"Why walk to the alpine when you can ride a lift?"

Steps from the train station in car-free Zermatt is a friendly camp ground.

Bryan acclimatizes faster than me, so my oxygen capacity sets our schedule. After my four-day conference, how much of my acclimatization had I lost? Cable-cars took us from valley to alpine again.

And industrial mountaineering: we were headed up just 300m more in altitude to the top of Breithorn. Teams of guided groups were at the base and on their way up.

But that wasn't the madness. It seems nowadays you need a drone, or a guide with a drone, ...

to take appropriate photos of yourself at the top.

There was no peace up there. (By the way, the haze was likely from Canadian wildfires!)

Stunning setting, though.

Anyway, the altitude seemed not a problem, so ...

... we descended steep groomed ski terrain ...

to an Italian hut where they played questionable American country music all day ("I was born with a gun in may hand..."). Napping was a productive way for me to acclimatize, while Bryan worked on some repairs.

The next morning, we reclimbed the regroomed ski slope --- yes, with axes and crampons -- to Kleine Matterhorn and descended to town.

Next, more mechanical levitation (Gornergrat cog train) took us to a ridge with views towards the Grenzgletscher and the Monte Rosa hut, our future high camp, and the Dufourspitze summit.

A long descent on the way to the hut ...

involves fixed ladders and some batman ropes for a transition from rock to the Gornergletscher.

By June, the lower several km of the Glenzgletscher are already dry.

The Monte Rosa hut is the most modern of Switzerland's major huts, though the beautiful main interior is in early/mid June still closed for winter.

Careful: the deck may all be eco-sourced wood, but it leaves micro-splinters in everything.

It is normal to leave the hut for a summit at 2 a.m. to avoid soft snow bridges on the glacier, and soft snow in general. Our plans kept devolving towards slow and heavy: we left at a leisurely hour, ...

with snowshoes and full camping gear.

Our luck with an extended good weather window continued.

In the summer season there are marked routes for everything. Our route may not have been the easiest way up, in retrospect.

Looking across to the Matterhorn provided one reference for how much elevation we still had to gain.

Bryan mostly led the large glacier navigation, while I concentrated on plodding along at a manageable pace for the altitude, ...

... with breaks.

Our goal was to camp above 4000m, rather than ascend in speedy style. Once one has probed out and demarcated a safe zone, one can unrope and set up camp.

Camping above the Satteltole, away from lifts and huts, made us feel a bit more at home in the mountains ... until a (tourist?) helicopter repeatedly buzzed us throughout the afternoon. Raising one arm is the international signal for "we're fine, no help needed," but what is the signal for "that's enough; leave us alone already!"?

Once again, napping was in order for Chris, ...

... while Bryan got to work building a water still and kitchen.

Few people camp up here, so having a crevasse near camp facilitates an accepted LNT practice, if you see what I mean.

Our tent was not four-season, but the weather was dead calm overnight. We anchored the tent with things we weren't using for the summit, and chose another leisurely departure in the morning. This time, that was a mistake.

With an easy bergschrund crossing, we gained the Sattel col to the right of what we had called the "triangular face", the snow slope accessing the West ridge.

Continuing up the ridge unroped ...

was pleasant in morning snow conditions ...

... and brought us to the first rock section. À cheval is one way to cross an exposed, narrow step.

Impressed with the exposure of what we had just climbed, and with the appearance of the second prominent snow slope, just ahead ...

... we discussed plans and decided to rope up and protect the last steps of the rock section ...

and the snow.

Finally, Matterhorn's summit was approaching the horizon behind us, though not Mont Blanc's.

Two or three more leads of mixed climbing along the final rock ridge ...

... brought us to the summit.

The truth is, I had wanted to come here because of a photo in my living room ...

of my grandparents Egon and Hanni (and a guide?) nearly a hundred years ago. But is this in fact the same peak? ((Better rendition of photo to come)).

Next, a crazy thing happened. Bryan was not thrilled about reversing our route (as planned), and suggested continuing along the ridge to the rappels. But where was the beta? In industrialized mountaineering, you can look up route information on your cell phone from the summit of the highest peak in Switzerland.

With that guidance, I set off for one more interesting lead ...

... to find the magical iron t-bars which make anchoring, belaying, and rappelling all a breeze. Great plan, Bryan!

Down we went, for four or five rappels ...

... glad there was no one climbing below us in this bowling alley couloir, ...

... eventually to rappel off the end of our rope near the bottom.

From the Dufourspitze-Nordend col, we were back to crevasse avoidance navigation to get back around towards our camp.

Bryan led again,

following tracks of the savvy skiers where possible and sometimes the less savvy postholers ...

Travel was okay higher up, ...

... but we were now facing mid-afternoon soft snow. From camp, we donned the snowshoes ...

... but eventually even they were sinking deeply.

When we ended up somewhere we should not have been, one leg of mine fell through into a crevasse, but I was able to get my showshoe out and remain on top.