decided to go up a by a shorter couloir further left. But the last 20 meters were steep and not so easy. Colin soloed it and could give me a belay from the ridge which felt much safer. The ridge to reach the Dufour summit was snowy and it took us a bit of time to reach it. We decided to go down to the normal couloir, hoping to find some old belays still in place but there was not much. 4 rappels later with two on abalakovs we reached back the Silbersattel. We thought the hardest was done but as soon as we started to climb the Nordend ridge we realized it was all icy. It took a lot of our mental energy to go up to Nordend and down again. I was mentally tired after it and hungry too. The day turned out to be much longer than planned and we not much water nor food left. We decided to sleep again at the Monte Rosa hut and ski down to Zermat the next day.
Climbing up the snowing couloir before a short but hard section of mixte to gain the Dufourspitze ridge – Photo: Colin Haley
Climbing the Dufourspitze ridge to reach the summit – Photo: Colin Haley
21st of March: Getting down to Zermatt from the Monte Rosa hut. And back to Cham.
Also you can check our itineraries on movescount here
Three happy humans on top of Dome de Neige – From Left to Right, Colin Haley, Myself, Anthony Bonello
I had not planned to write any post blogs during my project to climb all of the 4000m peaks of the Alps. I thought we would be busy skinning up, skiing down, checking maps, itinerary and weather. But things are going a different way. We did our first summit, the Gran Paradiso (Italy) together with Colin Haley (Alpinist) and Anthony Bonello (Film maker) on the 3rd of March and since then it’s dumping. Winter is here and this morning I shovelled more snow in one morning than I did in December, January and February reunited. It’s both great and a bummer. Great because I love snow and the mountains needed snow. And a bummer because I want to keep moving and climb more summits and this snow put us on hold.
The last 3 days had been a bit stressful with the weather, making plans and then changing plans with all the things behind that. Phone calls to collect infos on conditions, POI and tracks for the GPS, huts booking and then cancellations, etc etc… But this morning I woke up serene and relaxed. I manage to let go something in my minds and to accept we probably won’t be able to do anything this week. Too much snow. Too much wind. Too dangerous. And not much I could do about all this.
Since winter is here for real, lets go skiing powder and keep an eye on the weather.
The next go is maybe not that far away!
You can follow my long journey thru the social media with the Hashtag #LivAlongTheWay. And on the web page LivAlongTheWay
Feel free to leave a comment, a message, etc… they all give me a great energy :)
Pizzas falling off the sky ;)
We left Cham under the rain, but as soon as we got to Italy the sun was shining.
The next day we were on the Gran Paradiso summit (4061m), happy to be there, dealing with a bit of wind, cold fingers and nose. I was blown away by the view on the Mont Blanc, like I never saw it before.
This was the first step of a few months project to climb the 4000m peaks of the alps and get to see new places of an amazing and huge terrain.
I’m stoked and grateful to start this long journey together with Colin Haley. Apart from the fact he is such an impressive Alpinist, Colin is an amazing human and a very fun guy to share long days in the mountains with. Plus, he’s always keen on breaking trails ;)
We are on hold now due to the weather but this is ok. There is no record to beat, no firsts to do, no time pressure. “Only” 82 beautiful mountains to climb, together with precious friends and in good style.
It’s on, and I’m stoked for what is coming next!
You can follow my long journey thru the social media with the Hashtag #LivAlongTheWay. And on the web page LivAlongTheWay
Feel free to leave a comment, a message, etc… they all give me a great energy :)
Photos from Anthony Bonello
Summit Shot by Colin Haley
Video edit from myself ;)
Beautiful sunset lights over the Vittorio Emanuele hut at 2732m
Early mornings at their bests. Awesome lights, mountains and views ;)
Aerial shot from Anthony of Colin and I on the top part of Gran Paradiso
Yeah, the summit shot selfie. Whoop Whoop!
When the sastrugi is replaced by a nice and soft snow 
A short edit from the Gran Paradiso summit back to the civilization…
Le Schreckhorn, ou pic de la terreur, n’aura pas faillit à sa réputation de l’un des plus beaux 4000m des Alpes. Probablement l’une de mes plus belles courses en montagne de cet été. Pourtant cela commençait mal. Chute de neige le mercredi, un gardien qui tente de nous décourager de venir… et notre propre intuition que ça peut faire quand même. Comme souvent en montagne, le mieux c’est d’aller voir. Au pire on aura fait une belle marche ;)
En ce dernier samedi de septembre, direction donc Grindelwald, au pied de l’Eiger, un endroit que j’aime beaucoup. Le dépaysement est total en vallée avec le trio gagnant “chalets-géraniums-pelouse de golf”, comme en montagne, où l’on se retrouvent seuls au coeur d’un gros massif. Y a pas à dire, cet endroit de la Suisse est simplement magnifique…
On opte pour la version la plus soft en prenant le télécabine de Pfingstegg et gagner un peu de déniv sur cette première journée qui nous amène en quelques heures à la Schreckhornhütte (le refuge). L’arête Sud Ouest n’a pas l’air trop enneigée de ce qu’on a pu en voir. Et nous avons l’agréable surprise d’apercevoir une trace sur le glacier, merci à la cordée de la veille!
Le couple de gardiens nous accueillent avec un verre de thé alors qu’ils sont en plein rangement. Ils fermeront lundi et nous sommes les derniers clients de la saison… La gardienne cuisine comme une chef et nous régale. Le gardien est un peu rustre mais contrairement à ce qui peut être dit sur certains sites web, il est sympathique et sérieux en se préoccupant des alpinistes qui passent par son refuge. (Je crois qu’il ne nous a pas lâché de la jumelle ;) )
Dimanche, 4h du mat, c’est le départ. Descente de la moraine, traversée du glacier, remontée un peu plus loin. Il y a pas mal de kairns au début et une sente assez bien marquée qui disparait peu à peu avec la neige. La marche de nuit passe toujours assez vite et l’on se retrouve déjà sur le glacier. Il y a plus de neige que ce que nous pensions et le bout de trace laissé par la cordée de la veille est bien apprécié. Nous passons la rimaye par la droite, là où elle est bouchée et remontons le couloir à droite de l’arête, suffisamment enneigé. Enfin nous arrivons au rocher. Un rocher orangé compact aux grosses prises franches. Le type de rocher rassurant et facile à grimper. Au niveau condition, il y a de la neige (ça on l’avait compris dès l’approche) mais ça ne gêne pas vraiment. On va juste un peu plus doucement que si c’était sec. L’arête qui mène du Schreckhorn au Lauteraarhorn est bien enneigée aussi. L’enchaînement sera pour une autre fois, ce qui fait une autre bonne raison de revenir :)
A 9h30 nous sommes au sommet et l’on profite largement de la vue offerte à 360°. Le panorama est incroyable. Mer de nuages sur les vallées de la Suisse à l’Italie et Montagnes plâtrées blanches au-dessus. Les photos ci-dessous en parlent mieux que moi.
Que dire de la descente? Que l’on a brassé jusqu’au dessus des genoux dans la neige devenue molle? Oui. Que le retour jusqu’à Pfingstegg était un peu longuet? Oui. Que le parapente aurait été le bienvenu? pas faux. Mais c’est surtout la beauté des montagnes environnantes, le fait d’être seuls sur toute une course, et la variété de terrains qu’offre le Schreckhorn dont je me souviendrai. Avec un grand sourire aux lèvres.
Le Schreckhorn en chiffres : Altitude : 4078m Altitude du refuge : 2530m Tarifs remontée de Pfingstegg : 24 CHF Tarifs demie pension du refuge : 61 CHF pour les membres du CAF J1 : 1280m positifs J2 : 1660m positifs Matos que l'on a pris : Une corde de 50m, sangles de 120cm, Camalots (gris, violet, vert), quelques câblés Matos de glacier
Liv Sansoz 