Above: Approaching the Monch after summiting the Eiger.
After descending from the Eiger we stayed at Mönchsjochhütte. In the morning we got up around 4:30am and found ourselves the lone climbing party in the common room. We quietly ate some muesli, hydrated accordingly and then shot down some instant coffee before beginning the short hike over to start our ascent of the Monch.
The Monch is an incredible feature. Either a flat wave if looking at it from the south or a razor thin wall if looking from the east, it was an obvious objective to tack on after climbing the Eiger the day before. Aside from wanting to bag another aesthetic peak, it was also a very manageable one, with only an additional 1,500 feet of climbing from our hut. We had been banging out 5-8k vert days the last few months, so the overall objective seemed - at least from a suffering perspective - very mild.
According to my Garmin we started at 5:38am. The first 1,000 feet or so of climbing was on rock and we soloed the entirety of it, moving quickly but meticulously over the well-traveled route. We eventually hit the snow and sat down to strap our crampons on. Things got very cold here as well, really the first time I felt frigid since arriving in Switzerland the week before. Being someone who suffers from frozen fingers and toes in the cold, I quickly swapped out my Burton gloves for these REI-branded down mittens I had bought a few years before. They are to this day the warmest mittens I have ever owned. I've had to take them off while touring in -15 weather because my hands were sweating.
Having made the transition to crampons and mittens (and extra shells) we looked up at our objective and start to get to get focused.
Being our snow and ice expert, Colin took the sharp end and starting heading up as Derek belayed and I hung out on the end of the rope. Colin took with him three ice screws, but I don't believe he placed any until the actual ridgeline. We made it up to the shoulder and starting chatting things over. Derek put it well in his writeup:
"This got us to the shoulder, with nothing to look at but the very skinny, exposed summit ridge. We deliberated and decided we were still psyched, but we also made sure we were all on the same page - this was no-fall and no-mistakes territory."
Colin on the shoulder. Above him: the ridgeline.
Colin began slowly climbing and jamming his crampons into the hardened, early-morning ice. The sun hadn't yet began to soften the ridge, and he struggled to place his ice screws. For the uninitiated, ice screws are essentially giant screws you use to protect yourself while climbing on snow or ice, similar to how a camelot protects when climbing over rock. Rather than screw them in with a device, they consist of a razor sharp edge on the bottom and a swiveling mechanism up top to "crank" them down into the ice and snow. A lovely pixelated image courtesy of Google below:
Once screwed into the ice, only the top portion remains. This is where you attach a carabiner and then clip the rope into. When climbing a tight ridgeline, we are all tied together. If Colin falls, he ideally only falls as far out in front of the screw as he is, plus an additional few feet due to the dynamic nature of the rope flexing under his weight.
In addition to screws, the two followers have to be heads up as well. If Colin falls off to the right, Derek would want to jump up and off the ridge to the left to counteract his fall. The rope would be stretched taut over the top of the ridge, eradicating the chance of either falling to their death. The two climbers would then climb back up each side and continue on the ridge on the way to the summit.
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We cautiously traversed the route, paying extreme attention to where we wedged our crampons and jammed our ice axe. It would be a longggg fall down, and navigating the foot or so ledge demanded intense concentration. The thought of tumbling off to the side was not a pleasant one to be had....
Eventually we made it to the summit and celebrated with a few shouts and cheers, but to quote Derek once more, "We knew the job wasn't finished, and needed to keep composure until we were completely down." Halfway there!
I didn't take any pictures of the ascent, but snagged a summit pic of Colin and Derek (below) and a few of Colin reversing direction on the ridge as we backtracked across and down to the base.
Above: On the summit! Ice axes are also used as anchors. Jamming in the sharp end allows for a bomber anchor to clip into.
Below: Colin leading the descent back.
Above: Derek descending back across the ridge. I would wait until my rope became taut and follow after.
We made it down and began hiking to Junfraujoch, the absurd train station buried underneath and through the Swiss alps.
Once back in town we took a nice long nap and went out to dinner with everyone that evening to celebrate our success on the Eiger and Monch: years of dreaming realized! We each ate an entire large pizza and a washed it down with a few pints of beer. I cheers'd a bit too hard out of sheer excitement, smashed my glass and drenched my pants. It was still the cleanest I had been in days...
Stats:
Vert: ~1,500ft.
Mileage: ~4.7
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