Nif
New member
I normally try to take at least one ski mountaineering trip each. This year’s adventure was a guided tour of the Berner Oberland in Switzerland with All Mountain Adventures. A gorgeous location and a good choice given the Euro exchange rate this year, the Swiss Franc was much easier to swallow, though the prices were still high.
The trip started on my birthday April 4, with a flight from Boston Zurich. This was carefully selected for being the cheapest and also direct, so no flight changes for myself or my gear. The cheap seemed to override the direct however, as my skis were still delayed by a day. Fortunately I had given myself a little cushion. The tour began on the 7th and I did have my own skis by then.
Saturday April 5 – Met a friend of mine, who happened to be in Switzerland for work, at the Zurich Airport and promptly hopped the train for Lauterbrunnen without my skis. On the way we discovered that we had booked two different hotels, even though I had booked the one he told me. There happen to be two hotel Silberhorns within 15 minutes of each other. One in Lauterbrunnen and one in Wengen a short train ride (but on the way up the mountain) away. I liked mine better as the one in Wengen is a Best Western and the other is a nice family run establishment.
To start things off I ate a speck pizza in honor of Othmar. He was a guide on my Fairy Meadows trip and a good friend of my other guide usual guide Jorg of On Top Mountaineering – (See Abster Mt Blanc Trip Report). Othmar and his crew ate mostly speck, chocolate, little dry cookies, and this cheese I hope to never see again in my life. I hadn’t run into speck since that trip and it seemed like a good time to eat it. It was quite tasty, translated its bacon, but its not quite like our bacon.
Sunday April 6 – Skied the area outside of Wengen in the complete fog/snow with my friend Mike. We had a really good lunch and some fun picking our way around. We were in the shadow of the Eiger, a facination of mine, but we didn’t get to see it all day. Unfortunately Mike had to leave that evening so he wouldn’t get to see it all. The highlight of the day was skiing the Lauberhorn Downhill Course right out of the start shack at a ridiculously slow rate of speed. Then it was back to Interlaken to greet my skis at the train station, get Mike on his way to work and meet the rest of the crew for the tour.
The guide for the trip was Keith Garvey (AKA All Mountain Adventures). Keith is my other long-term ski/climbing guide and this was my 6th trip with him. The rest of the gang was comprised of Krista his fiancé, Celin a photographer from Boulder, and Cecilia a crazy globe trotting Swede. Every trip needs a crazy Swede right??? And though she did speak very highly of lingon berries, a Heineken mini keg was conspicuously absent from her pack. (Yes Mats she did teach me a few new phrases, and no I don’t remember any of them…)
Monday April 7 – The trip started by train, back through Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Kliene Scheidegg, and through the Eiger to the Jungfraujoch Station. The plan was to skin to the Monchsjochhutte, drop our extraneous gear and go climb the Monch. It was clear, but unfortunately it was blowing like the top of Mt Washington on a breezy day. Ah memories of home. A pretty strong party that started up as we went over to the hut, was in the hut with us 20 minutes later. After getting some lunch we decided to ski the back side instead then went back in the hut as the wind continued to pick up. On this little adventure my brand new skins decided to brake, thankfully Keith & Celin were able to effect a repair job. Beware the G3 Alpinists as if it breaks, you will need to make a tip loop. For the afternoon the entire hut got to watched through the window as Keith, who still had energy to burn, amused us with ski antics on the steep little rib outside. Apparently he was standing by a crevasse at the bottom, which he had seen, on his way up. Quoting the hut keeper while talking to Keith when he came back in...'I was wondering to myself, what kind of tourist is this...does he not know there is a crevasse right there…'
Tuesday April 8 – Tuesday was supposed to be a summit of the Jungfrau on our way to the Koncordia Hut. The summits however were in the clouds and Cecila was having some altitude issues. The Monchjoch Hut is at 12K and she was pretty under the weather. After discussions we decided to go over the notch to a col by the Jungfrau and down to the Koncordia Platz around 10K. This would provide some good skiing, a drop in elevation, and if still necessary a path out of the Oberland by the Hollandia hut should it be necessary. Thankfully all group altitude issues were gone by the time we hit the Koncordia Platz, so we headed to the Koncordia Hut as planned. We got some brief sunshine at that point in the afternoon and took advantage on the Glacier, enjoying some snacks and a bought of group silliness. For those who are not aware there is a special spot out there where the Cosmos aligns. Those in tune make snow angels and are at peace with the world.
Peace is good, because once you get to the hut, there is a serious staircase to be climbed. I was actually psyched to see this because I had found old photos of the hut and thought I had hundreds of feet of ladder to contend with. Thankfully it was not necessary to beg Keith for a belay, at that point anyway….
Wednesday April 9 - We had a good day in the morning and started skinning up toward the summit of some peak or other. The plan was to summit and drop back down the back side on the way to the next hut. By noonish it had started to white out and get nasty, so the summit was bailed on once again. Another two parties that had come up a different way headed down at about the same spot we did.
It was at that point I treated Keith to a minor melt down because I was convinced it was kicking horse II. I had tackled a 12ft cornice there and blown a ski on the landing, but was able to stop and retrieve the thing before a I cart wheeled down. I had seen some ice and parts of a cornice by our entrance and was convinced I was going to blow the entrance, but this time roll off a rocky out crop instead of stop. In reality it wasn't that bad, you could avoid the cornice, and everything was fine, I just wasn't seeing it at first however, and Keith had to keep talking me into it until finally I skied. Celin reminded me later that I had nothing to worry about, and all the things Keith could do should it be required. This came to be one of the running jokes as, in more group silliness, as the the final scenario came to be Celin imitating Keith saying don’t worry, I can fly… (Can’t all Mountain Guides???)
Then it whited out completely. So we picked our way for a while and Keith did some snow plowing for Jesus (the act of skiing without a rope probing for crevasses you know are there somewhere). For a while we even put on the rope, but only on the piece that would have provided the best skiing had we actually been able to see. Generally most of time while skiing you are unroped, but this was a special occasion. Then we arrived at the Finsteraarhorn Hut
The trip started on my birthday April 4, with a flight from Boston Zurich. This was carefully selected for being the cheapest and also direct, so no flight changes for myself or my gear. The cheap seemed to override the direct however, as my skis were still delayed by a day. Fortunately I had given myself a little cushion. The tour began on the 7th and I did have my own skis by then.
Saturday April 5 – Met a friend of mine, who happened to be in Switzerland for work, at the Zurich Airport and promptly hopped the train for Lauterbrunnen without my skis. On the way we discovered that we had booked two different hotels, even though I had booked the one he told me. There happen to be two hotel Silberhorns within 15 minutes of each other. One in Lauterbrunnen and one in Wengen a short train ride (but on the way up the mountain) away. I liked mine better as the one in Wengen is a Best Western and the other is a nice family run establishment.
To start things off I ate a speck pizza in honor of Othmar. He was a guide on my Fairy Meadows trip and a good friend of my other guide usual guide Jorg of On Top Mountaineering – (See Abster Mt Blanc Trip Report). Othmar and his crew ate mostly speck, chocolate, little dry cookies, and this cheese I hope to never see again in my life. I hadn’t run into speck since that trip and it seemed like a good time to eat it. It was quite tasty, translated its bacon, but its not quite like our bacon.
Sunday April 6 – Skied the area outside of Wengen in the complete fog/snow with my friend Mike. We had a really good lunch and some fun picking our way around. We were in the shadow of the Eiger, a facination of mine, but we didn’t get to see it all day. Unfortunately Mike had to leave that evening so he wouldn’t get to see it all. The highlight of the day was skiing the Lauberhorn Downhill Course right out of the start shack at a ridiculously slow rate of speed. Then it was back to Interlaken to greet my skis at the train station, get Mike on his way to work and meet the rest of the crew for the tour.
The guide for the trip was Keith Garvey (AKA All Mountain Adventures). Keith is my other long-term ski/climbing guide and this was my 6th trip with him. The rest of the gang was comprised of Krista his fiancé, Celin a photographer from Boulder, and Cecilia a crazy globe trotting Swede. Every trip needs a crazy Swede right??? And though she did speak very highly of lingon berries, a Heineken mini keg was conspicuously absent from her pack. (Yes Mats she did teach me a few new phrases, and no I don’t remember any of them…)
Monday April 7 – The trip started by train, back through Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Kliene Scheidegg, and through the Eiger to the Jungfraujoch Station. The plan was to skin to the Monchsjochhutte, drop our extraneous gear and go climb the Monch. It was clear, but unfortunately it was blowing like the top of Mt Washington on a breezy day. Ah memories of home. A pretty strong party that started up as we went over to the hut, was in the hut with us 20 minutes later. After getting some lunch we decided to ski the back side instead then went back in the hut as the wind continued to pick up. On this little adventure my brand new skins decided to brake, thankfully Keith & Celin were able to effect a repair job. Beware the G3 Alpinists as if it breaks, you will need to make a tip loop. For the afternoon the entire hut got to watched through the window as Keith, who still had energy to burn, amused us with ski antics on the steep little rib outside. Apparently he was standing by a crevasse at the bottom, which he had seen, on his way up. Quoting the hut keeper while talking to Keith when he came back in...'I was wondering to myself, what kind of tourist is this...does he not know there is a crevasse right there…'
Tuesday April 8 – Tuesday was supposed to be a summit of the Jungfrau on our way to the Koncordia Hut. The summits however were in the clouds and Cecila was having some altitude issues. The Monchjoch Hut is at 12K and she was pretty under the weather. After discussions we decided to go over the notch to a col by the Jungfrau and down to the Koncordia Platz around 10K. This would provide some good skiing, a drop in elevation, and if still necessary a path out of the Oberland by the Hollandia hut should it be necessary. Thankfully all group altitude issues were gone by the time we hit the Koncordia Platz, so we headed to the Koncordia Hut as planned. We got some brief sunshine at that point in the afternoon and took advantage on the Glacier, enjoying some snacks and a bought of group silliness. For those who are not aware there is a special spot out there where the Cosmos aligns. Those in tune make snow angels and are at peace with the world.
Peace is good, because once you get to the hut, there is a serious staircase to be climbed. I was actually psyched to see this because I had found old photos of the hut and thought I had hundreds of feet of ladder to contend with. Thankfully it was not necessary to beg Keith for a belay, at that point anyway….
Wednesday April 9 - We had a good day in the morning and started skinning up toward the summit of some peak or other. The plan was to summit and drop back down the back side on the way to the next hut. By noonish it had started to white out and get nasty, so the summit was bailed on once again. Another two parties that had come up a different way headed down at about the same spot we did.
It was at that point I treated Keith to a minor melt down because I was convinced it was kicking horse II. I had tackled a 12ft cornice there and blown a ski on the landing, but was able to stop and retrieve the thing before a I cart wheeled down. I had seen some ice and parts of a cornice by our entrance and was convinced I was going to blow the entrance, but this time roll off a rocky out crop instead of stop. In reality it wasn't that bad, you could avoid the cornice, and everything was fine, I just wasn't seeing it at first however, and Keith had to keep talking me into it until finally I skied. Celin reminded me later that I had nothing to worry about, and all the things Keith could do should it be required. This came to be one of the running jokes as, in more group silliness, as the the final scenario came to be Celin imitating Keith saying don’t worry, I can fly… (Can’t all Mountain Guides???)
Then it whited out completely. So we picked our way for a while and Keith did some snow plowing for Jesus (the act of skiing without a rope probing for crevasses you know are there somewhere). For a while we even put on the rope, but only on the piece that would have provided the best skiing had we actually been able to see. Generally most of time while skiing you are unroped, but this was a special occasion. Then we arrived at the Finsteraarhorn Hut
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