LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 35 Their quest was to make the storied climb on the Matterhorn, then go to France and summit Mount Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps and western Eu- rope at 15,777 feet. They drove from Germany to Switzerland, boarded a train for Zermatt, and spent a day in the resort village where cars were prohibited. They took a tram and hiked up to the hotel at the base of the Hornli Ridge, obtained climbing permits and left in the dark with headlamps the next morning, planning to summit and return in one day. They mounted the base of the ridge unroped, then tied together in pairs as the sun came up and the route steepened. Failing and Piggen took turns belaying each other, with one climber leading the way up as the lower part- ner fed out rope from a secure spot. When the leaders each reached the end of their ropes, they set up new belay anchors. The follower would climb, then pass by and lead climb another 150 feet or so and set up a new belay anchor. They hopscotched up the mountain, alternating leads. "We were all climbing well and made quick progress on the steep rock. Not a place for amateurs but we were pre- pared, trained, and up for the challenge," Failing wrote in an account of that day. "We were determined not to be the next unguided statistic of the season." They had metal pitons, spikes with a small loop at the top, to pound into cracks or between rocks for protection but didn't find them trustworthy. "We found when we drove in a piton the rock separated and we could pull it out with our fingers," Failing wrote. Sometimes they draped long slings over rock horns or set metal chocks with braided rope in cracks to secure them- selves and their ropes so they could safely catch a partner if he fell. Higher up the ridge, Swiss guides had attached steel rods with eye hooks to the mountain at critically exposed belay points, which the quartet used. Also on the ridge was the small Savoy Hut, an unstaffed ref- uge that could hold an injured climber or a small group waiting out a sudden storm. "The Hornli Ridge, once you get higher it doesn't vary," Hardy said. "There are some places you're stepping on the same spot that everybody that's ever climbed it from that side stepped. That's how narrow it is in places." Above the emergency hut, about three-fourths of the way up the ridge, the rock became icy. The men changed gear, attaching metal crampons with sharp points to their boots and wielding ice axes. In the afternoon they reached the summit and an iron cross at the thin, exposed ridge. They could stand with one foot in Switzerland and the other in Italy. A simple fall would have meant a drop of thousands of feet. The summit cross was credited to mountain guide and priest Auguste Carrel installed in 1902, as well as a Mass he celebrated there. "The views are spectacular," Failing wrote. They could see the Alps surrounding them "like a crown" and their next challenge, Mont Blanc. "Wayne Piggen had not felt well and was a little slow so we got up there late," Hardy recalled. "We were down climbing in the dark." With Piggen unsteady, Failing wasn't confident that his partner could safely belay him or rappel down the rope. Failing belayed Piggen on their shared rope while Piggen climbed down. Then Failing would rap- pel, sliding down a double rope attached to an anchor, then pull the rope free. They did that several times. "Sometimes without a reliable rappel anchor, I just down climbed to him unbelayed. He just tied off the end of my rope to a rock. It slowed us down quite a bit," Failing wrote. "As we got lower he started to feel better and regained his strength and senses." Meanwhile, the other pair descended and belayed each other. Then, in the dark, with Frank belaying Hardy, who was down climbing, Hardy reached the

• Cover