Peak 33 | Dufourspitze, Switzerland | 4634m

Technically this is the hardest peak on the list. It is not just the high altitude to contend with, but getting there also requires two glaciers to navigate over and an exposed ridgeline to scramble across. It was the toughest thing that I'd done, and we to race to get there before an incoming storm.

The highest point in Switzerland — Click here to see the Instagram post

Quick Summary

• Starting point - Rotenboden Station

• Route taken - Swiss Normal Route

• Total ascent - 1850 m

• Total length - 24 km round trip

• Total time for climb - 4+13+4 hours

• Accommodation - Monte Rosa Hut

• Expense category - #VeryHigh

• Equipment - #FullAlpine Gear

• Difficulty - #Level5 of 5

• Enjoyment - #5stars of 5*

The calm before the storm

23rd July

In the days running up to Dufourspitze, I'd been working my way up the mountain scale. I had gone from climbing up Slovenia's 2800 m to Austria's 3800 m, then finally getting my first 4000 m ticked off in Italy the day before. So I felt like I was now acclimatized and ready to tackle one of the big three - Switzerland's 4600 m.

The issue being, there had been a mini heatwave in the week before our attempt window. The hotter air means there are higher chances of thunderstorms. And typically, there was one heading right in our direction on the forecast. We were unsure about what to do as different forecast was showing us different things. We rang the Zermatt tourist office, and they told us that there looked to be one clear day left the following day before the weather turned for the worse. That was all we need to make the decision and go for it.

The trouble was that it was 11:00 am, and we were at least 4 hours away from Zermatt. I then needed to hire equipment before getting our second train to where our 4-hour hike started to the hut. Everything seemed to be going well until we missed the train by literally 1 minute. We then had to wait an hour for the next one.

This meant that we didn't make it to the hut until 22:00. We had been afraid that we would have missed out dinner but the staff there were thoughtful enough to put it to the side for us to have when we got there.

None the less, if we were to do this we still had to be up at 02:00 for breakfast.

The highest point in Switzerland

24th July

Soon came 2:00 am and we were up again. Heading back down to the seating area there were now also about a dozen other people that would be making an attempt as well.

I made such a silly mistake on this one. I decided not to refill my water bladder at the hut because it was so expensive (€10 for 1 litre). I had planned on getting starting the hike and I assumed that we would come across some water sources on the way.

But it was dark and everyone was just focused to keep going with the hike.

There were maybe 10 or so other people that left the Monte Rosa hut that morning for the Dufourspize the summit

We were the first ones out of the hut. But struggling to see the sticks. We waited for a trailing group to catch us back up before them.

A gorgeous sunrise.

We then had to work our way up this steep slope.

A little break with the view of the iconic pyramid-shaped Matterhorn.

We climbed over this insane ridge. It was really exposed and it wasn't always easy to pass certain sections of it. There were several times where we had to go back a few meters and to go around the obstacle on the other side.