Swiss Alps 2006: Canton of Valais

I have no idea why I am drawn to the mountains—not from an early age, but certainly since my late twenties. I have a slight fear of heights, and maybe it was simply the challenge of overcoming that, as well as the physical challenge. Mostly, the mountains are stunningly beautiful. In the middle of summer, the weather can shift from sunshine to ice-cold sleet within fifteen minutes.

In 2006, I didn’t own a car, so I carried my tent in my backpack. When hiking, I had a huge, half-empty pack. Sometimes I had to wait out the weather in my tiny tent, feeling very bored.

I know one of the cols I scaled was the Fenêtre d'Arpette, with its view of the Trient Glacier in the Mont Blanc massif. The other hikes from that week have faded into memory.

Below: view from the Fenêtre d'Arpette of the Trient Valley, the Émosson Dam, and the peaks of the Giffre massif to the northwest.

Trient Glacier.

Fenêtre d'Arpette.

Breithorn 4164 meter

It is not easy to climb a 4000’er mountain with a slight fear of heights. With my lack of alpine climbing experience I had joined a local mountain guide and small group. From the Klein Matterhorn cable car station (3883 meters) it is a few hours' climb to the top. So you actually climb a vertical difference of 281 meters. The summit itself turned out to be a small plateau of a few square meters with a cliff of about a thousand meters on the other side. Because of the extreme storm that day, I was not very comfortable on the top. I had the feeling that I could blow into the abyss any moment. After a few minutes, the guide summoned us to prepare for the descent in the lee, a few meters below the top. He hadn’t often experienced such a strong wind, he told us.

The Swiss Alps, undated.