The Secret Treble… the summit

Aug 11, 2025 (day 3)

I cannot say I really slept that night, despite the bunk room being fairly quiet. Dreams about the climb and a hidden feeling of “what am I doing here”, kept me awake. No wonder I was up at 3am, earlier than my slot. But as in any of my climbing decisions, now that we were there, I was determined to have a go.

And here we were, ready at 4am on the dot.

We started probably middle of the pack. Three hours into the climb everyone had passed us. The climb was challenging but the training in Wales had helped, and if not speedy, we were making progress. The climb was a mix of Kenton going up first, securing himself to the mountain and me following in toe. We used most of the pitons and stanchions already fixed into the mountain’s wall and did not have to put additional safety hooks. There was a little scrambling (which is where the path would be less dangerous, and we would just free climb relying only on the safety of each other). And for the more complex crossings, there were fixed ropes.

My only two “incidents” happened next to the fixed ropes. On one crossing I could not find enough hold for my feet and hands and could not climb over a boulder. My arms got tired, and Kenton told me off for not using my legs. One of the climbers behind helped me with an additional push. At another stage I had knotted myself to the fixed rope with my safety rope (do not ask to explain how). Another climber had to come and disentangle me. Consider all of this is done hanging from a wall with a vertical drop of several hundred metres behind. It was not good…! Kenton was right to scold me. My excuses about having “little legs” were not accepted. And, when finally we were the last, he did mention we had run out of rescuers…and I had to hold my own!

Meanwhile from complete darkness when we started, sunrise had happened, and the mountains as usual regaled us with fantastic views. The weather was perfect with the sun shining and no wind. As much as the ridge had terrifying drops both sides, the scenery of endless glaciers and peaks was surreal. And despite the challenging climb we managed to take some amazing photos. In a couple I almost looked the part.

By 9am we had made the summit. Last of the climbers, but in a time of just 5 hours, which is not too bad. The Eiger’s summit is a bit less overwhelming than other summits I have been on. It is a small snowy path for just one person and very short. So, after the prescribed videos and photos, we decided not to hang about but to continue our descent down the Southern route. The Southern route has the reputation of being easier than the one which we had just climbed but also for being longer.

And much longer it was. Because as we could see from the top, after descending from the summit to the Eigerjoch saddle we had to climb again and navigate the very long ridge to the glacier on the back of the Monch.

Thanks to a series of abseils, we negotiated the descent from the summit fairly well. It was steep, but Kenton would lower me down and then lower himself. I managed to avoid banging in the wall and breaking ribs, and Kenton managed to get the rope stuck only once. The only danger we encountered was on the snow which because it was south facing was very unreliable and unsteady.

What we could not see from the top was that what looked like a continuous ridge was infact a series of individual boulders, sort of towers or pyramids that we had to summit and then descend from again to climb the next one. The first ascent was what we call “boot legging”: using steps already made in the snow by other climbers; then came the first boulder; a real tower of mostly rocks. Imagine climbing it with crampons and trying to get a grip on the wall. The elation of summiting the first tower was cut short by the need to come down from it and then climb the second one. Repeat 7-8 times, it got very tiring. At one point we had to push ourselves through a chimney-like gap; at another, we had to jump over a 300m drop from one tower to the other and negotiate a corner without knowing what grip, if any, we would find on the other side. This is the only time Kenton decided to belay himself and I had to guarantee his safety from a potential fall.

By the time we reached the end of the ridge at the South Eigerjoch, just behind the Monch, we were done with rock climbing. Luckily for us the rest of the route was glacier walking on which we both are expert. Time for our sandwich, a cup of tea and sunbathing. It must have been 2pm.

On the South Eigerjoch saddle we found a couple of our Austrian friends and the guy who had helped me with “a push”. They had climbed with their parachutes and were waiting for some wind to help them open them and paraglide down to the valley. When we met them they had already been there for half a hour. We said hello. I thanked my new friend. And then we started walking down. The traverse to the Monchsjoch Hut was not bad at all. We covered the route in just 1 hour whilst overlooking uninhabited peaks and glaciers which stretched as far as the eye can see, and in complete silence. It was a spectacle which reminded me why I like to spend time on top of mountains. We had covered the whole north and south ridge in 12 hours. Not the fastest, but not the worst. And quicker than the Matterhorn!!!

The Monchsjoch Hut was much bigger than the Mittellegi. Apparently it is the highest hut in Switzerland, but being next to the Jungfraujoch, Top of Europe, and the arrival of the train from Grindelwald (well 40 mins), it had definitely a more tourist-y feeling Vs a proper mountain refuge. But we had our tea, then our dinner, met some more friends from the previous night, congratulated each other, and toasted with a few beers whilst we discussed my (old) age. Also, incredible luck, I had a complete dormitory to myself (normally sleeps 16) which I soon had to share with Kenton…!!!

Next day, we abandoned the idea of climbing the Monch, as it would have meant to be up at 3am, climb and descend in 5 hours and then rush to Geneva airport to make my flight. Instead I convinced Kenton that lunch on a nice restaurant on Lake Geneva sounded much better. So we left the hut at 7:30am and regaled ourselves with a solitary descent to the Jungfraujoch.  On the right side the Monch, in front of us the Jungfrau, and next to it the Aletsch Glacier, which at 23km is the longest in the Alps; snow illuminated by the first rays of sunrise. What a spectacle!

We were the first people inside the Jungfraujoch (for some reason also called the Sphynx); we visited the empty tunnels, museums, restaurant and shops and caught the 08:15 train down to Eigergletcher. Then the cable car. We were in Grindelwald by 9am. After 3 days on the mountain, we could have done with a shower, but we had to be content with some clean clothes, shorts and flip flops. And this is the moment that I discovered that my Alpine “knee” technique was probably not the best to protect my shins from the rock face. A bloody affair. Blame the “little legs”!!!!