Nendaz-Trail

 65 km, 3500 D+

 All the material to this trail can be found at their beautiful page: link

For me, the most difficult trail so far. The first 30 km is quite technical, not always possible to run. After the highest point on the trail - pass Prafleuri, it is fine. Nice, easy terrain and if you have still some endurance left, you can enjoy running on a smooth path in alpine environment. The trail contains also a section demonstrating the majesty of Alps by wide glaciers and steep faces of summits over 3000. Yes, the trail is astonishing. But honestly, which one in Switzerland is not.

THE pass

 From technological point of view, it is complete techno-party. They almost didn't leave me run, because I had just normal handy and not smartphone. Counting the fact, that trail-runners are not always following the newest and coolest developments at forefront of the technology (like smartphone for example), this condition caused quite a problems not only to me. But we managed somehow. On ther other hand, the possibility of following all the runners live at their web page is cool. MSO did a good job, I have to admit.

after crisis

I had a crisis around the highest point of the race. But who did not. The highest pass is also probably the nicest place of the tour, so of course worth for photographers. I can not present picture from that pass here, beacause I looked really owfull at that point, but every crisis has its end and to me it happend very shortly after pass when first women was overtaking me. I could not stand it so I got from the crisis very quickly.
Surprisingly, the last 30 km were very smooth, perhaps better as first 30 km. It is longest run I ever tried and I was very happy that I could really run up to very end. Only thing that dissapinted me a bit was not a good marking shortly before finish. I was almost lost after 65 km of running.

Deep respect to these guys

The guys at upper picture are heroes for me. Much older than me and run maybe even better then me. I would really be proud of myself if I finish such a race at their age with such a good time. Well, that is whole life project. Next time something longer!

Petit Mt. Blanc

Bietschhorn

difficulty: AD
altitude: ~3900
month: August

Bietchhorn. Matterhorn is maybe the most breathtaking peak in the Alps, but Bietchhorn is close second. This wonderfull lady with elegant contours wearing often white dress is dominating the Wallis scenery, although she belongs already to noble Bern family.

The normal route (west ridge) is already tough enough. It is rated AD, nor the rock neither the snow or glacier would be a problem. There are just few climbing parts and they are not very difficult. The problem are the brittle stonefields where one is "only" walking. Well, this is the basic ingredience of alpinism on the Bietschorn. I consider it as a bit more dangerous than Matterhorn.  

Brittle!

We climbed very high, summit had to be very close. We passed the narrow ridge after Rotteturm in foggy and windy conditions and we were over time a bit. I don't regret that we turned few meters from summit ... well maybe just a bit, but the effort wouldn't be worth it - not for views nor technical obstacles. We would continue only and only because of the summit, nothing more. Chickens ... 

The descent, nightmere. It took us about an hour more than ascent. We were not slow or lazy, I think we were very well motivated by every wham of approaching thunderstorm. It just sucks sometimes. And 'sometimes' is sometimes 'often' more than 'sometimes'.

But we somehow managed, arrived on time, almost last guys on the mountain. Although I showed off the day before with words: 'Yep, we'll be back for lunch.' or 'You have to train more man to be fast.'

I was happy to be there with Dada. Ok, it wasn't maybe the best plan I could make for us, but the time there was nice.

Was it really that day??

Matterhorn

difficulty: AD+
month: July
altitude: 4476 m.

Although Liongrat is the famous route, I haven't found any completely percise map or topo. But some good info can be found here:
http://www.jmsola.net/cervino/

Dandy finally got free weekend for his friends and we could go play outside. Matterhorn wouldn't be my first choice, but if mountain guide tells you: "Come with us, it will be your exercise tour.", it would be stupid to say no. Indeed, going there with somebody that knows the route is more than reasonable -  route finding is not trivial. Let me quote this on the beginning: I have deep respect to the group of Italians lead by Jean-Antoine Carrel, that firstly climbed this route.

Dent'd Herens

 I got that opportunity to lead some parts of the tour, while Dandy was patiently fixing each single mistake of mine. It was a great school. But I was at least lucky about weather, so the first part from Breuil to Rif. Carrel passed without any troubles. Some details follows: in Breuil, follow the valley with the river for a while and than asphalt route turns left into serpentine. There is few simple rocks above Rif. Orionde, but nothing to worry about. Also large snow field is not that steep as it looks from bottom. Quite tricky part are the slopes before Leone pass that have to be traversed, but if you stay close to the foot of Leone's faces, there is a quite good possibility of belay (equipped by bolts).

Dent Blanche

From the Leone pass, there are a few technical sections, but nothing serious even for weaker climbers (I cannot advice non-climbers to go this tour). This pays for the entire Liongrat: if there is something difficult, there is a fixed rope. Actually, the climbing sections is not what one should worry about, way more scary are steep sections with brittle rock where is no belay and nothing to hold. One just has to pray, walk steadily and pray again. Some of my friends can not understand this problem, although I am explaining it again and again: The most difficult ingredient of alpinism is walking. And the Matterhorn is a good example of mountain where walking is the problem.   

tricky slopes of Leone on the left

Few words about Rif. Carrel. Beutiful place, but crowded. The ones that come soon get a bed, the ones that come later will get a bed as well, but with somebody already in (and there are not many girls). The even later ones will not fit in the hut and most probably will be forced to descent. Be there on time (before 1 pm). 

I was quite curious what happens when all of these 100 climbers that slept at the hut will start to ascent. But it wasn't that critical. Half of the people is anyway lost somewhere in the faces of Matterhorn (helicopters are flying around like flies) and second half will learn common sens and turn back. We didn't although the weather wasn't optimal. We could afford it because Dandy climbed it already several times and was able to judge it. We were also very fast, although we were three. So we got to the summit sooner that I realized where I actually am. Jordan ladder is slightly overhanged at the beginning, but again, nothing to worry about.

not walking

 Summit is perhaps nice but we couldn't judge with all the wind and mist. We spent there maybe 5 minutes. Usually, the Hoernligrat is used for descent. Bit there was bit of ice and snow on the stones and they turned to be very slippery. Under such condition, it is not worth to descent on Swiss side. There is even more dangerous "walking". 

walking

Michal is freezing, Dandy is not ...

 Last few words: Matterhorn is usually considered as dangerous mountain because of very brittle rock and unstable weather. The second is definitely truth, our weather forecast claimed completely clear sky and no wind. The brittle rock, yes a little bit, but not as much as I imagined. Some sections are very scary but there are just a few of them and the rest is quite enjoyable in a good rock. People there are also not that annoying as I expected. It is actually not that bad, I can imagine to go there again. Maybe rather not in Kilian's style.

Kingdom Rysy - Vysoka

altitude: 2499 m
difficulty: f
month: May

High Tatras. Himalyas of Slovakia with Krivan as iconic as Ama Dablam. It is place with atmosphere where fear from mountains can be cut by knife. So many experienced mountaineers died right here. It might be, that these mountains are playground for beginners and remains underestimated by experienced climbers. But it also can be, that its northern climate makes the climbs harder.

Tatarka's face

We both, me and Dandy, considered that rather like trip to silence and deep spirit of granite walls, trip to the mountains about which we dreamt in childhood. We took it easy and climbed to the summit of Rysy and almost to the summit of Vysoka (we didn't know the route so we climbed as high as I was willing to without a rope). We carried. Both up and down. And we drunk and played guitar. We were happy up there.

Trail du Bugey

length: 43.3 km
elevation: 2000 m
time: 5:00

all pictures stolen from: https://www.trailsobugey.com

Small race with about 160 participants that took place in "real" France (not like Geneve). Bugey is mountain range that is definitely interesting for runners and bikers, but not interesting for mountaineers or climbers. I arrived already one day before the race to enjoy the atmosphere of these hills and forests. I drove my car to the small lake close to the middle of map a spend there calm night (apart from all those noisy frogs).

The trail itself is designed in clever way. Well, the shape of the tour is not the most attractive one (look at map) - I don't like too much non-logic loops. But it leads through many highlights of the region, which is maybe more important. The most wonderful part is the forest at 10-15 km. There are old magic trees covered by moss and right at the end of the valley, there is this nice waterfall. At that point in race, we all were feeling like Superman and run like Bolt. Pity, that we couldn't enjoy this place more. Maybe running it other direction would be nicer, since we would be at 30 km where nobody is superman anymore.

The last hill was crazy. 30 degrees slope, 30 degree air (60 in total). I don't know about other guys, but I was walking as fast as turtle backwards. That single hill was one of the hardest mountains in my life. When I arrived to the summit, I drunk few litres of Cola and left all the racing to others. Somehow, I got to finish, but I didn't care about that point and went directly to sleep in my car. When later on I checked the results, I was quite surprised. It wasn't that bad, actually.

Aig. Puetereay

not completed
difficulty: AD
altitude: ~2800
month: June

Yes, Aig. Noir du Pueteray has over 3700 and yes, we reached only 2800 ...
Bad weather ...
Mountain didn't admit us ...
Whatever, we are chickens.

East ridge. The route is supposed to be a descent line. I didn't intend to climb the south ridge (TD) since there are not belay stations and you can not simply escape from that route by rappelling down. The south ridge on the other hand, shall be well equipped for descent. But I can speak only about first few meters on that line because we turned back quite soon on that grassy field. It was raining, rope was wet, grass was slippery and now way of belaying there.

The night before that hopeless try, we spent on the wonderful place. It is old Borelli hut that is not in operation anymore, but is open. It is potentially dangerous because it is exposed to direct stone falls, especially in rainy weather but we were lucky :-)

grassy fields

Finding the start of the route is a bit tricky. It is pretty high in the arena of the south-west face.

Bernina

not completed
difficulty: pd+
month: July
altitude: ~3500

red - day 1, blue - day 2

Italian side of the Bernina mountain range is not so frequently visited and generally speaking, Piz Bernina and its side summits seem to be the less climbed high alpine summits. The solitude and long distances are giving special spirit to this place that can not be simply seen or felt only from pictures. I can very well imagine spending a life just by exploring this area and climbing all of these high summits. Even better would be to have a base camp in Chiesa di Valmalenco, like my friend and climbing partner has. This town is just first class. 

As mentioned, accesses to the foot of Bernina mountains regard a lot of walking. Somebody might not like these long tours, but on the other hand, reward in terms of success on some of the peaks is huge. I can not however judge it since we didn't reach any of the summits.

I won't  defend ourselves with breathtaking stories about our courage and strength. No. Simply, we were just not brave enough to go that steep (40 degrees) slope below Rif. Marco e Roso. It was 4 pm when we arrived to that place and small avalanches swept down the track set by other climbers. The decision to turn back didn't take me long when one of the avelanches fell down right in front of me. And I do not regret this. We were searching for couple of minutes for via ferrata that shall lead safely over the crag on the left side, but we were perhaps too low. If I regret something, then that we didn't take little bit more equipment to try to climb that crag directly.

I never criticize any other group of climbers. I also know that when somebody die in the mountains, it doesn't necessarily be his fault. And I won't do it this time neither. Nevertheless, if by chance somebody from the group that met us up there is reading these words (the small dots on the upper picture), please try to think if you did some mistakes or not. It doesn't matter if you reached the summit or not. Taking some portion of risk is also fine with me, but still, one should always proceed in a most safe way. 

We returned to the lower hut...

The avalanches swept down the established track

 If we were not brave on the first day, we were total chickens on the second day. The weather forecast was terrible and we knew it. But Piz Palu is another nice summit and our planes evolved in that direction. However, when we reached the pass above hut where 'Alta Via' leads we decided to descent rather down due to few drops of rain. Well the clouds were also bit gray and the snow was super-soft. In the end it was completely sunny when we reached the car at Camp Moro. The mother nature is sometimes just kidding me I suppose. I see her laughing deeply.

 

Domhutte - Hohewaechte

difficulty: pd-
altitude: 3740
solitude: almost
month: June 

The plan was to climb Dirruhorn, plan B would be tour to Lenzspitze, plan C was Hoehewaechte - small peak standing beside Dom and Lenzspitze. Fortunately, there was no plan D. We were not brave enough for plan A. Europahut was still out of order and sleeping outside in predicted thunderstorm wouldn't be comfortable. Lenzspitze wasn't possible at all, there was no track and the glacier was in terrible shape. In the end, Hoehewaechte was the highest point we could get, and none of other two groups that tried Dom got higher. Actualy, both the groups got in serious troubles there.

There is no obstacle on this tour, one just need to be little bit careful down on glacier. There is no path, just a few stonemans here and there. The route itself is actually not interesting, but the view are spectacular. Unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy them from the summit since all giants around were in clouds. Actually, we got storm on the summit so we had to escape soon.

At some point during the descent, we turned and looked back. That was good joke from the nature - perfectly clear sky. Well, we have to come back for Lenzspitz again.