Distance: 19.48km Elevation gain: 2’301m Duration: 10.5hrs (4hrs (day1) & 6.5hrs (day 2))

On August 23rd, we took a train to Randa in the south of Switzerland. It’s very close to Zermatt where the Matterhorn is. The trip was a 2-day alpine route together with the SAC Basel to summit Wisse Schijen at 3’281m. The cool part about this trip was that we stayed at the Weisshorn hut, which most alpinist use to summit Weisshorn, a very prominent and hard peak at 4’506m. In fact, we were the only group at the hut who ‘only’ climbed Wisse Schijen. The others were all heading out at 3am in the morning to conquer the long and strenous ridge to the summit of Weisshorn. Most of them return to the hut at 4-5pm in the afternoon.

At 10:15am we started our hike from Randa towards the hut. The trail runs along a white-red-white hiking trail and after a couple of hours you get the first glimpse of Weisshorn standing promimently in the distance. After about 4 hrs we arrived at the hut and had the chance to enjoy the view and surrondings of the hut. The hut is very small but this makes it very cozy. Dinner was very tasty and by 9:30pm we were already sleeping upstairs.

For us, breakfast was served at 6am and by 7am we were on our way to the glacier and the summit of Wisse Schijen. About 45min in we reached the base of the Schaliglacier, attached ourselves onto the rope and hiked towards the pass at 3’282m. By 8am we reached the pass and from there you climb along the ridge to the summit. There was no snow or ice on the ridge, but the rock was very brital and loose. We had to take care so they don’t tumble down. We were a group of around 10 people and we were making sure to always be secured with the rope at all down climbing the ridge. It took us about 1:30hrs for everyone to reach the summit. The last section of the climb was along a steep ridge and it was super cool once we all made it to the tiny summit at 3’281m.

The view from the top was amazing. In the distance we could see the Matterhorn and of course the Weisshorn. On the descent we were definitely faster and we were back at the pass by 10:20 and ready to cross the glacier back down again. The glacier itself is disappearing very fast. We were able to see crevasses easily and navigate around them when necessary. By 11:20am we were already back at the hut and had enough time for a great lunch while enjoying the sun and the view. At 1pm we descended down along a shorter route than yesterday back to Randa. Our SAC guide actually took a paraglide back into the valley. It only took him 15min to get down, for us it was a 2hr hike.

We had to wait another hour for our next train back to Zürich so we enjoyed a cold Apfelschorle in the valley. The train was really full as a lot of tourist came back from a visit to Zermatt.