David Dougherty once again made his annual trip to the Alps. Our original plan had included the Matterhorn's Leon ridge. However, with July officially the coldest July in the last three decades, and lots of new snow on all the high peaks, changes in plan were in order.

We opted for the Holaubgrat on the Allalinhorn, followed by the Rimpfischhorn.

Here's David. This photo was taken on the summit of the Rimpfischhorn. The Täschhorn and Dom behind.

Our first climb was the Allalinhorn's Holaubgrat. The route follows the left skyline in this photo, finishing with the rock band near the summit.

A nice decorative touch in the Britainnia hut, our starting point for the Holaubgrat.

Ibex just outside the hut. The hut guardian has put a salt lick near the hut, and it regularly attracts the rather fearless ibex.

Rising early, we climbed up though the cloud level at about same time as the sun. A beautiful morning.

Looking up the Holaubgrat. Roll your mouse over to see the line.

Just after dawn.

Another party some distance behind us.

David, looking relaxed on the rock band on the Allalinhorn.

Looking down on the normal route from near the summit.

This photo actually is taken as we are departing the summit.

The normal route on the Allalinhorn is a quite popular route, offering a relatively easy and safe route up a 4000-meter peak. Here, we are looking up towards the peak from the pass just west of the mountain.

In addition to the Allalinhorn, we also climbed the rock scramble up the nearby Feechopf, before descending back to Saas Fee.

Our next climb was of the Rimpfischhorn. The peak is on right. This photo, taken from the summit of the Allalinhorn, shows the mountain from the north side.

Our hut was the Berghaus Flualp, not far from the top of the Blauherd lift. The hike to the hut passed by this classic view of the Matterhorn.

And sunset from the Flualp hut.

With an early start, we were able to get up to quite near the final summit structure by dawn.

Roll your mouse over the image to see out route up this section.

Sunrise on Monte Rosa. The Nordend is the sharp snowy point, with the higher Dufourspitze the rocks just right of the Nordend.

Looking at the summit from the sub-peak just south.

And looking at the subpeak from the summit. The Liskamm is the broad mountain behind.

On the summit of the Rimpfischhorn.