MORE DOUGAL HASTON ... Matterhorn North Face in Winter

A delightfully understated account of the fourth winter ascent of the Matterhorn North Face by Mick Burke published in the 1968 Alpine Journal. You'll get a touch of the flavor of the trip and the measure of the men with these few snippets:

- After practicing at failing on the Nollen route on the Monch ...
- The problems of winter bivouacs are ten times greater than summer ones and another thing it's a lot colder.
- Contrary to popular opinion it was easy to get good piton belays. I don't know what they would be like in summer when there isn't the ice to secure the blocks ...
- it was five o'clock so we knocked 40 pitons in and prepared for the night. We then threw away our bivouac sheet, just so that we wouldn't be too warm during the night. We had our two ounces of water and our cold bacon. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE.