Monch, Mindfulness and Salvation

Look at any of them for too long and you’ll find yourself tracing the lines of famous routes on their northern aspects. The 1938 route and the Directissima on the Eiger, The Lauper, Haston-Eistrup and The Nollen on the Monch and the North East ridge and Silberhorn (to the north and often included in an ascent of the Jungfrau from the northern side) on the Jungfrau.

The North Face of The Monch showing the Nollen which takes a line from the bottom right up through the Hanging ice and then up the summit slopes diagonally left. The Lauper route takes the left slanting arete on the left of the image to the summit ridge.

On the drive back from Fribourg this morning, just after sunrise, with the glow of the early light illuminating the famous trio against an overcast sky, I found myself doing just that.

The Nollen is a…