My first 4000m summit

What a feeling… my first alpine climb

Last Saturday I experienced alpine climbing for the first time, reaching my first 4000m summit, Weissmies (4017m) in Switzerland, guided by my friend Sergiu Jiduc.

It all came together pretty spontaneously, since we decided only three days before to do the climb. At first I was excited, but the next two days were full of anxiety, and my mind kept running in circles about giving up. My leg wasn’t fully recovered after surgery and I didn’t know how much I could trust it. I had no alpine climbing experience, no idea how I’d handle the altitude without enough acclimatization, and I hadn’t prepared for anything that required this kind of endurance. All I could see were obstacles, and the fear of throwing myself into something completely unknown… with nothing in my past to compare it to. On top of that, ever since my injury in December, I’ve been more fearful overall and less trusting.

I truly didn’t think I could do it. Weissmies is known as one of the “easier” 4000ers, but in recent years the rapid changes in the mountain environment have made it riskier, with icefall and collapsing glacier seracs. I understood that, but I still couldn’t really read the risks myself.

But when the day came, at 4 AM, all the fears were gone. I just accepted that we were going to climb the mountain.

Everything went better than expected. For a moment, close to 4000m when the wind got strong, I started feeling dizzy, but luckily it passed quickly.

The higher we went, the more I felt a huge excitement, as a part of me realized how much I had wanted to do this for years. And now I was here, fully present, breathing with every step, and taking in every moment.

Another thing that made it special was sharing the experience with Sergiu. He was the first Romanian climber and explorer I read about nearly 10 years ago. I never imagined that one day my first alpine climb would be with him. I feel grateful for the friendship we’ve built and for the way life somehow brings me to places I could never have imagined.

At the top, the clouds were dancing around the mountains, and the view was just stunning… it was a gorgeous day with low clouds… a beautiful way to celebrate standing on the summit.

This climb gave me more courage after my leg accident, even though I felt it during the descent. It also gave me more appetite and confidence to go after new summits in the future. Many thanks to Sergiu for being there and trusting I could do it, and for giving me the encouragement I needed.

Leaving here a few photos to share a glimpse of the magical world up there.