A rosy dream come true

The city of Verbania at 193 meters altitude on the west shore of Lake Maggiore marked the start of their expedition. From there, Jacqueline, Laila and Loui blazed a trail onward to more remote, long-standing paths through the barely accessible Val Grande National Park. There, they got a taste of the adventure they hoped for in the high mountains. For a total of 1.5 weeks, they lived as on expedition, fully self-sufficient, in a tent with packs, food and gear, photo equipment, and of course provisions too for Loui the dog. But due to thun­der­storms, the trip came to an abrupt end in Macugnaga. After waiting it out for a short time, three weeks of continuous bad weather forced abandoning the expedition since the weather wouldn’t allow ascent into the high mountains.

Only having clicked off 70 kilo­metres, but nearly 5,000 meters of climbing, Jacqueline, Laila and Louie turned back to Germany on Aug. 24, 2019.

Since the climb from Macugnaga was not possible now due to COVID-19, they couldn’t take on their 2019 route precisely, so they started out instead from Alagna toward the high mountains. At an altitude of 2,500 meters, they lived the first few days self-suffi­ciently in a tent and used that time for accli­mat­isation before they reached the Rifugio Capanna Giovanni Gnifetti in the Aosta Valley at 3,647 meters). There, they met local mountain guides Andrea Pier­ettori and Nicola Degasparis who would round out their team.

Now a group of five, they climbed across the Lys Glacier to the highest hut in Europe, the Margherita Hut. The shelter in a spec­tacular location on the Signalkuppe peak (4,554 meters) is the starting point of numerous high-alpine tours in the Valais alps, including one to the Dufourspitze at 4,634 meters and the highest peak in Switzerland.The next day that very majestic peak was the goal for Andrea, Nicola and Jacqueline. That’s why the two guides had brought along ropes to secure them and to facilitate the climb and descent for the

team.

The chances of reaching the summit where only about 50–50 because heavy fog was also forecast by early afternoon. That would have meant the need to turn back. Indeed, after accom­plishing about three-quarters of the route, the feared fog rolled in and they had to head back down since they still had a long way back that including cleaning the protection.

They were a little bit melancholy as they left Dufourspitze behind, but they used the following days to climb a total of five 4,000ers. Jacqueline was able to finally check off a box on her long-desired project list: Monte Rosa was no longer just a rose-coloured dream, but a rosy one at that.

Jacqueline Fritz, 35, is a German alpine athlete and climber who lost her right leg at age 24 after a ballet accident and several failed oper­ations. The mountains and sports gifted her the needed courage to live and have now become the centre of her life. The LOWA ACTIVE Team athlete estab­lished herself in very few years as a recognized athlete and today climbs with the German Para National Team. She won a bronze for German in Summer 2019.