As you know form the last post Ferrino was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the HighLab. A high altitude laboratory Base Camp next to the Refugio Quintino Sella on the Italian side of the Monte Rosa at 3.585m, serving as a testing base for their top of the line HighLab products. I wanted to visit it for some while now, but either the weather or the timing did not work out. Since I was missing snow, sitting in the office and still having some time to kill until my annual Bali surf outing I decided that this year might be a good idea to go up there and see how camping out on the glacier in high altitude feels like and weather permitting get our first try at a 4K peak. The Castor, 4228m next to Polux both named after the stars would be the goal of choice.
Before you read on lets start of with a video. Since we were testing a lot of Ferrino gear we spontaneously came up with this idea for a funny viral and don`t worry it`s not another ice bucket video:
Now after you`we seen what high altitude air does to our creative minds I hope I have garnered your attention. Because this story is actually about getting to a peak… no not that kind… a mountain peak 😛
The Crew:
Nina – Mountain and ecogirl, now also actress
Luka “podly” – all around super fit pretty mountain good guy and freestyle snowboarder now also model XD
CHouka – Mountain Multipraktik and filmer
Myself aka Corben9 – powderhunter, surf and mountain obsessed and dragging far to much stuff with me just to have the right lens for the right shot photo kinda guy.
The Goals:
Ascend the CASTOR – our first 4.2KVisit the Ferrino HighLab at 3.5K
The Story: DAY 1
It was just 2 weeks ago that I was sitting at home. Just had gotten back from a very adventures weekend at the Dachstein massif, testing my new powder skis in the middle of the summer. My appetite for snow still unbound. The thought of visiting the Ferrino HighLab had been on my mind for a while. Questions on how we would deal with the altitude and how well we would adapt to sleeping out in the snow were crossing my bored mind. After a bit tit for that, and mostly because the date seemed to scream from the calender GO, I started to get a plan together.
Getting the right mix of people for a good trip is always important and and after a bit of who can and who would go we were set. On a late weekday, we meet up at CHoukas for a nice late pizza dinner, to hammer out the details. I had already gotten confirmation from Ferrinos Sara that we were good to go and that the camp would be ready.
So a few more days of weather uncertainty passed and we were fixed on going. Thursday it was. 1700 hours. Work done. That`s when we threw all our gear into the Kegl Airlines Vectrajet2000 and off we were. Around midnight we arrived at the Valley the Gressoney-la-Trinite set up shop and slept till the morning hours. I like that about Italy. You can just park somewhere.. sleep in piece and no one terrorizes you like you as if you were some kind plague.
Morning came.. we woke up and bam. Perfect weather. We started our ascent. It takes a good 3.5 hours to get to the Plateu where the Refugio Quinitno Sella, our “base camp” destination was located from the highest gondola station. The way up is quite fun. The higher you get and the thinner the air is the sketchier it gets. At the end you are walking on a ridge with a rope. Cool but nothing for people who get dizzy from altitudes. So we arrived as planned. And the view.. wow. Some clouds came up and you knew that in bad weather this place could go from heaven to hell in an instant.
Enrico from the Refugio provided us with all the gear we would need for our base camp outing. Nina and CHouka would stay in the lovey dovey Snowbound2 tent, while Podly and myself would be trying the Legend3 model. We would all get to use the new Nightec800 sleeping bags that had all new 2D 3D micro fiber filling. So new tech. All looked cozy enough, but with temperatures forecast at -7 and some wind we really had no idea on what to expect. Also the lack of air was starting to show itself a bit. Would we adapt quickly ?
Then Hunger came. Since we didn`t know that the refugio had such a great kitchen with a Nepalese cook we dragged a ton of tai noddles and cooking gear with us. We made food. I don`t like these noodles but this time… man they were good 😛
Night came. I went into the tent. It was foggy as hell. Gladly the Legend3 tent has reflective materials on the straps so I could see where it was. Ten minutes later Podly joined. He said the stars are out. I got up.. DAVE IT`S FULL OF STARS. What a view, and also a reminder on how quickly the weather changes here in the high alpine.
DAY 2
We went to sleep… sorta. We started feeling the altitude. A headache came up. The sleepingbags where nice and warm… but the headache didn`t quite go away. Aspirin. Podly and I slept somewhat uneasy… anticipation for our ascent try on the next early morning was getting to us… Podly twisted and turned and so did I … would we get up in a morning.. would we make it ot the top.
My alarm went off. 5 AM it was. My head hurt. First thought..It glows in the dark when Illuminated :P. “How the hell are we gonna get to 4K if I am dizzy as shit at 3.5. Well no point in bitching”… Podly had the same expression on his face, but Nina was already getting ready. Move your buts she said… since we were that oozy it took us quite some time to get ready.. we weren`t gonna be the first. Crampons, roped up… ice axes… I poped another aspirin against the headache and off we were. Moving… after a short while.. the headache was gone.. weather.. absolute perfection. And on we went.
First exposed on the glacier. Chutes invisible because of recent snowfall. So much powder… such nice lines could be drawn into the white snow… but I could never have dragged the skis that high.. to heavy… next time… We were getting higher and higher… a Mezzalama ski mountaineer passed us swift and fast, then a steep part… ice axe in one hand, pole in the other every move nice and slow.
The altitude was ok, but here and there one could grasp himself breathing harder for some extra air. We arrived at 4000m. At the bottom of the ridge line… from here it would be another 30 minutes. The physical drain and a moving cloud layer was making us think.. shall we turn back… or aim for the peak. We did after all already achieve our goal to pass 4K. We decided to press on. We wanted to reach the top. The closer we were getting on the peak the windier it was getting. The sun was coming higher more slab avalanches were triggering around. And then we made it ! We reached the top.
Meet a few swiss fellows who had ascended from the Zermatt side… congratulated ourselves unceremoniously and made our way back down. The cloud layer was creeping up on us so we needed to be fast. And we were. Arriving at the Refugio, now adapted to the altitude and full of energy from our victory it was time to eat, sleep and have some creative fun with all the photo stuff we dragged up before our final descent back to the valley.
DAY 3
Well technically you could say it was still day 2 late in the evening. In the meantime the Refugio got filled to capacity. Even dinner was served in two shifts. 160 people can sleep there. Wow I thought.. so many mountaineers.
Night came and we went to bed. Slept like a baby but I couldn’t just let the opportunity fly. After all it was a clear night. Like out of one of those old romantic sci-fi movies. Stars everywhere.. even the moon shining making it look almost as if it was day in a galaxy far far away. Motivated I put my jacket on and spend two hours freezing my ass and my fingers off taking long exposure pictures form every angle I could think of.. and some of them really turned out well.
Then morning came. We were all in a very good mood. But one more thing remained to be done… Yes.. the video clip. Goofing around at the hut we made a quick little scenario. Podly would be sleeping in the Nightec 800 sleeping bag on the compfy matrace out in the open. It was so comfy he would sleep in so it would be day. He would get up and get caught by Nina who just happened to pass by as he would be getting up and his sleeping bag would slip 😛 two takes and it was done. Since we were goofing around and it was nice sunny and relatively warm… we also made another shot that I shall frame some day 😛 after all you don’t get the chance to be naked on a glacier at 3.580m every day.
Meet a few swiss fellows who had ascended from the Zermatt side… congratulated ourselves unceremoniously and made our way back down. The cloud layer was creeping up on us so we needed to be fast. And we were. Arriving at the Refugio, now adapted to the altitude and full of energy from our victory it was time to eat, sleep and have some creative fun with all the photo stuff we dragged up before our final descent back to the valley.
Epilogue
Our descent went relatively smooth with the exception of me slowing everyone down coz I managed to hurt my foot while running around in crocks form the refugio to our tent. Dumb little injury that had me biting my teeth all the way down. Even had to switch my heavy backpack with Podly… again thnx dude.Thinking back it was an awesome trip and the Refugio is certainly one of those places that I have added to my favorites list right next to the Danau Batur lake on Bali, Tirol and a few other jems. Also our team worked well from the start with a awesome wibe and zero problems :)Another fun thing on our way back was our pit stops. On every station we stopped we meet some buddies heading back home for Slovenia.