UKC

Hello.

So I've booked to have a go at the Matterhorn next year and was wondering if anyone can give some training tips for preperation.

I am quite fit however i am interested on what training will help me get up there.

Cheers

In reply to Hammy78: It's a bit difficult to say as you need to define 'quite fit' and you give no indication of what sort of climbing you do or have done.

In reply to wbo:

Well i climbed Mont Blanc Solo last year via the gouter route, walked the WHW in 3 days and currently do about 100 miles a week on the road bike.

My concerns are with the legs. How much strain are you putting on the legs when attacking the Matterhorn. How big is the strides on the way up, are you constantly on your hands and feet climbing.

i was thinking about how i can increase my pace but at the same time staying stafe.

The only thing ive come up with is running up and down stairs, but there must be something more exciting than that.

In reply to Hammy78:

Also Climbed Mt Toubkal solo as well.

In reply to Hammy78:

You sound fit enough but Mont Blanc by the Gouter and Toubkal are really not much more than exciting walks. For the Matterhorn you will need some rock climbing skills. What do you mean you have booked? A guide? A place in the queue that you will inevitably encounter? Accommodation in the hut?

In reply to Hammy78:

Fitness level needed isn't that high (it's all relative).
I don't know where you are based but some long days scrambling will be good prep

In reply to GridNorth:

I agree they are more of an exciting walk, thats why i want to take it to the next level. Going to bouldering classes etc.

I was going to team up with a friend rather than going for a guide.
At the moment only flights are booked to Geneva. I will most likley be on here looking for the best accomodation.

In reply to Hammy78:


Bouldering won't be that helpful for the Matterhorn as there is nothing harder than Diff/Vdiff on it, and it's mostly Mod or easier. However, it is *all* scrambling and long. So you need to be fit enough to keep going easily for about 10 hours (lots of hillwalking with ascent/descent is the training here) and be confident enough on some very exposed ground to move smoothly (lots scrambling routes for this).

In reply to Hammy78:

Some tips from my experience a few years back:

* Do lots of long scrambling in boots before going out
* Only attempt when the weather/conditions/forecasts are good
* On your trip, get some routes on other mountains first
* Sleep high elsewhere before you go, helps to acclimatise - we wild camped high up on the Taschhorn the day before we went to the Hornli hut
* Do part of the route the day before you go for the summit - bottom section is the most tricky in terms of route finding
* Don't feel you have to be the first out of the hut
* Be prepared to move solo to being with
* No need for bundles of gear. Slings, super lights rocks, couple of biners. No Cams, etc..
* Not technically hard - however - a really long route.

Have a photo topo that I put together from other sources before we went. Will send you it in an email.

In reply to Simon Pelly:

All good advice.

A further piece would be "consider why do you so strongly want to do this particular route, with its crowds, its circus antics and so much objective danger from other, frequently incompetent people, when close by you could have so many fine routes on magnificent mountains almost to yourself?"

In reply to Hammy78:

I've not climbed/walked up the Matterhorn, however as far as any long exposed routes go; if you climb at HS you'd probably find VDiff an easily cruiseable grade, and if you climb HVS you're likely to be able to cruise HS (in Guide Tennies or flippers etc), and so on... I find this approach useful for long committing routes as it gives you the best chance of avoiding being slow due to operating at your max level when it gets tricky, and the psychological boost that you know it's well within your ability and therefore less likely to stall at the unforeseen hurdles.

In reply to Simon4:

The Italian route is much better anyway, and the Zmutt I've always heard is one of the best routes in the Alps.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:


Not quite sure about that, it is certainly a big, challenging mountain route that has a quite different feel to the Hornli.

But the OP is not going to do the Zmutt, nor should they even consider it.

In reply to Simon Pelly:

i did the route about 3 years ago as my first alpine route and had similar advice to this which was all correct in my opinion. we left the hut early as everyone was noisy so ended up following the guides which made route finding much easier.

In reply to Hammy78:

Fill your largest rucksack with gear. Heavy gear - until its much heavier than you'd normally walk/climb with. Take it for as many walks and short runs as you can spare the time for. Next time you go for a walk or climb normally equipped you'll feel like an olympian whose carrying no gear.

In reply to Hammy78:

I recently returned from a guided matterhorn trip. I was reasonably fit and did a couple of months of training, cycling mainly hills, running and some light weights. Not sure how much these helped.

The weather has been quite bad in the alps this summer and the matterhorn was not guided this summer according to my guide as the mountain was more in winter condition than summer, so be prepared for disappointment.

Although the matterhorn is a scramble climbing with boots and rucksack and at altitude do make things more difficult so it's a bit more than going up Tryfan.

Acclimitision often gets overlooked. I did not find the walking/climbing overly taxing though the pace is quite relentless, few if any stops unless necessary. Mentally you should also be fit, short roping is the system often used in the alps which takes some getting used to.

In reply to Hammy78:

The more acclimatised you are before you go on to it, the better. It dominates everything else.

In reply to Andy Nisbet:

I went a few days before I met my guide which helped me to acclimitise. Others did not and felt ill the first day as we slept at a 3000m hut.

In reply to Hammy78:

As Andy says, acclimatisation is much more important than fitness.

Yes, fitness is important so plenty of mountain days building up the stamina. Wouldn't bother with the heavy sack thing though as it only increases risk of injury. Better to have longer days with plenty of ascent and descent for stamina.

For acclimatisation, go for 2 weeks and don't even think about attempting the route in the 1st week. Do 2 or 3 other routes beforehand with scrambling and climbing sections

Rimpfischorn
Zinal Rothorn
Ober Gabelhorn

Would all be good routes and go from Zermatt so avoid additional travelling. The Latter 2 from the Rothorn hut and are superb routes at AD

In reply to Hammy78:

Thanks for the advice everyone, much appreciated.

In reply to Hammy78:

Remember it's the 150th anniversary of the first ascent next year.....could be busier than usual?

In reply to Hammy78:

I think we are looking at the italian side now given the amount of traffic on the Hornli route. It appears to be the same grade with more fixed ropes.

In reply to Hammy78:

Yes, but most people would still descend the Hornli, so you still encounter the mayhem. I am not sure how easy it is to descend the Lion arrete.

In reply to Hammy78:

Acclimatisation, Acclimatisation! It can take weeks! But most of the time we give ourselves a few days!

Heaps of fun scrambling, N Wales and W Scotland.