In mid-June 22, the idea grew to try a speed attempt on the Gran Paradiso, when we, together with two friends and my husband, found the Paradiso in ideal conditions and, already as a team, only needed under 3 hours for the ascent. Ideal conditions at that time meant: grippy, snow-covered glacier with a solid track, little wind, snowfields that covered boulder fields. I set my goal to ascent Gran Paradiso to below 2:30:00 and promised myself to give it a try as soon as possible to profit from the conditions.
Now, at the beginning of July, the situation looked completely different: no more snowfield, the glacier bare and about halfway down the glacier there was already a large boulder field to traverse. So it quickly became clear that I could only focus on the ascent time.
My colleague Nicu and my husband Harald also tried their own speed attempt on this bright blue morning of 02.07.2022. We all started independently of each other, so that, in the best case, we would all arrive at the summit at the same time to congratulate each other and celebrate.
So I started running at 8:31am at the car park in Pont in Valsavarenche with my poles, in my running vest I carried micro crampons with steel tips, a windbreaker, gloves, 2 gels and 2 bars and half a litre of iso drink and my mobile phone. On the ascent to Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele, I took some steep shortcuts. At the hut I took a deep breath together with a few sips of water from the water basin in front of the terrace. With some difficulty in finding the best path I navigated along the cairns through the small valley, which was still snow-covered when I visited it in June. Arriving at the glacier tongue, I put on quickly the micro crampons and continued straight up the bare ice. In the zone with loose blocks I continued with the crampons on my feet to not loose time when putting it off and on again for the last stretch over the glacier. I passed 2 big groups of mountaineers that wished me good luck and some smaller, roped-up teams. The bergschrund was no big deal, it was still snow covered and easy to cross. I pushed up the rocky ridge at the end to make it below 2 hours and 30 minutes. Finally I did a handshake with the madonna exactly after 2:28:37.
My husband Hari arrived at the top some minutes later, followed by Nicu. The summit picture shows all 3 of us celebrating my success (and of course their own).