Grindlewald skiing, Switzerland

Wetterhorn and Schrekhorn

The forecast was for another bright sunny day ...  time to explore a bigger resort and spend the whole day riding the lifts. We knew the nearest big resort was Grindlewald/ Lauterbrunnen. but also that the other side of the valley at Grindlewald would have a lot of sun and maybe a little less busy. It would also give us spectacular views of the Eiger.

As we were all not exactly "accomplished" skiers then the exploits were rather tamer than we would expect later in life, but there was one memorable moment when Nick lost his cool on a button lift. This was a vicious ripper of a lift that went into a very steep drag straight from the gate. We all struggled a little to keep things under control, but Nick just oscillated worse and worse until dropping off ..  the air was blue as he stomped off through the soft snow back to the piste edge, and round again  ... we caught up with him later, a slightly calmer person by then.

The Eiger and Mittelegi ridge

All very tired after a long day we retreated to the bunkhouse.

Oeschinensee, Switzerland

Another beautiful day, you know we could have gone to Scotland!

Today was to be another "Expedition" exploration.  we were to take the chair lift up to the top of the hill behind the bunkhouse and walk over to the Oeschinensee, have a look at the lake and surrounding areas before returning.

The journey up followed the same route as we had used the previous summer..So just to be consistent ..  I took a matching photo through the woods to the lake.


Dave, wondered if anyone would notice if he swapped his Ice axe for the pickaxe at the bunk house!! but they would not let him on the chair lift with it.

At the lake it was already being used by the occasional XC skier, but in general we had it to our selves, and marvelled at walking on the ice. until it became slightly slushy as the day progressed and retreat was called for.

A spot of lunch on the firmer side of the lake  (the one that had not been in the sun all day), and we followed this by checking out an old ice pillar, now more a snow mound at the far end of the lake.

 Struggling off the ice onto the soft snow was again an issue, and our minds went back to the previous trip to the ice falls.

All too soon it was time to head back, but not before Dave tried out is golf skills with snow balls and then his lack of baseball coordination, much to the amusement of us all.

XC ski experiments, Kandersteg

The next day, the sun was again shining, and the call to the ski slopes was too great for most of the part who headed off for the downhill slops at the end of the valley above the train tunnel. Kandersteg is famous as being the valley where the road stops and the cars are loaded on to a train, for the journey under the mountains, before continuing on the road at the other side.

Bryon and I had other ideas ...  the beginning of a shared vision of the future was lit in the corner of our minds .. Given the difficulty of moving around in winter in the mountains, how could we make it easier, or at least possible - people do it, but we were short of knowledge and experience.

So we decided to hire some more XC skis and try them out "fully loaded" so, with a rucksac of standard issue alpine gear, we set off to see how they performed.
We discovered that, at our skill level, it was a non starter. Not only was progress difficult, but anything away from the prepared track was worse than walking. The skis were not "fat" enough to prevent sinking, and were a great effort juts moving up hill with the weight.

After a valiant effort we called it a day.

Ice Climbing, Switzerland

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.

XC ski, Kandersteg, Switzerland

The first thing we noticed was that Kandersteg is a local mecca for X-Country skiing, with trail all around the town. Not being something that we had tried before, and the fact that the snow was softer than we had thought, the next day we hired some XC skis and had a go at the trails.

A bit of a comedy of errors and slapstick, we had great difficulty in making the skis work the way we wanted them to. This was where we realised that XC skis have no edges, and as such do not turn well. They rely on pre made and preprepared tracks. Additionally only being fixed at the toe made it difficult to control when doing anything other than on the flat or uphill.

However with a little practice and plenty of sore parts we soon had some semblance of competency.

1991 Spring Ski Tour, Switzerland

Late night ferry crossings

Where are we?

After several successful Summer Alpine trips, and a number of much less so
Scottish winter trips, Dave and I had a debate about a Spring trip to the Alps instead of Scotland. the distances were about the same, the times (once over the channel) were about the same. The big difference was that the weather was more certain, and we believed we could get more snow and ice.

This year would be the reconnaissance and discovery stage. The summer trip last year had scouted what we believed to be a suitable location. We had reserved a number of nights in the bunk house at Kandersteg. There was plenty of things we could do while we were there, in all types of weather. We had several cars of people who were happy to try it out.

Staying at the bunk house, would be interesting as it was not set up for "self catering", but they did rather expect you to eat at the bar ...  we would mainly be cooking but the back door, but nothing was ruled out about visiting the bar after eating!!!

Discovery and recognition would be the key words this trip. A mix of skiing, walking , and ice climbing.

Trip Time Line

	|
	|	Arrive Kandersteg
XC ski	|
	|	Ice Climb
XC ski 2	|
	|	Oeschinensee
Grindelwald	|
	|	Go Home

Lake District Meet, Cumbria

We headed to Kirkstone Pass and a walk along Highstreet, while Sue went into Ambleside for a wander around, She had just found out she was pregnant with our first child so was taking things easy.

Lake District Meet, Cumbria

We stayed in a climbing hut near St. Johns in the vale,

As most of us headed up to the top of Helvellyn, via Dollywagon gully, 1st pich of Chock Gully, and Dollywagon Chimney. Sue went around to Castleridge stone circle

Snowdonia, N. Wales

I woke up, snuggled down in my bivvy bag, full snorkel mode. The outside was all frosted and fell off as I got out.  It was cold enough to get us excited about the day, but first some breakfast.

Over to Snowdon, up Crib Goch then up Cave gully to the top, then we returned home late and tired.

Snowdonia, N. Wales

There was snow forecast again for this weekend, so Bryon, Chris, Dave, and I loaded gear for all eventualities, together with our bivvy bags... planning to crash out in some convenient ditch, and hence on site for any early morning action.
We had driven up last night and pulled into the carpark by Swallow falls .. not realizing this was the local lovers lane hangout ...  we woke up in the morning having been disturbed during the night as various cars came in,  and turned around finding it occupied. Luckily we had moved away from the car to crash, as the ground was covered in discarded refuse from the nighttime visitors.

The weather was not brilliant, but we headed back to Idwal area. Up a gully on the south side of Devil's Kitchen, over into Cwm Cneifon and up the right hand branch of Clogwyn Du.

In the evening we pulled into another side road/ carpark just down from the pub in Capel curig, dropping over the stone wall and lining up beside the wall.