Zermatt to Verbier

The Patrouille des Glaciers (PDG) is a historic national and international ski mountaineering race organised by the Swiss army. Considered to be one of the toughest courses in the world, the PDG covers a 57.5 km route at altitudes of up to 3,650 metres between Zermatt and Verbier.

The Zermatt to Verbier challenge is not a race, instead our team will complete this famous alpine traverse at a more achievable pace. The trek will take four days and is fit for confident skiers with ski touring/ski mountaineering experience.

1 in 6 of us will need intensive care in our lifetimes and it is only with the generous support of individuals like our team of mountaineers that we can continue to support the intensive care community so they can continue to look after the sickest of patients in hospitals.

Support our team

We'd love you to sponsor our team as they take on one of the most iconic mountain endurance challenges in the world, pushing themselves both mentally and physically.

Your sponsorship will help the team complete the serious challenge ahead of them as they face the risk of avalanches, the hazards of glacier crossing, freezing temperatures and altitude sickness.

Sponsorship packages start from £5000, and you can download our pack to find out more about how you can get involved.

Meet the team

David Sapsford

My name is David Sapsford, I am a consultant pharmacist in critical care and work at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. I was introduced to skiing by my wife 18 years ago and immediately fell in love with the sport. We took every opportunity to get out into the mountains that we could. I have recently taken up ski touring and similarly love the honour in “earning my turns” in the snow. When I heard about this challenge I was immediately inspired and the possibility of completing this historic and challenging route was an exciting and somewhat daunting prospect.

I have been a member of the Intensive Care Society for many years and when the opportunity came up to join the inaugural ICS Pharmacy Professional Advisory Group I was keen to be involved as co-chair. During the COVID-19 pandemic it was a privilege to be involved the society at this level, with opportunities to collaborate with and learn from senior colleagues at a national level and also to influence policy.

In 2022 I was fortunate enough to gain a place on the ICS Leadership Program, which I found enormous value from, both personally and professionally. The funds raised through this expedition will be so greatly valuable in supporting the wellbeing of staff working in some of the most challenging environments in healthcare. Maintaining their health and wellbeing is a truly honourable endeavour so thank you for your support in this.

Hannah Swan

I’m Hannah, I live in the beautiful Gloucestershire hills. I work in Operations for an international development consultancy firm and am lucky to regularly shuttle between our offices in London, Nairobi and Addis Ababa. I love to travel, try new things, and set new challenges. I’ve been skiing since I was a little girl and have over time have moved further away from the piste and love the sense of peace and freedom that touring brings.

The Zermatt to Verbier Patrouille des Glaciers challenge is definitely the biggest, craziest, challenge I’ve ever undertaken! But what a great reason to push yourself. The Intensive Care Society does fantastic work for our hard-working intensive care doctors and nurses - the people you hope you never need but are so grateful for when you do. I’m really excited to be involved in this brilliant cause.

Jim Walmsley

Switching global offshore engineering for the mountains, Jim has been involved in many excursions, adventures and mis-adventures in and around Europe since 1996, later obtaining a carnet as an International Mountain Leader in 2001.

With a real zest for the outdoors, Jim has particularly sought a varied experience within the UK, Alps and Pyrenees; often on skis, often on multi-day excursions.

As a qualified Specialist Paramedic in critical care, Jim spent the last nineteen years specialising in pre-hospital critical care, after initially training and working in Sheffield, Yorkshire.

Having completed an Msc in clinical research and a PgDip in critical care, he now resides in the mountainous region of the South East of England where if not on shift can be seen seeking a kite surf session, climb, run or cycle.

A fluent Spanish speaker, he continues to seek opportunity where and when possible, furthering his interests in mountain medicine while sharing a passion for teaching on pre-hospital courses as well as for the Resuscitation Council.

Luke Stevens

I am a Specialist Physiotherapist working in Critical Care within Northumbria Healthcare and have a background in neurology and major trauma. I have a colourful clinical portfolio which has seen me work across a range of specialties in the NHS and overseas. I have a special interest in global health and humanitarian healthcare where I take my physiotherapy skills and deploy to various contexts across the world and provide clinical support, emergency response and training and education.

I am a keen mountaineer and enjoy challenging endurance activities which tend to involve skis, running and bikes. I am a member of Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team where I am able to blend my clinical healthcare skills with my enthusiasm for the mountain environment.

I work in a number of challenging environments across the NHS, global health and within mountain rescue, all of which can have an impact on mental health and wellbeing. When coming across the challenge to raise money for the Thriving at Work Project with the Intensive Care Society, I felt like all the starts aligned and presented an opportunity where I could use all my experiences to help generate the funds to give staff in Critical Care the support they need when facing challenging experiences on a daily basis.

Rob Warr

Robert is a consultant plastic surgeon in Bristol and Gloucestershire. His medical training took place within the UK and France. He has always enjoyed sports, music and adventure. At the age of 20 he cycled from Columbia to Mexico. At the age of 24 he lived for a year in Costa Rica where along with his co explorers, he discovered a new species of parasitic wasp. In 1995 Robert joined the territorial army. In 1998 he left medicine and signed on for full time regular service for a year, where besides learning to parachute, he became a jungle warfare and survival instructor.

Robert learnt to ski as a child, a hobby which has taken him to Japan and North America. He is married to an Intensivist and has two boys. His principal hobbies are tennis, fishing, golf, flamenco guitar and jazz piano.

Sean Bennett

I'm Sean Bennett and have been working on ICU for nearly 40 years. I have been a member of the ICS for a long time and previously climbed some UK mountains to support it. I like to set myself a challenge every year and next year it's the Patrol Du Glazier from Zermatt to Verbier. Such endeavours keeps our work in the public eye and while they hopefully never need us, we are there at a critical point in their life required.

Meet the creators of the challenge

Gary and Debbie Pittaway

Most folk would say that the Patrouille des Glaciers (PDG) Route is a little crazy, but the inspiration for bringing together the first team to take this challenge on, was our daughter Harriet.

March 2020 is a date that will stay with us all for the rest of our lives, but for us, it was when we realised that Harriet, a junior doctor, was going into the eye of the Covid storm when she joined the ICU team at the Royal Free Hospital, London.

The challenge of working in an ICU in normal times is obvious, but March 2020 saw all health professionals commencing on a journey that most had no idea of how it would end. Being 150 miles away from our daughter gave us only the snatched phone calls between her commute to and from overfilled wards.

We were amazed at her resilience and her capacity to ‘carry on’. Not once did she moan. There were occasional tears, particularly when her patients lost their fight against Covid. But one of the most outstanding memories were her chats where she marvelled at her colleagues- nurses, medics, AHPs -ability to ‘keep on going’. It was inevitable that the pandemic would impact on all our mental health, not least our frontline workers.

Nothing can compare to what the pandemic brought but we wanted to do something, so we began looking for an immense challenge that with enough training, strength and resilience is possible to anyone with a base level of fitness.

The PDG Route was the one; a tough trek, a high - altitude traverse in the Swiss Alps, requiring tenacity, endurance, commitment, and a battle against the worst that nature may throw at you- much like the qualities we saw in Harriet and her colleagues during the pandemic.

Stepping up to this challenge is no ‘walk in the park’, so if you want to throw yourself into a challenge of a lifetime, contact our team for a chat.

A brief diary from the 2022 team

Day 1 Zermatt to Schonbielhutt

Full of enthusiasm with fresh legs we arrive in Zermatt in the shadow of the Matterhorn (4478m).

Marco our guide allows time to buy a cake from the local bakery even though we are on a tight timeframe to make the first hut before dark. It proves to be the tastiest thing that we will eat for the next 4 days!

Day 2 Schonbielhutt to Arolla

After our first night in a Swiss mountain refuge everyone looks like they are suffering from a lack of sleep.

It’s an early start. A short distance on skis to the valley. We can barely hold an ‘edge’ on the ice, rotten snow and bare rock. 500m of probably the worst skiing conditions I’ve ever experienced. 10 hours on our feet later we arrive in Arolla.

All are totally exhausted, and two team members confide that they may not be able to continue...

Day 3 Arolla to Cabine de Dix

After a good night’s rest in the Hotel Du Pigne we awake to a bright morning and the Team are all once again as enthusiastic as on day 1!

It’s a shorter day but all uphill. Apart, that is from the ice axe and crampon descent to the Dix Hutt. The Hutt is a welcome refuge.

Day 4 Cabine de Dix to Verbier

Another bright and very cold morning- our longest day.

We leave the hut on skis and spend the next 4 hours traversing the lake. My left leg permanently bent and right permanently extended- recovery from this position seems unlikely at this point!

Eventually we approach a col and a vertical ascent. Foolishly I assume the summit will bring us back into the ski resort. But we still have another 2.5 hours of climbing to the Bec de Rosses, another near vertical ascent. But our last climb!

We summit the col above Verbier. Marco checks everyone to the ridge, Will encouraging a couple of the team to the top and Alice snapping away with the camera. “We are in Verbier”!!!!

Two of our 2022 team members The full 2022 team in action The 2022 team hiking uphill