Cervino - Matterhorn parete Est
Cervino - Matterhorn parete Est
venerdì 6 maggio 2016
A nice achievement this week: Matterhorn east face with skis and snowboard!
After the latest storms Cervino seemed ok to be skied, Luca Zanette emailed me few pictures and even though i wasn’t so keen at the beginning I came along on this journey. After that Roberto Rossi joined us i become more hopeful that it was going to be a super descent!
We left from Cervinia on Tueasday morning skinning up to bivacco Bossi at 3300m. We wanted to ski the Matterhorn the day after but we were blocked by a snow storm. We stayed one day in this cold bivuac and we were joined there by Roberto on Wednesday afternoon. Later that day we started climbing the big east face in order to reach Solvayhütte at 4000m were we spent one of the most horrific night I ever had. It was so cold that we used the emergency foil blankets trying to warm ourselves.
We woke up at dawn and we started climbing up the face entering a narrow couloir just above the hut. we stopped at 4060m since the face was too dry... We couldn’t make it to the top at 4200m.
We began our descent meeting on the way down Giulia Monego, Lorraine Huber and other two skiers headed towards the top.
It has been a day to remember
Matterhorn, one year ago, a true alpine adventure to me.
At first I was really skeptical and I wasn't confident about Zanette's idea. We didn't had much snow during the season and I thought the line wasn't good to be skied. But then also Roberto joined us and I felt more like we could do it.
From Cervinia we went up the slopes closed for the summer. As we approached Bossi bivouac, weather started to change. It was obvious that a storm was coming.
We woke up at midnight, our blankets frozen by the heavy snowfall and the hard wind howling outside. We tried to climb the ridge, but it was suicidal to keep going. We couldn't see anything and with 30cm of fresh snow just the idea of climbing that big face was completely crazy. We went back to our cold refuge, and we tried to sleep some more, shivering under the blankets.
The next day Roberto reached us at the refuge. Without a functioning stove, so for the second day we couldn't cook anything... Early in the afternoon we started climbing the face. The snow fallen the day before was already hard as ice, thanks to the spring sun and then the evening breeze it was completely settled.
We pushed till 4000m and we found shelter at the Solvay hutte. I slept next to a big bowl of snow under a completely useless blanket and a sky full of bright stars. I was so cold that I even tried to use the emergency blanket that I always keep in my backpack but even that wasn't enough. I didn't close my eyes, too afraid to die in my sleep if I let my conscience go.
Dawn was a blessing, sunshine on my frozen face was like to be kissed by an angel. For breakfast we had snow with some lichens and sand and up we go pushing for the summit, that we didn't reach 'cause there wasn't enough snow to ski all the way up.
After all that discomfort stepping in my bindings and feeling that familiar sensation of my skis gripping the snow was pure relaxation. No more thinking, no more fatigue, just turns in the air, hands caressing the slope.
We did it. We skied Matterhorn.
We were at the end couloir just above the last cliff. I needed one last turn to clear the face. But my legs after three days of extreme abuse decided to stop mid air. I fell like a retarded monkey on my side and luckily I was stuck somehow on the snow, millimeters from that little precipice; little compared to the mountain I skied, but that could have easily claimed my life. I can count the times i reached my physic limit on one hand, but on that mountain i reached it and i smashed it. I kept pushing just because it was the only thing to do. it’s just now that i realize how far beyond i went, compared to other exhausting situations, while pursuing that dream.
9am adventure was over. We reached Cervinia feeling like we departed centuries ago. World didn't change while we were out there, but we did, at the point that we couldn't recognize it anymore. For a brief while we were the mountain and the mountain was us.