Climbing the Matterhorn at 16 🏔️ | 50th 4000er via Cresta del Leone

The Matterhorn (4,478 m) — one of the most iconic and challenging peaks in the world. At just 16 years old, Tim reached its summit in harsh alpine conditions, climbing the harder Cresta del Leone (West Ridge) route.

This climb marked our 50th 4000m peak in the Alps — an achievement no one Tims age has ever accomplished before. A milestone moment on the way to all 82 Alpine 4000ers.
Part of Tim and Tobi’s journey to climb all 82 Alpine 4000m peaks (82_peaks).

A large, long-planned undertaking that almost had to be canceled due to the weather.

We set out on Sunday, knowing that there would be a lot of snow and strong winds forecast. Accordingly, we took a break on Monday. After midnight, a nice French couple arrived who had gotten lost in the fog. He suffered slight frostbite on one finger despite the quickly warmed water.
Monday evening, we got ready for bed around 7 p.m. A half-confused Italian man came into the hut, muttering about his friend down on the fixed ropes who was too exhausted to climb. We were prepared when the cell phone calls became more than alarming. He spoke incoherently and said he was lying in the snow, after which he didn't answer again. We hurried; luckily, the French woman was a doctor. After an hour on a nearly vertical wall, we managed to pull him up. He was so confused, we constantly had to prevent him from unclipping from the rope mid-ascent. He ended up with severe frostbite on his hands – I think if we hadn't been at the bivouac, he would have died. His friend didn't even think about calling rescue! When we asked him if he'd called the rescue team yet, he looked confused at first, like, "Why?", and then he didn't even remember the number... height, exhaustion and the cold visibly got to him as well !

We finally went to bed at 10 p.m. and set off at 4 a.m. as the first rope team – which would cause us problems, since we got lost 2-3 times in total. Finding the way in the dark isn't always obvious, and many of the tracks are from other climbers who got lost. It slowed us down by a good 60-90 minutes. The conditions on the ridge were wintry at times, so no easy august conditions for us that day !

The summit was the most beautiful of our 50 four-thousand-meter peaks – until now - just an incredible view. The only annoying thing was the constant chorus of helicopters – and the guided groups, who had also arrived by now – it was getting a bit crowded. The advantage was that we didn't get lost on the descent. 🫣

Note regarding the bivouac: we spent the night in the carrel, where there's a shelter. But that only worked because we climbed in on Sunday, and there was a storm on Monday, so no helicopter could fly. Normally, the construction workers are there and they'll force everyone out, so it's impossible to spend the night there!


CC: ‘Victor Lux' by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au