UKC

Hi
I did this 4 days ago (23 July 2013) and thought I'd share my experience for anyone thinking of trying it. It was an absolutely brilliant route, technical and very exposed and I think its a more interesting alternative to the long flog up from the Monta Rosa Hut in Switzerland:

I came up from Alagna in Italy after a couple of days doing long hikes from the valley floor and the gondola to get fit and start a bit of acclimatisation. Spent two nights at the Gnifetti Hut including a day up to Pyramide Vincent 4215m and the Balmenhorn 4167m (solo) to help the acclimatisation. Food is great at the Gnifetti and the staff are really friendly but the Hut is very crowded and sadly I had my head torch nicked from my bunk bed and gear lifted from my mate's harness in the communal gear room. From then on I kept everything hidden in my sack, beside my bunk regardless of the "rules". Be warned, especially at a busy weekend or with day trippers around.

Next day my climbing partner returned to the valley so I soloed up to the Margherita Hut (~4 hours, 900m ascent, a small crevasse area to cross) enjoying fantastic views. If you were very fit and roped you could fit in several 4000m summits e.g. Liskamm, Parrotspitze, Ludwigshoe or Corno Nero on the way.

I spent 2 nights at the Margherita 4,554m and the steady acclimatisation paid off as everyone else seemed to be rolling around sick or unable to get up in the morning due to lack of sleep, whereas I felt fine

Unfortunately I couldn't find a "spare" partner and felt nervous of soloing AD with lots of fresh snow on the Dufourspitze so I arranged to climb with a local guide. Not my usual style but I didn't want to miss out having come this far.

The route was terrific but definitely too hard for me to solo and the exposure is immense. The snow ridge from Zumsteinpitze to Dufourspitze was about 1 boot's width, not developed into a trench yet and the drop down either side is outrageous - about 2,300m down the Marinelli Couloir on the RHS. Best just to concentrate on foot placements, not falling over your crampons and not think about it...

The rock climbing/scrambling on the SE ridge of the Dufourspitze is fairly easy BUT you have to be confident climbing in crampons as the ground is very mixed. Ice, fresh snow and rock when I did it so you are climbing with an axe, then popping it behind your sack to use both hands on a very regular basis.

We moved together about 70% of the time and the rest moved separately over short, hard sections with the leader placing an occasional cam or sling for protection while the second waited. We only properly belayed one short rock pitch and a 30m rope would have been fine, although we had 50m.

I took 3 hours from Margherita, over the Zumsteinpitze to the Dufourspitze summit 4,633m and we summited at 8am in perfect sunshine. Best to go quite early as I imagine the ridges might be more dangerous with soft snow.

The return route is the same, unless you are going on to Nordend or to the Monte Rosa Hut. So be sure to allow time to reverse all the rock scrambling and the exposed ridges without the need to rush.

I took about 5h 45m in total from the Dufourspitze summit back to the Punta Indren cable car to return to Alagna, including a stop at the Mantova Hut for a beer! The last cable car is 5pm so there was plenty of time.

For me the moral on the Dufourspitze is take acclimatisation and safety seriously, its a big mountain, second highest after Mont Blanc and deserves respect!

In return you will be rewarded with a magnificent summit and a challenging ascent.

Good luck!

In reply to Babika: Thanks for posting that Babika, very interesting.

Very disturbing to hear about the theft of your gear by some a***. It is possible (just), that your headtorch was taken by mistake, as someone else may have had a similar one, but gear taken from your mate's harness can only be theft. In mountain huts we all depend on collective honesty, as we can't watch everything all the time, apart from (quite reasonably), sometimes leaving stuff in a hut for a route, that we intend to pick up later. I tend to think that easy access, hotel style huts like the Gnifetti are much more prone to this sort of abuse than remote, climber only huts, but climbers can also behave badly, though not in my experience actual theft, more blatant leaving of large amounts of rubbish for "someone" to collect. I have seen this in some very remote, difficult to access bivi huts, where only serious mountaineers could have reached on a number of occasions, including the Eccles bivi hut quite recently.

It would be nice to think that those who love the mountains will treat them right, but unfortunately this is not always the case. You have my sympathy for the theft, for what that is worth, alas not much I suspect.

I think you made the right call to get something done even if it did require a guide. At least it sounds as if you had a great mountain day, so there is one positive from the trip. I did that route many years ago, but in the reverse direction, from the Dufourspitze to the Margherita, it is certainly memorable. Unfortunately I still have to climb the Nordend, but what would life be without objectives?

Hope overall the trip feels worthwhile to you.

In reply to Babika: PS : that sounds like quite a well thought out training and acclimitisation program that you went through.

In reply to Babika:

Yes, well done. I think you did absolutely the right thing not to solo it. I was speaking just a week or so ago to someone who backed off (solo) when he looked down the other side of Zumstein! Every time I've done it, it's been dry, or almost dry and in those conditions the traverse of the Z/D col is relatively straightforward though as I said before the down-climb from Zumstein is quite awkward. I'd imagine it's a lot harder in the conditions you encountered. As you say, a 30m rope is fine.

In reply to Babika:

Together with my partner we have just returned from Monte Rosa. We spent few nights in Gnifetti, and the atmosphere was great there. I am really surprised with what happened to you. We kept our equipment and all the stuff in the common place, without paying too much attention to it. It seems that it wasn't too reasonable.

Do you have any scheme of the route (might be photo with marked route)? In which guidebook you have found description of summiting Dufour from Italian side? All the guidebooks I know describe only Swiss route.

Bergheil!
Lukasz

In reply to lordluk: The Route on the italian side is the ridge you access right from the col Zumstein.
Just checked once again in my Rother Guide and the climbing is pretty straight forward, climbing on the swiss side of said ridge is supposed to be better.

We descended from the Margherita to staffal just on the 24th.
Went to Zumstein on the afternoon of the 23rd, after ascending to the Margherita but it was already too late to climb dufour.
I'll be back. Rad place after all!