When living in Switzerland there are two main activities to do in winter. Eat fondue and go to the mountains to do alpinism, ski or similar (see Haute Route 2022) If the quantity of activities is rather low, their quality is outstanding. Some of the most beautiful landscapes and most intense adventures in this country happen in these mountains.

One of these adventures, planned by Melchior de Lamotte, author as well of the video above, consisted on taking a group of noobs (including me) into high altitude mountaineering and summit our first 4000 (a mountain whose peak is above 4000m) The chosen route was the south-east ridge of Weissmies, in the valley of the famous ski resort SaasFee.

The trip consisted in a two-day excursion, passing through a wide variety of landscapes and difficulties: a hike among trees for the departure from Saas-Almagell until the Almageller Hut SAC, where we practised our crevasse rescue and rope manouvers; some scrambling over a rocky ridge to arrive to the first snowfield; and a final snowed ridge to reach the summit. The descent was done on the north glacier Triftgletscher.

Enjoy the video!