British Guide Guides Matterhorn North Face, In August
Steve Potter on the North Face of the Matterhorn. Photo: Matt Helliker
On the 12th August British Guide Matt Helliker guided Steve Potter on the Matterhorn North Face by the Schmid Route, ED1. This may well be the 1st British guided ascent.
They left the Hörnli Hut at 2.45am and summited at 11.45am, taking 9 hours for the ascent. They then returned to the hut via the Hörnli Ridge, getting down at 5pm in time for dinner. Matt reports, “The conditions low down on the face were very good, but with tricky route finding in the dark to locate the start of the Ramp. Conditions after the Ramp were ok, but getting thin on the slabs, making for some technical mixed climbing with bad protection. The rock was super bad and trying to find good belays and gear was difficult when climbing through the headwall. This meant that we were forced to move together on some pretty tricky ground. Ropemen on key pieces of protection meant we were able to do this. The face felt very committing due to the fact that retreat after the ramp would be very difficult as the line takes a leftwards to rightwards traverse of the face, joining the Zmutt Ridge 50m below the Italian summit”. This is Steve’s first North Face of the 6 classic North Faces of the Alps. He has set himself the challenge to climb all 6 with Matt over the next few years. “ I've been guiding Steve for the last year, and we have been building a good partnership which we have to have if I'm going to be happy guiding on these big faces. I've had to get to know Steve very well and climb lots with him before I would even think of climbing the North Face of the Matterhorn with him. Thankfully Steve is very solid on his feet and super strong but most importantly keeps very cool under stressful situations. Top effort Steveo”
Read more about Matt on his BMG profile or on the Vertigo Guides web site.
