Swiss Nose: First ascent:March 14-17

Older climbers fared even better. There were many unclimbed mountains and routes not yet climbed. Fortunately, this is only partially true, of course, most mountains have already been climbed, but there is still a lot of potential for great adventures. And I'm not talking about an unknown, remote and almost inaccessible mountain, but the Matterhorn.

North faces I find great, they are difficult, steep and not infrequently they decided at their first ascent on being or not being the climbers. I had seen a crack in the region of the Zmuttnase for quite some time. Not a short, insignificant variant to other routes, but a direct line through a long overhanging wall zone in the Matterhorn North Face.

However, I knew that this was a very big project for me. When Alexander Huber also wanted to do something exactly in this part of the wall, I had of course found my partner. I showed Alexander some pictures and he was immediately enthusiastic about my idea.

In mid-March, a week of high-pressure weather was in store. We started our company. With us was additionally Thomas Senf. Early in the morning on March 15, we went from the Hörnlihütte to the north face. Exactly the same route that I did two years ago, with the new speed record of the Schmidroute in 1h 46`. This time the goal was no longer the classic route, but further to the right a new route. The whole lower part we climbed on the Gogna route. From the point where Alessandro Gogna crossed to the right in 1969, we were about to climb. But no more that day, because it was already beginning to darken and we crawled into our sleeping bags after an "exclusive 4-course meal". There is not much to say about the bivouac night. It was like you imagine it about in a steep wall, on a small band, in a thin sleeping bag in winter!

The next morning Alexander wasn't sure if we should take all our equipment and if we would make it to the summit. Thomas and I were more confident.

It was clear to all of us that we could only climb our route technically in the steep part. That is, with ladders, clamping wedges, hooks, friends and wedges. This was exactly the terrain for Alexander. After about two hours he was above the roof. We heard a cry of relief and knew: He made it! After that, the terrain became flatter again. For these pitches, we drilled two intermediate belays and two belays.

So now we all stood on this fulminant nose. There are not many such steep and exposed places in the Alps!

Then we continued in the classic terrain. After about five hours we reached the summit a little tired and relieved. The wind and the low temperatures reminded us that it is actually still winter. Overjoyed, we then stood on the summit. To have been the first to climb such a line through a big wall, on a world famous mountain, made us all very proud. It showed once again that even in 2017 there is still enough room for great adventures in the mountains...