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- Aug 09, 2018
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No Spaghetti on spaghetti traverse… just tortellini, ziti, penne and espresso!
The spaghetti traverse, is a five day horseshoe shaped traverse that begins and ends in Zermatt. Although it begins and terminates in Switzerland almost all of the climbing occurs in Italy. Each hut is located on Italian soil (or rock in most cases).
The trek begins from one of the highest lift service points in Europe the Klien Matterhorn (3883 m). There is very little ‘fluff’ on this traverse as two hours after leaving the tram you are on top of the first of many 4000 meter peaks, the western Breithorn.
Each of the first three days of the traverse makes a U‑shape. You leave a hut climb up to the ridge tag one or several 4000+ meter summits then drop back down to the hut. The climbs are primarily snow with many sharp knife edge ridges. Several options include rocky scrambles and/or fixed lines like Pollux, and The Naso.
![](https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-4-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=300&s=95f9b70e75e6aab3d3cf6d9abd963cce 300w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-4-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=500&s=5bf1c0c74562da3381d8d21a976ed24c 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-4-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=700&s=6f585d6be35b15771278df9acc536852 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-4-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=800&s=f3b17c960fc76ab8096788cd3ce42d11 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-4-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1000&s=9e92ecd52ed87ae844f2d1e751b9c36f 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-4-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1200&s=6c6c487a2518369c5b25ebb284c59e39 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-4-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1400&s=dd06f56e4ed443d2bca1dcde814a082f 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-4-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1600&s=9f7c2fa40ce8c2940f139e542f756d76 375w)
These summits are optional and most of the time is spent traveling across large glacial systems.
Although the climbing, and glacier traverses are incredible the thing that really makes this trip is the Italian huts. With inexpensive house wines, beer on tap, WiFi, gregarious Italian Hut keepers, and most important generous portions of Italian food on hand; the huts really make this outing something to remember.
Pie and espresso for an afternoon snack
![](https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-7-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=300&s=8ec9c492c36cb4c0634decbe1735a13b 300w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-7-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=500&s=e2b393f037651eb2acbcdde32c9bedbb 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-7-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=700&s=d76fea952be2ca8c6b47bf2f76940e2d 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-7-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=800&s=ecf94d58365211c2eada64046eaf6edd 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-7-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1000&s=9acdf78109f0183450cd700a43bf7a66 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-7-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1200&s=577dbd50985543227f331b05a35eb30f 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-7-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1400&s=51b690bd23815163c43df98165354a80 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-7-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1600&s=20fb0bb47feeba500c704fc340e2f9fc 375w)
Or maybe a freshly made pizza, with beer?
Dinner is generally served around 7 pm. It begins with your first plate of either a soup or a pasta. Given the name of our traverse we always opted for the pasta!
Although the first course is generally more than you would expect to eat in the mountains, a second course soon arrives.
In this case chicken, French fries, bread and mixed green salad at 4500 meters!
Eventually after four huts and seven 4000 meter peaks reached it was time to descend back to zermatt, down the grenz glacier.
And several tricky sections of the low glacial snouts, up ladders, and 8 hours of travel, we made it back to the cog rail of the Gornergrat railway that would take us back to Zermatt.
![](https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-11-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=300&s=1673b395bb81936b3f3252ff7bac1e98 300w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-11-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=500&s=1909953579998de68eae7797d8f3ae0f 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-11-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=700&s=f257296749e78660a897922be9b88283 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-11-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=800&s=87cfa1cf29188b0e51c2ed7262dfe217 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-11-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1000&s=cd30a26a13a046f487006d0a45ad1c5e 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-11-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1200&s=f7150f5da4c85d7d283649b12e06caeb 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-11-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1400&s=206d2ca009f24c970b3f09741c7db182 375w, https://mountain-madness-external.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fkraftwerk-mountain-madness.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblog%2FNo_spaghetti_-11-_resized.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1600&s=9780989d2e6115b3c3ac7d9cafc83d43 375w)
- Alan Rousseau