South West Ridge -

We left the hut at 2 am, doing our best to not descent to the glacier, traversing northwards. Hours later, the sun came out and I saw a snow grouse (first and last time in my life, I guess). We continued to to ascent, while the sun went away and the weather was getting worse. At about 4000m elevation, you could hardly see someone 3m in front of you. But at 4000m, you don't quit. At 4100m elevation, a thunderstorm was coming up, but at 4100m, it doesn't really matter if you go for another 100m or quit. On the summit, the thunderstorm was right on us. Standing next to it, we could barely see the summit cross, but we could hear. It is of metal and it was shaking and emitting high frequency noise because of the electricity in the air. We did not rest, but immediately started ascending towards the east, down on the ridge. The good thing is: If you can't see anything, you can't see how far it is going down. The bad thing is: If you have a hard time seeing your team mates, can you jump in the other direction fast enough if someone falls? Well, down climbing was not very successful, at 4000m elevation, our guide had lost the way and decided to go back up again. So back up to the still shaking summit cross, and down climbing on the same route that we came up on. Well not quite, since we also lost our way here. But finally we made it back to the glacier. Now for a long walk back to the hut. Unfortunately, the hut is about 100m above the glacier, and you have to get up there by climbing on ladders. Since we didn't feel like doing that, we decided to go for the cable car station instead. Bad idea! The station was another 7.5 km away. I have never slept so well as in this night. And I never had as many croissants for breakfast as on the next morning.