View from the Konkordia Hut
Last week we had a group of intrepid skiers enjoying the beautiful Bernese Oberland ski tour, Greg, Charlie and friends set off under the guidance of Olly Allen and Owen Samuels for their week long trip.
We were kept up-to-date on their progress by Charlie’s emails each evening sent from his Blackberry on the day’s events, the route they took, the peaks they have scaled and the fun they had been enjoying. Accompanied by some photos each day we were able to re-live their experiences over the week. Here is a reduced version of Charlie’s story for you to enjoy to.....
6 days, 5 nights without running water or electricity? All day, each day, in tight unforgiving hard shell ski boots? Relentless hot spots on your feet? Blisters galore? A diet of stale dense bread, ridiculously bad coffee, "where's the beef" sandwiches, iceberg lettuce, and overly cooked pasta? Canned fruit salad anyone? A bedroom for 16? With sleeping platforms that each accommodate 4-8? Where there is but 18 inches between your mouth and the breath of your neighbour? Rude room mates who turn lights on at 2 a.m. as they prepare to depart? Loud conversation in the face of "dead to the world" sleeping climbers? Friendly well meaning bunk mates who insist on closed windows, for that special "sauna" effect throughout the night?
This tale promises all of this and more. But, to get there, one must ski for hours uphill, climb mountains, descend on skis reliably amongst crevasses and ice falls, always do what you are told by the guides, walk amongst and below towering seracs, accept random, unmeaning and anonymous danger, and push hard. Very hard.
Our adventure involves entering and traversing a small portion of the Bernese Oberland, a glaciated section of the Swiss Alps roughly measuring 15 x 21 miles. This sounds meagre, but didn't Einstein have a thing or two to say about the relativity of time? In the mountains, on skis, time slows and distances grow, to the point where a mile is a lifetime. As my grandfather once observed about mountains, "If you want to get there quickly, leave earlier."
Within this sector of the Alps, there are at least a dozen glaciers, one of which (the "Grosser Aletschgletscher") is the longest in Europe, at over 10 miles. Many are feeders to this largest glacier in Europe all with unpronounceable Swiss German names. We will traverse, follow or return over several of them at least 10 times this week. We will also traverse several of these valleys, summit some notable peaks, seek out the one refuge per valley that provides food and shelter, and experience as intense an alpine adventure as Western Europe has to offer.
As a diversion each day, when we move from refuge to refuge, we intend to climb high, snow covered 4,000 meter peaks, using skis and/or crampons. Whatever it takes. Yes, the tops ARE the point, even as they really aren't (huh?).
Accessing the Oberland "up there" involves three trains: Interlaken to Lauterbrunen,
Lauterbrunnen to Kleinne Scheidegg, and Kleinne Scheidegg to Jungfraüjoch at 3454m, a feat of Swiss engineering as the tunnel is dug into the North Face of the Eiger. At the top, we enjoyed a spacious interior viewing deck before tentatively emerging out on to the glacier, strapping on our skis, and dropping off the backside. After a wonderful ski in perfect snow we skinned towards the Konkordia hut situated at 2850m overlooking the most fabulous scenery.
It turns out, the original hut was constructed well over 100 years ago on a rock shelf above the glacier. Sadly, in the intervening years, the glacier has receded, necessitating the addition of a staircase. A very large and lengthy one. 452 steps worth.
Day 2 dawns.....Houston, we have a problem! Olly, our guide, can't remember the names
of the peaks we intend to climb, can't recall the names of the huts, and seems to hesitate whenever we speak about where we are going next. In fact, I believe he has caught my "memory disease" wherein I can only remember the first letter of the word I am trying to recall. Thankfully by the time we leave he has it all in hand and between him and Owen they herd us out of the hut and into the wilderness.
In the morning, as we left the refuge, we had no choice but to climb down 452 goddamned stairs in our ski boots! If anything will make one a believer in global warming, it is the act of ascending and descending these stairs due to a shrinking glacier. Had there been no global warming, the descent would have been 65% shorter! We click into our skis and begin the skin across the glacier towards today’s objective. After we arrived at the base of the peak we stop to take on some water and food before starting the climb up. A couple of hours later we reach our goal and the views suffices to capture the essence of the effort, which was nothing punitive, with no serious exposure. Just straightforward climbing, passing several "false summits" until we emerged out on top.
Once down, we needed to cross one of those "impossible to pronounce” glaciers I mentioned before, and make our way to the "Finsteraarhornhütten" hut.
Day 3 and Yes, we finally did "bag" a 4,000-er today! Yahoo! The Fiescherhorn Hinteres, which stands 4,025 meters above sea level. It was a terrific climb. Took hours to mount. Crossed through a massive field of seracs..... We got told off by Owen at one point for lingering (Greg: we never did complete the conversation from that interrupted moment, wherein we were discussing complex financing options for real estate transactions)....yes, quite true....during which conversation Owen managed to interject "ah, guys, the point here is to, ah, not linger, given what is to your right...massive overhanging seracs...so perhaps it would be best to move along." The Brits, they are SO understated. I would have shouted "move the f--- along, you idiots!"
Looking down on others eating lunch from our airy platform high on the peak, if I had chosen to at this moment, two steps would have led me to be on a slope (cliff?) that would have delivered me (alive or dead I do not know) to that group for a bite or two.
We did it. All of us. Sweet!
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