Retracing a Victorian Traverse in 2022

France/Switzerland, June 2022

by Al Gill

On 26 June 2022, the HLR 2022 expedition set out from Zermatt, heading west past the Matterhorn. We hoped to retrace and extend a route pioneered in 1859-62 by the recently formed Alpine Club.

Known as the ‘High Level Route’, this connected Chamonix and Zermatt across the mountains. It avoided the tourist traps of the era by remaining amongst the peaks and linking glaciers via high-altitude cols. Unlike the modern Haute Route, which is done on skis late in the winter season, this was done on foot and during the late summer. After 160 years of climate change the route might no longer be viable; we wanted to find out. Through photography and art we also wanted to show what climate change looks like in the Alps.

There was also a scientific goal. We took surface snow samples in glacial accumulation zones which our scientific partners at the University of Utrecht could measure for microplastics. The idea was to learn about the atmospheric transport of plastic pollution from microplastics deposited on glaciers. This was the first survey to measure the type, particle size and distribution of microplastics over a wide area.

Our core team comprised a dozen climbers from the UK, Spain, the US and Hong Kong. It included both an artist and a photographer. Our support team brought up sample kits from the valley, took snow samples back down and drove the climbing team between locations. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts removed the Hong Kong climbers from part of the trip and another climber had to return to the UK through sickness. This left us with only six climbers for most of the expedition.

The conditions were what made our expedition. After a winter with little snowfall, and June’s heatwave, 2022 was the most extreme alpine season for half a century. Local temperatures reached 10°C higher than the norm. The freezing isotherm (the altitude at which the atmospheric temperature is 0°C) reached 5,200m compared to the 3,000-3,500m which would be typical for the season. This meant that the glacier surfaces were not refreezing overnight, so snow bridges over crevasses were weak. As there was little snow below 3,200m, many of the glaciers were dry, making it difficult to sample. With permafrost melting even faster than usual, there was also a high risk of rockfall.

We planned one final training day before setting off up the Stockji glacier. Conditions were appalling. The snow was soft and there was rockfall all around. We also saw avalanches of the seracs at the end of the glacier. Back at the hut, the gardienne told us that three groups had tried to cross the Stockji from the other side but had been forced to turn back. Regretfully, we concluded that the first part of our target route was unjustifiable. Technically, this meant we had already achieved our first goal and shown that the route was not viable after 160 years of climate change. We could have abandoned our plan to retrace the Alpine Club’s route and just focused on the science, but we did not want to give up this early.

We adopted a hybrid strategy. We would try to reach as much of our target route as possible, going down and around as necessary, and sample as much of the intended terrain as we could. The expedition became a battle between these two objectives. Dry glaciers were often traversable but scientifically useless. Snow-covered glaciers promised great sampling but were impassable. After descending to Zermatt, we split the team. The Hong Kong climbers took some sample kits and headed to the Matterhorn. We headed for the Vignettes via Arolla. Over the next three days, we sampled the glaciers de Pièce and du Mont Collon, before descending the bare ice of the Glacier d’Otemma. Like our Victorian predecessors, we had some difficulties with the Col du Sonadon (3503m). Satellite images showed little snow and there had been eight deaths earlier in the year. This included two only a few weeks before due to serac fall from the Grand Combin – right next to our intended route.

By contrast, the western half of our routepromised to be safer and have more snow.After a rest day in La Fouly, we headedto the first hut – the Cabane de l’A Neuve.Unfortunately, the glaciers between it andthe next hut were dry. So, changing our routeyet again, we crossed the Orny, Trient and Saleinaz glaciers via a traverse of the Fenêtrede Saleinaz, taking many samples along theway. We did not go over the rockfall-prone Col du Chardonnet to the Glacier d’Argentière. The glacier was dry and the route onwards over the Grands Montets and past Les Drus would not yield more samples either. To find sampleable snow, we aimed to get up the Vallée Blanche from the Refuge du Requin. With the Requin unexpectedly closed, we diverted to the Reguge de Leschaux.

The next day, we reached the foot of the Vallée Blanche at first light. So did the first rockfall. This forced us southwards up the right bank of the glacier. At first, we made good progress and secured our first sample below the Glacier des Périades. We then tried to force a route up the southern flank of the Séracs du Géant. As the sun swung around, however, there was rockfall from above and we were forced to retreat.

We were running out of time for sampling. In one last roll of the dice, we took the cable car up to the Aiguille du Midi. In mountaineering terms this was definitely cheating, but it did let us sample the whole of the Col du Midi plateau, as well as the top of the Arête des Cosmiques. We also got to see the plateau above the Séracs du Géant from above. It was completely dry – nothing but bare ice.

Overall, after 160 years of global warming, the original HLR was not doable in 2022. Perhaps it could be done in a less extreme year, with enough snow in June, but it would certainly no longer be viable in August as it was in the 1860s.

Did we succeed scientifically? We had been aiming to sample 50 sites, but only managed 25. Perhaps our greatest success will be in showing what global warming looks like in the Alps. The science team in Utrecht are still analysing the samples but preliminary work showed primarily polystyrene, polypropylene and plastic from tyres. Potentially, the polypropylene might come from mountaineers wearing modern climbing garments.

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