Photography and Essay by Hubert Schriebl
I had been away from the high mountains too long. So finally last summer things came together, and I was on my way to Switzerland. Like seeing friends you have not seen for a long time, I was anxious to see once again these mountains that I had climbed fifty years ago. How had they changed? What would it feel like to put on heavy climbing boots and make the long walk to the mountain hut, sharing the space with friends and other people with the same dreams? On August 24th last summer, it became a reality when my Vermont neighbor, Bill Thomson, and my longtime Austrian climbing partner and Himalaya companion, Klaus Gurtler, and his daughter Katrina, were all sitting together outside the Monte Rosa Hut, watching the darkness move in on the mountains around us. The next morning we rose at 2 a.m. and began hiking. Soon after we started, we came to a long stretch of boulders and ledges that took hours to navigate with only the help of the small beams of light from our headlamps. As we reached the glacier, still well before dawn, we roped up and put on crampons for another long stretch to reach the ridge that leads to the summit of Monte Rosa. Along the way, we were rewarded with a magnificent sunrise. After a long day of climbing, we descended and reached the train station on the Gornergrat around 7 p.m., where we could look back at fantastic views of the mountains and glaciers, now scarred by climate change, but still beautiful. So, what they say is not true. You can go back!
