Katharina Ueltschi has long dreamed of scaling the Piz Bernina. The route to the 4,049-metre summit brings high drama – and takes her to her limits.

A glow on the horizon heralds a new day. These are the minutes during which light gains the upper hand over darkness. Katharina Ueltschi has crampons on her boots and is wearing a head torch that casts a yellowish light in front of her over the ice of the glacier. It’s cold. Katharina says that trekking across the glacier and hearing the ice crunch under her feet gives her an incredibly peaceful feeling, one she never has in Singapore. She is based there, setting up an Innovation Lab for Bernina sewing machines, leading Bernina International into the future. Together with her brother, she represents the family’s fifth generation at the helm of the company. Asia is an important and rapidly growing market. Now, however, Katharina is standing on the ice below the Diavolezza, and facing one of her greatest challenges of recent years. She wants to reach the summit of the Piz Bernina, 4,049 metres above sea level. Katharina has prepared assiduously for the ascent. In Asia, she went jogging several times a week and followed a healthy diet. For her Piz Bernina mission, she travelled to the Engadin two weeks ago and undertook an intensive altitude-training programme. She also booked a glacier/climbing course with the Pontresina Mountaineering school. She is grateful now that she did it, but nonetheless she says: “Doing this climb without much mountaineering experience has my stomach in knots.”

This is Katharina’s first attempt to scale a 4,000-metre peak, and she has chosen the Piz Bernina for good reason. Her family has always maintained a close relationship to the Engadin; her great-grandfather was on holiday in the region in 1931 and was so captivated by the mountain that he later switched his company name from “Fritz Gegauf” to Bernina. Alongside the personal connection, he felt it was important for the company name to be easy to pronounce worldwide. Even back then, he thought big. Exactly 90 years later, his great-granddaughter is heading up the Pers Glacier with her female mountain guide. The mighty Bernina massif is having a mesmerising effect on her. She passes below the towering north buttresses of the Piz Palü to reach the Gemsfreiheit. At the Fortezza ridge, she has to put her climbing skills to the test for the first time before she finally attains the Bellavista glacier plateau. She breathes evenly and deeply and maintains her steady pace. “Up here, everyday problems disappear,” she says. All that counts is the present moment, the next step.

As she toils up the mountain, her thoughts are with her mother and grandmother: both women had scaled the Piz Bernina. Both were experienced mountaineers – unlike Katharina. All the same, she wants to maintain the tradition of strong women in the family. She loves new challenges, she says, and is always seeking them out. The two women are a big source of inspiration for her. After a little more than six hours on the mountain, she feels as if she is on an emotional rollercoaster.

She is carried away by the beauty of nature, the energy that the mountains radiate: for Katharina, mountains are a symbol of permanence, a symbol of Switzerland. At the same time, she is struggling more and more with the altitude and fatigue. The strain is written all over her face. Suddenly she experiences a feeling of relief: a mountain hut comes into view, the Rifugio Marco e Rosa.

She stops at the hut, warms up, and boosts her energy levels with a plate of penne. The break proves necessary: the final ascent, the last 420 vertical metres, really packs a punch. Beyond the Rifugio Marco e Rosa, the route continues across the glacier and up a steep snow slope to the first crag of the La Spalla ridge. Fear seizes her. “My life passes before my eyes like a film,” she says. Up on the narrow snow-capped ridge, Katharina really has to force herself to continue. Her gaze is glued to her climbing boots: she does not dare look down to the abyss on either side. These are tough minutes. Katharina battles with her emotions; she wants to give up and turn back.

The summit seems so close and yet so far. She is mentally at her very limit. Her mountain guide encourages her and manages to make her keep going. What happens next, even Katharina does not know exactly. But she succeeds: she conquers the Piz Bernina. Her feelings up there remain her secret. Back down in the valley, in her mother’s arms, tears flow freely: tears of happiness, but also tears of relief. With a little distance, Katharina talks about “one of the most wonderful experiences of my life”. Her head has rarely been so clear, she says, as “up there”. The Piz Bernina will also provide inspiration to help her guide the family business – named after the mountain her great-grandfather.