Climbing the Matterhorn. The moment had come!

This is part two of a two blog series depicting our five training climbs and the Matterhorn climb itself. Pictures posted here are of the latter. Part One can be found at http://matterhorntraining.blogspot.com/

For visitors to this blog only, let me repeat one comment from Part One: for safety, climbing with pace and with minimal stops was foremost on our guides' minds. Taking pictures wasn't. We stopped three times during a four and half hour ascent, and pictures from those breaks are here. However, that left huge holes in the pictoral documentation of the experience that I have attempted to fill with shots from other photographers and climbers of our exact route: the Hornli Ridge. I am particularly indebted to Beat Perren’s remarkable book: Matterhorn, where, from a helicopter, he shot climbers on all six of the routes up the mountain—including ours: the Hornli Ridge.

Click on any shot for the large version--recommended particularly for some of Beat Perren's areal shots as the climbers are otherwise not easily visible.

"The Matterhorn looks equally imposing from whatever side it is seen. It never seems common place; and in this respect, and in regard to the impression it makes upon spectators, it stands almost alone amongst mountains. It has no rivals in the Alps, and but few in the world."
Edward Whymper, first man on the summit, from his book: Scrambles Amongst the Alps 1871