Abeniflue, Switzerland

Up early again ...  feeling frustrated that we were not in a position to do much the day before, we wanted to take in Ebeniflue before descending to the valley.

We were up and ready as the light came over the glacier, showing the route from yesterday. We would be joined by several large parties today so we wanted to be out in front.

Out the back of the hut we were soon climbing up the slopes behind looking to get on the flatter area above.

The flatter area lead past the other frequented peak in this area - the Mittaghorn - and we were grateful to see most of the chasing parties head over that way. The sun came over the peaks around and promised a great day.

Abeniflue was the peak at the end of the bowl catching all the sun. The route we chose went up the gulley ahead instead of along the skyline ...  not much in it.

As we got higher in the gulley it got a little steeper, but we were soon climbing out onto the ridge and heading to the summit.

The summit was very rounded and we fiund a suitable place to drop the skis and look around. It was such a fantastic day with hardly a cloud in the sky, we just basked in the location, and the cameras did overtime.

Looking East, and South

Looking North and West.

Time to leave, .. we had a debate over the state of the snow and a good optimum time to leave. The sun had been on the slopes for a couple of hours and the surface was softening.

The top if the gulley was still a little hard, but after the bergschrund it was perfect. We had a fantastic ski down to the flatter section. 

There was originally a thought we could do the Mittaghorn as well, but we passed that in favour of continuing the great snow down to the hut. This was supported by the final slope down to the hut being very soft - and it was only 10am!!!

Back at the hut we sat in the sun on the balcony waiting for the sun to hit the snow over the pass.. where we needed to ski down ...  from the last time we knew it would be very hard and icy, so wanted it to soften a little.

As we sat there was a couple of incidents unfolding .. first the army helicopter stopped for a drop/ pick up on the ridge on the opposite side of the valley, and then there was a rescue in the bowl under the hut .. I guess someone slid on the ice and hurt themselves.

The route down from the hut to Fafleralp is quite straight forward ...  down the valley

 At the chosen hour, we headed down ...  it was still a little icy at the top but we soon moved into the good surface section in the middle.

Before long we were off the main slopes and fighting down at the tongue of the glacier, trying to pick the most sensible route out of all the tracks.

Before long we were in the summer meadows, and sticking to the trail that linked all the soft snow patches together a few more weeks (days) then this would be walking territory.

As the snow ran out we packed up the skis and walked out down to the village of Fafleralp, where we would join the road at the large car park

As we got to the car park and had one last look up the valley .. there is a great view of the descent ..  it give the impression it is not very far, but try climbing up it!

From the car park (unlike the year before) there was a mini bus service to join the regular post bus at Blatten ..  only 5 mins after arriving and only just getting our boots off the minibus arrived .. we threw our bags on the trailer and paid the fee (again better than walking down the road as we had the last year.

At Blatten we arrived at lunch time... so no buses for an hour, so we sat in the buys shelter and ate our lunch and enjoyed the sun. The bus finally arrived and took us tot he train station at Goppenstein, where we repeated the train journey back to Lauterbrunnen, in the similar way as we did to Grindlewald earlier in the week.

Back at Lauterbrunnen we loaded all the kit into the van and headed back to the coast. ..  What a couple of weeks ...  twice up to the top and back again!.

Konkordia to Holandia hut, Switzerland

The next morning was bright and clear and we found we were in the wrong place.. from here we needed to head over to the Hollandia hut, but there was little we could do on the way - the big peaks were beyond us at this stage.

The shame was that we needed the rest day yesterday.

However the walk to the Holandia was not a simple one - although it looked like it on the map, as we had discovered the last time.

From the moment we dropped down to glacier and started skinning we could see the destination lit up on the skyline by the morning sun.

On the way past we had a good look at Hasler's rib trying to see the route, but there was still a long way to go.

The trip up the glacier was an almost endless slog in the full glare of the sun. We did not seem to be getting any closer.

Finally we felt the sides starting to come in which meant we were getting to the final slopes.

At this point there are a number of crevasses, the route I took went through the middle and gave Bryon a photo opportunity.

Looking back you could see where we had come from down a long expanse of glacier.






The hut on the shoulder was a welcome sight, despite this being a light day it was still an effort.

Gratefully we left our skis in the racks on the end of the hut, and walked around to the veranda.

We could have kept on going and gone on down to Fafleralp (as we would tomorrow), but we wanted to take another peak Ebneflue.

So we sat on the wall and looked down the valley at the parties all escaping that way.

The one thing to remember about the hut was it has a "dry" toilet..  the stench of ammonia and pine chips is heavy on the ground floor, luckily the accommodation is upstairs.

Wyssnollen, Switzerland

 The next morning, the hut was empty when we got up ...  most had left early to go up the FInsteraarhorn.

Last night we had looked over at where we wanted to go - Wyssnollen - up the ridge and onto the top dome.

We woke up to cloud all around again, and could not see where the other side was.

Dropping down to the glacier we chose to just go over the Grunhorngluke -  we were still tired, and the cloud gave a perfect excuse to skip the summit.

We headed straight across the glacier and up the other side. The clouds disappeared then came back again.

 From the top we dropped down the other side, in the same tracks as we had used a couple of years before.
We soon were approaching the Konkordiaplatz, and we arrived at the base of the Konkordia hut steps.

We even found the same ski lager in the rocks for our kit that we had used a couple of days before.

The steps were as exhausting as last time, but we had plenty of time as we were early in the day.

Resting on the veranda the day gradually improved, and the sun came out.

We did have some entertainment when the army arrived in a huge helicopter, on the glacier below the hut.

This had really been a rest day for us after yesterday, albeit with a change of location. We could not really have done much more.

Fiescherhorn, Switzerland

We had a rather ambitious plan for today ...  the Fiescherhorns ..  and down to the Finsteraarhorn hut.  We got up early only to look out the window into cloud ...  it was right down. Since this was the same situation as we had two years ago, and we had gone down the Aletsch glacier, much a similar route as we had already taken with Chris and M-J a couple of days ago, we knew we could wait and see what the conditions changed.

After an hour or so it appeared to get a little lighter, and we discussed going down the eastern glacier from the hut and over the grunhornglucke.

We got ready and started our descent - around 80 mins after we planned, this would impact later in the day.

As we descended the glacier the clouds started lifting and we could see the summits of the Fiescherhorns.

We then had a quick planing sessions and decided it was not too late to make a dash for the col ..  depending on the time we would then decide on the summit(s) or not.

We got about half way up and I was convinced we were in the wrong bowl, as the perspective looked wrong ..if i had looked at the Colombe guide book picture we would have seen that it was correct, and it took a while for Bryon to convince me to continue.

As we got higher I could see the error of my ways and headed to the bergschrund at the bottom of the steep final section to the col.

From here we had a great view back down to the glacier, and up to the hut, which was still in cloud. A few years later and we would not have delayed for the cloud, but this was all part of the learning.

From here is was on foot...  steep using ice axe and crampons we followed the big step marks left by the earlier parties.

The climb was further and more energy sapping than I had remembered, but this was the first time for a few years I had been at (or around) 4000m.

Topping out at the col was a big relief, and I was extremely exhausted and just wanted to collapse into a heap.

The clouds parted and showed us the larger of the two summits ... a short traverse, up a gully and along the ridge... right!

Bryon and I set off after I had caught my breath, and almost immediately the clouds descended.

We made it along the ridge to a big step ...  only a few meters below the summit, but this was the time to turn around ..  we had used up all our emergency time and it was necessary to start down.

The initial part of the descent is a circular traverse around the top bowl before descending down the valley on the left hand side. this was not simple in the cloud and we were grateful when we dropped out.

Most of the tracks kept right, rather than dropped left at the end of this valley - the crevasses were a little ominous, so we followed them..

Unfortunately this took us into the serac zone .. there was a clear path, but it did require a lot of confidence,,,  dropping off a vertical edge and turning into a bowl was a bit terrifying, and took a lot of time - Bryon tried walking it, but the snow was so soft he sank. Gratefully we came out OK.

Now we had a second problem .. the snow was now really soft and we needed to wax the skis to make them run .. delaying us even further.

Eventually we came out onto the glacier at the bottom and had a good long gentle schuss down towards the hut.

From here we could see the hut perched on the side of the moraine. It would  involve a climb up - not something we wanted to see.

Anyway the food and rest that was available in the hut dragged us up the final slope and we collapsed on the veranda.

A day we had not expected made out of nothing .. a really great result, although we were completely knackered, worn out and exhausted. We would pay for this over the coming days, but for now enjoyed the result.