Towards the end of September Patrick Aufdenblatten and Michael Lerjen made an astonishingly rapid ascent of the legendary Bonatti Direct on the North Face of the Matterhorn, completing the 1,200m ED3 route in just seven hours and 14 minutes.
The pair left the Hornli Hut at 3:35am and reached the foot of the route in one hour and five minutes. Three and a half hours after leaving the hut they were above the famous Traverse of the Angels, which they found in excellent condition.
They then moved together for the rest of the route, tagged the summit and were back in the Hornli Hut 10 hours after starting.
Whilst they had valuable beta from Ueli Steck (see below), neither had ever been on the route before, though they had previously climbed the adjacent Zmutt Nose.
Just a week later the route was repeated again, this time by Olov Isaksson from Sweden and the Russian Nikolay Primerov.
Although hoping to complete the ascent in a day, this pair took bivouac gear and a large rack. They started from the hut at 3:15am, crossed the rimaye at 5:00am, and summited at 7:00pm. They free climbed throughout with difficulties of approximately M6.
This was Primerov's first north face, though he is no stranger to hard climbing.
The pair thought the route a great adventure but dangerous, with loose rock and little in the way of protection. They are not sure they'd recommend it.
The line taken by the Bonatti Direct was first attempted in 1928 by Victor Imboden and Kasper Mooser, who retreated 450m above the rimaye.
As it captures most of the stonefall on the North Face, it is a logical winter objective. However, it wasn't until 1965 that advances in equipment, ability and attitude, combined with the imagination of one of the greatest alpinists of the 20th Century, allowed the historic first ascent.
After an attempt a week previously with two companions, Walter Bonatti took five days to climb the face alone. Although he therefore had prior knowledge of the lower section, only one peg had been left in place.
After battling great technical difficulty, temperatures of -30°C and hammock bivouacs, Bonatti then had to endure an aftermath of heavy media attention and a Medal of Honour from Italy's president.
Surprisingly, the route was repeated four times in the next two and a half years: four Poles in August 1966; two Czechoslovaks later the same month; four Czechoslovaks in winter 1967 (one of which was killed in a 60m fall); and two more Czechoslovaks in August that year.
After that ascents were very few and far between and the first solo repeat in winter did not occur until March 1994.
On that occasion, despite her far greater technical skills, and all the sophistication of modern clothing, equipment and protection devices, Catherine Destivelle was unable to progress any faster than Bonatti, her bivouac sites coinciding exactly with the Italian's.
She found the seven-pitch Traverse of the Angels extremely delicate, on rock that was either totally compact or rotten, and covered with thin verglas or loose powder. Protection proved spaced and difficult to arrange, and France's most celebrated female alpinist of the day found it hard to give any meaningful grade at all.
In 2006 racehorse Ueli Steck romped up the route, solo, in a mere 25 hours, a time on which, given Steck's credentials, many felt would be almost impossible for roped parties to improve.
When 22, Lerjen (now 26) set the speed record for a round trip ascent of the mountain with fellow Zermatt resident Simon Anthamatten. The pair climbed up the Hornli Ridge in one hour and 40 minutes, then immediately descended in just 53 minutes.
Lerjen is the youngest Swiss to climb an 8,000m peak (Nanga Parbat when aged 18) and on the 10th September this year became the youngest climber ever to summit all 82 peaks over 4,000m in the Alps. He began when only 14.
Aufdenblatten (23) is also from Zermatt, summited his first 4,000m peak when aged eight and is an accomplished technical climber, with ascents of 8b+, WI6 and M11. When 19 he climbed Freerider on El Capitan.
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