Tryfan, N. Wales trip

 A winter weekend in Ogwen valley ... camping at Little Tryfan.

We set off from the Ogwen cafe, up to the lake then up the frozen gullies to the left of Devil's Kitchen...

 The Up to Glydr Fawr and Fach, before down to Tryfan and back to the tents

Retreat, Switzerland

That's it ...  more rain over night and the clouds descended..

So we packed all the wet stuff up and set off for home

We had got the tactics wrong, and missed the opportunities, waiting for the big clear up. We should have gone up the hills and taken our chances..  we also did not understand about local weather conditions, and how the clouds hang in the valley ...  also how the layering can be different on the plateau. All good learning for the future trips, but frustrating at the time.

On the way home the car behaved all the way to Calais docks, we checked in at the ticket booth, and progressed to immigration.. the car stalled and would not start ... so we pushed it on to the waiting area.

Now the problems began ...  getting back to a phone (no mobiles in those days) on the land side was difficult, finally getting through to the rescue services they said we should wait and a tractor would come and tow us on to the ferry.

We waited, the ferry came and loaded up, and then went ... no tractor. The next ferry came, and a tractor dragged us to the ramp and the loader asked us to wait .. we waited, the ferry filled up, we waited, the ramp closed and we still waited .... they did not want to have a crippled car on board. In the mean time the tractor had disappeared.

The next ferry came and went, and then the following one was at our ramp...  we had finally reached the limit of our patience, so when the cars started loading, we jumped out and pushed .. into the queue and on board.

We had finally got on the way home ... arriving at Dover, we waited until the other cars had disembarked, and then pushed .. all the way around the port ,.. we were grateful the overhead ramps were not there as they are to-day ... and pushing through customs we pulled into the service station at the exit to the port. A short call to the AA and we were soon on a transporter heading home to Crawley ... the simple bit.

A kind of fitting end to the trip.

Rain day, Switzerland

It started raining in the night and continued on and off all day .. by now we were all frustrated and very "stir crazy".

We decided tomorrow would be decision day ..  stay or go.

Rain Day, Switzerland

Rain .. all day ...  just in the evening the sun came out .. as the pictures show lots of snow on the Eiger..

Another day in the campsite

Obergrindlewald glacier, switzerland

A repeat of yesterday ...  rain over night, cloud in the morning ..

Going nowhere....

The sun again came out in the afternoon, so I went for a walk (or run) to the other local glacier (Obergrindlewald) with some interesting gorge scenery..  but again a day doing nothing much

Untergrindelwald glacier, switzerland

Very cloudy at the start of the day, and after yesterdays rain/ snow at high ground, we decided we would have to wait another day before going high ...  the prohibitive cost of the rail fare to the Jungfraujoch meant we had to get it right!! though see the final trip thoughts for what could have been.

The weather improved for the afternoon with the sun coming out and burning off all the snow that had fallen higher up.

We went for a "stroll" up to the Untergrindlewald glacier ..  just to keep the legs moving and take some pictures of glaciers at close quarters.

then we settled back in to campsite life for another day,

Rain Day, Switzerland

Miserable day ... rained all day and we just mopped around the tents and the car feeling sorry for ourselves. The car was not sounding good and we did not want to drive further than we needed to, in case it broke down, so we were restricted to the local area.

Grindelwald, Switzerland

The next day, as chance would have it was a reasonable day .. but Ken and Graham needed recovery time, so it was decided to head around to Grindlewald and write-off our preparation days. At least we had some days at altitude.

The drive around was uneventful .. we stopped off at Lauterbrunnen to see the water falls but did not really spend much time there as it was full of coach parties.

In Grindlewald we followed the sings to the first campsite we saw which was down by the stream , but much more is hazy in the memory. Pitchign the tents we then took a walk around the town...  expecting something ;like Chamonix, but not really expecting twee, and touristy not rally very mountain man. however over the coming days we would know it better.

Wetterhorn with the weather!

Retreat, Switzerland

During the night, First Ken then Graham had to get up and make the long trip down to the toilet block. They did describe it as a real effort and after the second or third time of making the trip, the thought had crossed their minds to just stay there sat on the loo. I was relatively unscathed, although I was uncomfortable in the early evening, I was not on "full flow", and was coping

When I got up at the morning call and could not find them in the hut, it dawned on me that something was not right...  something we had eaten, or drank had not agreed with us - the hut warden who dosed us with some herbal tea remedy, blamed it on the glacial water, but I do not remember us having melted any snow....

Around lunchtime and people were coming back in from their day on the hill, we (or rather Ken and Graham) were stable enough to make a start down the hill....  being in a hut and not well (especially with a long walk to the "facilities") is not a pleasant experience.

The walk down was not too bad and we were soon back at the campsite... debating what to do next ..  meanwhile the Bluesalphorn stood there mocking us"

Wildi Frau, Switzerland

Next day the clouds were still around the hut, so we delayed leaving for several hours, and meant we were unable to make our principle objective (ambitious though it was as we would find out when I returned years later with Dave) of the Blumesalphorn traverse.

After much discussion we decided to go out and investigate the summit behind the hut - Wildi Frau, this involved following the ridge then skirting around to col behind and then ascending up the ridge.

As we got to the col the clouds started to disperse, but we never got much higher, leaving the main track the snow got very deep and progress was really slow.

Over towards the Blumesalphorn we could could see where we wanted to be, but that would hopefully be for tomorrow.. but circumstances would change that

Blumesalp hutte, Switzerland

The next day was very cloudy, but the forecast was for "improving" weather, and following on from our previous visits to the Alps we decided to go up to the hut so we would be in position for the weather to change.

We cheated slightly and took the chair lift up to the Oeschinesee ... well it actually goes to the col on the end of the valley, and there is a short descent to the hotel and lake..

The route goes around the lake (either high or low) we took the high line and ended up in the alpages with a number of boulders scattered around, looking back over the lake - rather grey at this point.

From here the route rises up a long line of ancient moraine before coming out on the high meadows leading to the ridge the hut stands on

From here it was a short ascent up the ridge to the hut. the toilet block was around 100m, (15m height difference) below the hut. but more about this in a couple of days.

1982 Summer Mountaineering Tour, Switzerland

Another year and we were again planning on an alpine trip. I was now working in Crawley and but the fortune of life, this was also where Ken was working, so we had ended up sharing a house.

Our preparations this year were much as before, but we decided to try out the Bernese alps with the target of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.. and we would take my clapped out Ford Cortina, (the yellow Peril).
We would start at Kandesteg for a warm up, then move over to Grindlewald for the main event.

The drive down was much as the previous year, and we arrived into Kandesteg with enough time to realise that the town was mainly a centre for getting on the train to go through to the Rhone valley ... we were too scared of the price to actually use it, as our preconception was that it would be expensive ....  it would not be for many years before we actually tested the theory and found it completely wrong.

We rolled up to the only camp-site in town - under the chairlift - and duly set-up before retiring to the bar, ostensibly to plan for the next day.

Trip Time Line

	|
	|	Arrive Kanderstegg
Blumesalp Hut	|
	|	Wildi Frau
Retreat	|
	|	Move to Grindlewald
Rain Day	|
	|	Untergrindlewald Glacier
Obergrindlewald Glacier	|
	|	Rain Day
Rain Day	|
	|	Go Home

Bowles, Local Day Trip

We spent several days on the local sandstone outcrops ..  Stone farm and Bowles were frequent locations.

Pig's nose

Various other climbs. .. with Ken, and various others we could persuade to come with us.