Day One – July 18th 2010

We started the day behind schedule as we managed to set our alarms on Icelandic time, 2 hours behind schedule. On top of that, we were so tired the evening before, after travelling to Zermatt, that we had not prepared our gear in advance. On top of all of that, we found out that there were almost no stores open on Sunday which made it quite difficult to get food as well as getting money from the bank.

Long story short… Gummi and I barely managed to check us out of the hostel and get most of our excess gear in storage while Maggi and Jón ran around town trying to find a store and ATM (electronic bank/hraðbanka). This lead to us being 3-4 hours behind schedule and we started our hike at around 14:00, really tired after about 6-8 hour sleep in two days.

Not the best way to start

But then the magic began. We went up to Klein Matterhorn with a lift and entered our playground for the next five days. It was incredible.

We hiked up Breithorn and it took us around 2-3 hours to get up. The hike was short and easy but at the same time demanding as we were adapting to the high altitude and carrying +15 kg on our back. I had to breathe fast and deep and my heart was pumping like it had hardly ever done before. It was a new and strange experience.

We were on the top of Breithorn, 4.164 meters, at around 17:00. The view was breathtaking; we could see Matterhorn and saw some of the peaks we would hike in the following days, along with hundreds of other peaks of the Alps, including Mont Blanc in the west. After a short celebration and pictures we headed down as we still had to walk down to our hut, Val d’Ayas hut, in 3.425 meters.

Walking from the peak, on a relatively narrow ridge, I suddenly realized how incredible all of this was, that I was actually doing this. For a couple of minutes I was filled with gratitude and joy where I was thinking about everybody that had made this possible – that is, helping me getting from cancer, ulcerative colitis and stoma limitations… to this incredible adventure. (The list turned out to be long in my mind and I plan on posting it on this page, as these people have really made a difference.)

The walk down was in bad snow condition as the snow had melted in the sun which made everything a bit more difficult and dangerous. There were a couple of big crevasses (sprungur) that we had to jump over along with a lot of “smaller” ones that we had to walk and thread through.

We arrived in our hut around 20:00, quite exhausted and hungry, due to lack of sleep and after the hike of the day. An hour or two later, we were in our bunkers falling asleep. Our stomacs were full as we got a big three course meal (pasta, meat and dessert)… which was a nice surprise as we didn’t think it would be this good.

The first day was very promising for the next days and we were all excited for the days to come. The weather had been extremely good and the weather forecast was promising. The following days showed us that the first day was just a warm up.

I had a couple of problems with my stoma on that day, some which continued the following days, they were:

Due to our problems in the beginning of the day I didn’t pack up as much food as I needed, which made me a little bit “low on fuel” during the day.
I made the mistake of not emptying my bag before starting the difficult part of the peak. This made my walk down a steep icy part a bit difficult, as my stoma bag was full and in the way. Maggi, my teammate, helped me out by belaying me down the worst part. (Hjálpaði mér að síga niður) As soon as I got on good ground I emptied the bag and everything was ok.
Eating late in the evening meant I had to empty the bag in the middle of the night, which meant waking up, going to the toilet (which was far away) and trying to go to fall asleep again. This usually meant I lost an hour of sleep every night of our five-day trip.

Here is a video compilation that I made from pics and videos, I hope you enjoy