An earlier version of this text was originally published on my old blogger site on 30th August 2012.

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Last week I made an amazing discovery, fear or at least a state of semi permanent worry does not need to be a part of mountaineering. This road to Damascus like revelation was catalysed by the fact that my normal climbing partner has gone AWOL to Thailand on honeymoon, and was therefore unable to suggest I bite off more than I could chew!

When Dom and I climb together I always appear to end up, to use a phrase favoured by test pilots “pushing the envelope” and expanding the upper limit of my comfort zone rather more than I had intended. Dom is someone who could win a gold medal for enthusiasm he frequently sandbags his partners into some form of harrowing experience; how else do I explain the appearance in my log book of the Orion Face surrounded by a mass of steady grade threes?

So with Dom no doubt trying to convince his good wife Katherine that what she REALLY wants to do on honeymoon is explore Thailand’s climbing scene I made my way to Switzerland to meet a mutual friend of ours Andy whom I know has a deep empathy for my situation having been on the receiving end of a number of sandbaggings himself.

Sitting comfortably in the valley beside the tent and in possession of a free lift pass from the authorities (included if you book local accommodation) we decide to celebrate the fact we don’t have to do anything hard. The guidebook is opened and routes with the words “serious”, “steep”, and “exposed” are quickly ejected from the plan. We settle on a plan to spend the week emulating our forefathers from the nineteenth century and collect a few 4000m peaks by the classic “Grand Courses” of there early ascents. 

There are obviously limits to this historical emulation, we will not be resorting to hiring guides, cutting steps, or clothing ourselves in tweed. Most importantly heaven forbid we will not be walking in to the climbs from valley level as begets the style of the Victorian mountaineer. Besides had Wymper had access to the Hohass Cable car I’m, sure he would have made use of it in any attempt to climb the Weissmies, the mountain we have set todays sights on.

As the cable car was free we had popped up the previous evening just to have a look at the route with a beer in hand, tracing the inevitable motorway or snow trench that leads up the mountain by it’s most popular route the north west flank onto the south west ridge. Its a reasonable nice looking line, across the glacier before climbing onto the shoulder of the mountain and following the ridge to the summit.

Having caught the first bin out the valley we’re on the glacier in about ten minutes weaving our way in and out of the crevasses which this late in the season are relatively easy to see and avoid. We take a big diversion round the fans of avalanche debris recently fallen from the  line of seracs which tower above the start of the route and sneak up the side of the glacier and on to the shoulder. This passage is easy but with a nice dab of exposure as you cross the steep face to the base of the shoulder with the slope dropping steeply away towards ice cliffs on your right.

Hers a short steep ice step provides a few minutes of interest and active deployment of the axe in anger. In fresh conditions the step would prove a bit tricky at PD but the passage of hundreds of boots has smashed a pretty good staircase through it. Now all it manages to do is create an obvious bottleneck which we fortunately avoid having powered past everyone else on the climb up from the glacier.

Above this the route runs up to join the south west ridge and is a nice non threatening snow walk. The trail leads away ahead of us flowing easily over the terrain weaving about to trace the easiest line; occasionally blobs of colour in little groups of two and three brake the monotony of white as groups of climbers plod towards the great white cone ahead and above.

I’m feeling really strong and acclimatised having been above 3500m the last four days running and we make really good time to the summit arriving a little after 2.5hr from leaving the lift. The top is really exposed to the wind and bitterly cold; todays weather is a little more mixed than earlier in the week when we had cold but quite still conditions on the summit of the Allinhorn. Amazingly considering the huge number of groups (20+) we passed during the climb we have the summit almost to ourselves just a one other couple arrive almost at the same time as us up the SSE ridge. 

For me one of the main joys of mountaineering are the summit moments; standing high above your surroundings and taking in a truly spectacular view on the world. From here the panorama is pretty spectacular even if the brilliant blue sky of earlier in the week is now flecked with high white cloud. Towards Italy a cloud inversion fills the valley hiding everything from view. In spite of the view we don’t linger long in the bitter wind, turning for home back the way we came.

Ninety minutes later I’m sat on the sun terrace of the Hohass restaurant beer in hand and soup and pretzl ready to go as we watch a steady stream of climbers move down the mountain to join us, yep I can get used to this