Sump To Summit

We set off hiking from the town after a frantic packing session, during which El managed to split the zip on her rucksack. Luckily, we repaired it. This incident goes some way to describing exactly how much we were carrying up the mountain! With the Weissmies hut dinner being served from 6:30 pm, the race was on. We set off up the mountain at a good but steady pace. It was a stunning hike through the trees, and we soon arrived at the ski resort.

From the ski resort, we were above the snow line. As it was late in the day, the snow was very soft. We arrived at the hut with 20 minutes to spare.

There were only six guests staying at the hut: ourselves, an English couple named Rosie and James, a Pole named Radislow, and a Ukrainian chap named Serge. After dinner, we all packed our bags and went for an early night, as breakfast was at 2:30 am.

In the morning, S&R departed first. Next out the door were El and I, and Rosie and James left 20 minutes after us.

It became apparent quite quickly that we were heading in a different direction from Radislow and Serge. I checked my watch with the GPX file, and we were bang on route, so it wasn’t us who had gone wrong.

To gain the west ridge, we had to kick steps into the snow, which was much deeper than it should have been. We gained the ridge and saw the head torches of the Poles in the distance going up the glacier. Eventually, we saw them turn around as it became clear to them that they were in the wrong place.

As we continued up the ridge, the other two pairs caught up. There was a bottleneck as the ridge became narrow, and the amount of snow meant it wasn’t safe to cross it. We backed up and climbed down the side to go around the problem. The English couple backed out due to altitude sickness, so it was El, Serge, Radislow, and myself left. We continued up the mountain. I continued to break trail, and though I kept offering for someone else to take over, they were happy with the progress I was making 🤣.

We eventually reached the summit, took photos, and then started back down. We let Radislow & Serge lead the way. The return trip was slow. At the bottleneck, El and I roped up; I climbed a safer-looking route, which El followed. We made the last few hundred meters of descent following El’s example—on our arses!

We made it back to the hut in time for dinner. The route was supposed to be PD, but with all the snow, it easily took it to an AD. It was a full day adventure, and we’d had such a fantastic time in the mountains with awesome people!