Another sunny day ... certainly the weather has been good and the decision to come out to Switzerland has been vindicated from that point, however to-day is another case in point on the learning road-map.We collectively decided that the Ice falls on the other side of the track up to Oechinensee looked a good opportunity. We had discovered that late February was a little late in a standard year for Ice climbing here, but this looked in good condition.
Seeing the ice falls, and getting to them is two different prospects. The simple walk up the track, trough the trees, and across to the valley wall, proved to be a little troublesome. We found a track in the woods going roughly in the right direction, which certainly helped the floundering about in trees - something we seem to keep coming back to over the years. After the track crossing the meadows was a wade in deep snow. what we had assumed to be consolidated was just drifts with a light crust. In these days snow shoes were not tech. equipment and were often seen as used in the nether regions of the polar icecaps, rather then for a quiet stroll in the hills such as this. All this would change over the years as it becomes more main stream, but in 1991 it was certainly not a product for sale in the gear shops.
Once we reached the ice fall, apart from the time aspect we soon realised it was much bigger than first thought, so turned in to a bit of a "cragging" session doing the lower section several times. We were not the first people here, as was shown by the belay holes under the vertical falls, where previous people had abseiled off.Overall much fun was had and we all enjoyed the day out, the key was the learning points which we would come back to several times in the future.