About two weeks ago after I’ve done the last race Matterhorn Ultraks SKY, I was wondering what to do next. More adventures for sure but a bit more on my own terms. The idea hit me to do Bishorn one-shot. I am at home in the valley and never been up there - so really wanted to go. So I proposed the idea to my partner Rémi.
when I saw on the FKT site, I thought - Hugh..- maybe explore this a little. Well, here we are. A placeholder female FKT that is meant to be broken - hopefully by me the next few weeks ;)
we started at the church at 4:16am under a beautiful starry sky. First uphill was good, but I could feel the heavier pack - glacier equipment, alpi shoes (I went in trail shoes until Cabane Tracuit and carried my alpine boots the whole way up to the hut, then left trail shoes at the hut and switched to the boots). In any case we were moving pretty well but had a few mini photo breaks, water refills, and then arrived exactly at Tracuit when the first Sundays hit all the 4000m peaks around. Breathtaking.
took a bit of time to change and put on the cord etc. Then caught a couple rope teams on the way up to the summit. 100m below the summit we ran into some friends - didn’t expect that! They slept at the hut and also went up to the summit (in a different style). What a coincidence!
overall, not yet knowing this glacier, glad about the rope - there are some bigger crevasses. on the summit, quite a bit of wind - a couple photos and down we went. But the views onto the north face of Weisshorn were spectacular. caught another few teams on the way down the glacier and to the cabane. Navigating went well between the crevasses.
At the cabane there were some more friends who came up for paragliding that we didn’t know were coming up. Fun short conversation. Then quick shoe switch and off to the descent to Zinal. Very happy to be back in trail shoes. The descent was a bit slower than usual as Remi couldn’t run the flat parts (blisters hello). But still the motto of the whole adventure was as fast as possible, as slow as necessary to be safe and enjoy ourselves. And to scout the route a bit.
the descent went well and after Roc de la Vache, we did step on the gas a little bc we wanted to arrrive 😅
Nutrition went well but was not enough. 7 gels + 2x 90g carb flasks. 1l water. next time need more. And a breakfast.
all in all a beautiful day out. Had a blast.