After every Patrouille des Glaciers, I had decided that this would be my last participation in this extreme ski touring race. But once again, I couldn't resist the request from my friends Marc White and Daniel Huguet to join them on the next Patrouille des Glacier.
The Patrouille des Glaciers - (mass) ski touring race from Zermatt to Verbier
But the Patrouille des Glaciers is more than just the day and night of the race. It is usually a large part of the winter season that is invested in this race. The preparation is a pleasure in beautiful conditions and powder descents, but there are always a number of "forced" training tours in crushed snow, fog and storms, where you have to turn around a few times before the summit if you don't want to risk your life. One of my great preparation tours, for example, was the tour to the Wetterhorn, which I had never climbed before. I set off with my girlfriend at half past three in the morning from our home in Grindelwald to get to the starting point for the Wetterhorn ski tour in Rosenlaui. To do this, we first had to conquer the Grosse Scheidegg. We arrived in Rosenlaui at a quarter to six and tackled the 2500 vertical meters in the best powder snow conditions. Of course, after the tour we also had to return via the Grosse Scheidegg. After 12 hours and 3800 vertical meters, but at a leisurely pace, and including a stop at the Schwarzwaldalp restaurant, we reached our starting point again.
The 19th Patrouille des Glaciers
The initial weather forecasts a week before the Patrouille des Glaciers looked bad. It had been warm and beautiful all spring and now winter was coming back...? Was all the training possibly in vain again? Just like two years ago, when my team-mate tore his cruciate ligament on a training tour shortly before the start, making our participation impossible? In the week before the race, a whole meter of fresh snow fell in the high mountains. The start therefore had to be postponed by 24 hours from Friday to Saturday evening.
We had completed the equipment check and our backpacks were packed. At just before six in the evening, the participants gathered in the church in Zermatt for the sermon, to hear the latest information and to listen to a few words from politicians. The latter wished us perseverance and courage and honoured the tradition of the Patrouille des Glaciers as well as the enormous amount of work invested by the Swiss Army as organizers of the Patrouille des Glaciers. With heavenly support and carried by the power of the national anthem, performed live by a Swiss Army band, we were to overcome the enormous efforts that lay ahead of us. The weather forecast promised improvement, but it continued to rain cats and dogs until shortly before the start.
Before the start of the race, we had a huge portion of pasta and then made our way to the start, where all the items that had to be carried were checked again. The starting gun sounded at 10.30pm, accompanied by a musical production and cheered on by hundreds of spectators. We set off very quickly, ran through the whole village and I was already turning red when we turned into the steep hiking trail. With our skis on our backpacks, we made our way up to Stafel, where after a good hour we were able to strap on our skis. We then continued in snowfall and fog to Schönbiel. There we had to rope up to cross the glacier. At an altitude of around 3000 meters, we broke through the clouds and had a clear starry sky above us, but the higher we climbed, the colder the night became. At a steep step in the Stockji area, there was a small traffic jam. Some runners struggled to overcome the icy upswing, but it was difficult to get out of the way due to the risk of crevasses. But we used the 20-minute wait to eat something and recover. On the Tête Blanche, at 3650 m the highest point of the route, we were barely able to take off our climbing skins because our fingers were almost frozen. It was around minus 15 degrees and we were battling against the persistent strong headwind. Now came the descent on the rope to the Col de Bertol. After a short counter ascent, we were able to detach ourselves from the rope again. My team-mate Marc's fingers were so cold and aching that I had to help him untie the knot and remove the skins. Then we skied down to the village of Arolla at 2000 m, partly through powder snow, but also through some broken snow. After a short break for refreshments, we tackled the next 900 meters of ascent to the Col de Riedmatten at 2900 meters. There we had to overcome a bottleneck on fixed ropes, which in turn led to a 20-minute traffic jam. Here, my team-mate Daniel realized that he had lost the screws on the rear binding head. Obviously he hadn't tightened them hard enough. We tried to fix it with tape and glue and lost some time again. Due to the soft snow conditions, we decided to attach the skins for the approximately four-kilometre-long flat stretch along Lac de Dix. This meant we needed significantly less energy, but four years ago we had certainly covered the route 15 minutes faster without skins in frozen conditions. At the end of the route, another refreshment post was waiting for us. I longed for a warm drink. The tea I had filled up with in Arolla was now frozen.
After a refreshment, some chocolate and energy food, I continued towards Rosablanche. Suddenly I lost a skin. The glue failed due to the extreme cold. But we still had a pair of spare skins with us, so I was happy to be able to fall back on them. My legs were now exhausted and the battle began. Slowly, step by step, but steadily and without a break, we fought our way up the mountain. Nevertheless, we were constantly overtaking other patrols (editor's note: in the Patrouille des Glaciers, teams that start together are called "patrols") that had only started in Arolla and were only competing in the "small" race. This was just as motivating as the magnificent sunrise, which made the Mont Blanc de Cheilon glow red. But of course there were also faster runners than us. Again and again, professional teams who had only started in Zermatt at three o'clock in the morning whizzed past us. I still can't understand how you can complete this long and difficult route in around six hours. Shortly before the Rosablanche, the skis were attached to the backpack and we set off on foot up a steep couloir over 300 meters in altitude. A huge crowd of spectators was waiting at the top, many of whom had even bivouacked here at 3400 m just for the occasion. We could hear their cowbells, alphorns and shouts from far below. They literally "pulled" us up the mountain, even though my batteries were more than empty by now. When we reached the top, knowing that we had done the hardest part, I wasn't the only one with tears of joy. This was another very emotional moment for me on my third participation. People offered us drinks and cookies, but we hardly had time, so we skinned down straight away and got ready for the upcoming descent. On the final ascent to the Col de la Chaux, another 150 meters in altitude, we were able to get the last reserves out of us. My ankle hurt, my shoulder was aching, my hip was pulling, my... But once again there were hundreds of spectators cheering us on and making me forget the pain. Finally done, now it was just a matter of going down. In the meantime, Daniel had lost the rear binding head completely, so Marc took over the defective ski and skied downhill with loose heels, just like with a telemark binding. At the end of the slope in Verbier, we strapped the skis onto the backpack again. We walked the last kilometer through the crowd of spectators that had gathered on both sides of the road. It felt like a triumphal march. We reached the finish in Verbier in 12 hours and 15 minutes and my altimeter had accumulated an impressive 4250 m since Zermatt. - We remained well above my personal best time and our target time of 11 hours. Considering the conditions and the various incidents, it was still a very satisfactory result for us.
Now we toasted with beer. Overwhelmed with emotion, I tried in vain to suppress a few tears of joy. It was nice again, the Patrouille des Glaciers. The pain and long suffering had already been forgotten. And we found the answer as to why we were putting ourselves through such hardship again on Rosablanche, at the Col de la Chaux and on the home stretch. But after this third participation, it will definitely be the last time for me. I want to pursue a few other projects and the training effort throughout the winter is very time-consuming. But who knows: I had already said these words after my last participation four years ago...
Video of the participants from the Patrouille des Glaciers
Facts about the Patrouille des Glaciers
The Patrouille des Glaciers is an exceptional ski touring race in which the teams complete either the Zermatt - Verbier or Arolla - Verbier route in one stage, depending on the category. This unique race is characterized by its length, its great difference in altitude and the profile of the route. Taking part requires not only a great deal of experience in the high mountains, but also mastery of the extreme conditions and extensive mental, physical and technical preparation. The 19th Patrouille des Glaciers took place in 2014: Between 1943 and 1949, the race took place three times; since 1984, the Patrouille des Glaciers has now been held every two years.
5316 participants
A total of 1,772 patrols (= teams) were registered with a total of 5,316 participants. Of these, 887 teams started on the Zermatt - Verbier route and 885 patrols on the Arolla-Verbier route. Almost half of the teams were military patrols. Around 480 civilian teams (1440 people) had to be turned away due to the restriction on participants. The participants came from 29 nations. The Swiss participants made up 84% of those taking part. There were military patrols from 10 foreign armies at the start. At least one participant was registered from all 26 Swiss cantons. The proportion of women was 13.2%. 16 women started in a military patrol. Personnel and equipmentA total of around 1,500 members of the armed forces were deployed during the 19th Patrouille des Glaciers, providing a total of 8,000-10,000 days of service.
Around 210 tons of equipment were required (50 trucks with trailers).
13 heated special tents were used as accommodation for the members of the armed forces deployed in the high mountains.
40 doctors were deployed during the Patrouille des Glaciers, divided between 13 marshals. A total of 16 avalanche dogs were deployed during the Patrouille des Glaciers for safety and in the event of accidents.
Three meteorologists were on duty for the Patrouille des Glaciers for eight days. Six avalanche specialists from the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) in Davos were on duty for 15 days.
40 cooks prepared the food for the participants and helpers of the Patrouille des Glaciers: 75,000 meals were served on the four "competition days" alone.
