A dream in pink

The starting point of their expedition was the town of Verbania on the western shore of Lake Maggiore at 193 metres above sea level. From there, Jacqueline, Laila and Loui made their way along deserted old paths through the sparsely developed Val Grande National Park and got a taste of the adventure they were hoping for in the high mountains. They spent a total of 1.5 weeks living completely self-sufficiently in an expedition-style tent with their luggage, food, equipment, photographic equipment and, of course, provisions for Loui the dog. The trip came to an abrupt end in Macugnaga due to a thunderstorm. A short break quickly turned into three weeks of permanent bad weather, which prevented the ascent into the high mountains and forced the expedition to be cancelled.

Jacqueline, Laila and Loui returned to Germany on 24 August 2019 having covered only around 70 kilometres but almost 5,000 metres in altitude.

As an ascent from Macugnaga was not possible due to the coronavirus, they were unable to continue their 2019 route one-to-one and instead set off from Alagna towards the high mountains on 12 July. At an altitude of around 2500 metres, they lived self-sufficiently in a tent for the first few days and used the time to acclimatise before reaching the Rifugio Capanna Giovanni Gnifetti (3647 m) in the Aosta Valley, where they met the two local mountain guides Andrea Pierettori and Nicola Degasparis, who were to complete their rope team.

From then on, the five of them climbed over the Lys Glacier to the highest hut in Europe, the Margherita Hut. The spectacularly situated refuge on the summit of the Signalkuppe (4,554 m) is the starting point for numerous high-altitude tours in the Valais Alps, including the Dufourspitze at 4,634 metres, the highest peak in Switzerland.

The very next day, Andrea, Nicola and Jacqueline set their sights on this mighty mountain, which is why the two mountain guides immediately set up fixed ropes to make the ascent and descent easier for the rope team.