Well done those who got up it, in this year of our lord 2025. It’s not easy, and many have not managed it. I was there 35 years previously in September1990, and we climbed it, but it was touch and go.
Our first problem was, the hut from which we had planned to climb it, had been demolished the year before in 1989, (and was in the early stages of reconstruction) a fact we were entirely unaware of, it being before the internet etc. (This was not a totally new experience for us, as previously, our Eigergletcher hut base for the Eiger had been swept away in 1922 by an avalanche, and never replaced).
I suspect the gentleman in the tourist office in Lauterbrunnen, who informed us of this, is still dining out on the story.
Undeterred, we constructed an alternative refugio of random building materials and plastic bivvy bags, tied together with our 2 x30m ropes, but this didn’t solve the food problem. We had 2 tins of Cassoulet, (god only knows why), which we managed to heat on a fire of broken pallets. Two guys from Cambridge CC were camped nearby, who lent us a lighter, a tin opener and a spoon. Two nights- 2 tins.
The refugio was duly dismantled in the morning , as we needed the ropes, and the plaque at the base of the route was finally identified by the eagle-eyed Paul Marshall, after some faffing.
Who wants to lead? Victor was the man, but he refused point blank. So muggins led off.
I seem to remember the first short pitch was the worst, but my notes say that pitch 2 was harder, after that it was ok. We would have had a problem getting down, had the other two, Paul Robinson and Victor Russell, not made it, as we had only 30m ropes, and the abseils were 30. This was also ‘touch and go’ as, although Victor was our ace climber, the technicalities of putting on a harness were beyond him, and Paul had to get him out of, and back into it, on a very small ledge indeed, and he had just led the first pitch tied into a gear loop.
We were able to tie the two 30s together to get down. Another night in our reconstructed Hilton, another shared tin of cassoulet, and a walk out to the flesh pots of Fuente De to the best ham and eggs I have ever tasted. The walkout can’t have been that bad, as my notes say that I left the group to climb Pico De Horcadas Rojas.
We also did, Pena Vieja, Torre Blanca, Tesorora, Torre Llago and Pico De San Carlos, had a rest day in San Vicente, and got very legless indeed at the Fiesta in Potes. A full on week, maybe 8 days?