Following a rest day, Graeme and I climbed the famously easy Allalinhorn. The weather looked very dubious from the valley, but we decided to get the Metro Alpine up to the Allalin Station nonetheless. We were very pleasantly surprised by blue skies and sunshine at 3500m – a sort of 'Alpine inversion' and had a lovely morning on the short normal route to the summit. We were very lucky to share the mountain with only 3 other groups that day – the climb is usually very popular being so short and easy. It was a lovely introduction to glacier travel, with easy crevasse crossings and snow slopes no steeper than 40 degrees.

The next day, we all climbed the Jeighorn Via Ferrata as the weather

 

 was dubious for an ascent of the Weismeiss which was our other option. The Jeighorn was highly recommended to us by a British Guide we met on the Allalinhorn the previous day and we were not disappointed. The most exciting part was the high level and exposed wire bridge between the adjacent and summit Peaks.

 

There was so much more to do in the Saas Valley, we definitely hope to return in the future, but we felt we made the most of our time there and got an insight into this beautiful part of the Penine Alps as well as a good introduction to unguided Alpine trips in general. We can't wait till next year!!...

 

Mhairi Cameron.

 

Gemma on Jeigihorn via ferrata with Weismeiss in background.