Montroc le Planet to Refuge Albert 1er, 2hr 30min +1280m 8.05km

The tour has started, and the weather gave us everything it had in the first hour! Sun, wind, rain and they say it might snow tonight. Bring it on.... that's what adventures are about. A 2.5 hrs walk up to the hut, fairly straight forward with a 200m up at the end. Loads of time to meet the group and Dave the mountain guide.

On this Hike I had the pleasure of Schlumpf and Rob joining me. A great evening planning various routes with Schlumpf on Thursday lead to a wonderful and trouble free hike in Ticino and a great overnight in the hut Capanna Campo Tencia, one or the oldest huts in the region.
A varied route, with red &white tracks leading higher to some blue & white tracks, some snow fields, some 'off the Beaten track' and even some scrambling thrown in for good measure.
A great team to hike with, with all three of us putting our best foot forward in leading, map reading and buying the ‘Möst‘ in the Hut.

We had a great plan, a cool walk, and a lovely spot in mind for a wild overnight camp. But, Nature took over, with the ridge walk still having larger areas covered in snow (we started late = unsafe snow), so thinking on our feet, Plan B came along and we walked up a new route from Fräggi to Klimsenhorn and got set up for a fresh air night... in morning we walked to the top of Pilatus, seeing a 'Steinbok' (last photo) on the way up....enjoy the photos.

Yes some of you will be Jealous, but I try to keep my social distancing as far away from cities and shops as possible.... and when I can take a day off, and teh Covid rules allow it.... its straight up the mountains.

A little refreshment and a short down hill to the hotel, yes!
AS mates do, we shared the view over a 'Möst' or four before dinner, great food, great service, great wine, what a wonderful evening... if it hadn't been for one of us three snoring like a world Champion.
Day two, a long day ahead of us which would include a visit to the tongue of a glacier, past the Albert-Heim hut (that was on the plan yesterday),  over the summit of the 'Schafberg' and a little more than 1000m down to the car at Realp.
What a great weekend was had by all three of us, thanks again to Rob for driving and for Eric and all his effort, well done.

A New Year with a difference this time around. 
I decide to go on a Ski Touring trip from the 30th to the 2nd January, based at the Hotel Teifenbach at 2100m, and only approachable with Skins on the ski's or by snowshoeing, this was going to be my first time of Ski touring with several days stringed together.
I can tell you that after 2 days i was knackered!
It seemed that we had an unspoken aim of doing 1000m elevation for each day, I myself had never done 1000m up on skins, let alone 4 days in a row. and so my feet soon found out that my 'Freeride' boots were not really made for such accents... blisters popping up all over the place.
Day three had to be the highlight though, with me battling my mind, fatigue and announcing to the group that I was not fit enough to join them. I was coached on by Jean-Francois (our Mountain guide, great guy!) to join for the first 20-30mins up and see how I felt, I could safely ski down alone from this point if it didn't work out. After 30 mins, with sore heels, the beauty of the surrounding mountains and the group took a hold of me and I was in for the day, and what a day it turned out to be. What started as a fairly easy climb, took us past the tongue of the 'Tiefengletscher' were we could walk into an Ice cave, first time in a natural one for me. Then the steep climb started, with heaving lungs and once or twice popping out of the bindings on the 'Spitzkehri' turns it was hard work, till we got 10m away from the peak, skis off and the last 10m by foot to the top of the 'Chli Bielenhorn'. Yeah made it!... now to ski down...More adventure!
Traversing an iced 45 degree slope was also a first for me, slip and your 50-70m down hill! Here my heartbeat was sky high, and the Bad language was flowing I tell you. But Peter and I made it across to the saddle of the ridge, now it was down the Couloir (another 45-40 degrees) to the waiting open slopes of Powder snow.... was I glad to get down there in one piece.

All in all it was a great start to 2021, a great group, great Mountain guide, and a load of adventures.
(plus another 4000m but over 4 trips ;) )

Instead of getting up at 3:30am Saturday morning, I jumped on the train to Interlaken Friday evening and booked into the local Youth hostel, wow have these changed since the 90,s. Tomorrows meeting, with the Mountain guide, was at 09:35am at the top station of the Jungfraujoch (3450m).

Todays goal was the Mount Mönch (Monk) at 4107m!

The 40min glacier walk was relative easy compared to what was to come, with the mountain in view, or looking over us, all the way to the first climb. In our roped up group of three, snowshoes were placed aside and our mountain guide for the day, Jean-Francois, lead the way. A small climb to start, and bit of scrambling and before you know it we were looking down on others yet to start. A little brake and crampons on, now it got steeper, through snow/ice slopes, snow bridges and a touch of 'easier' rock climbing we made our way up to the sub summit at 3882m.
Another little tee break before the we came upon the long, almost horizontal, Snow ridge. God did this look SCARY!! At the beginning walking on the left of the ridge we had the comfort of being able to place our ice pics in the snow for balance, but this soon disappeared as we were now walking on a snow ridge just 20-30cm wide, and hundreds of meters down both left & right of us. 
'Hey guys stop there...' says Jean-Francois, '...a great place for a photo', I thought the guy was nuts, but the photo is great.
Step by step, looking ONLY at where I was placing my crampon boots one at a time, the ridge seemed to go on for ever. Finally the summit was there, we had made it! Congratulations where passed around, photos taken to remember this amazing trip, and a bite of an energy bar was had.
What I forgot to mention about our little group with Jean-Francois leading us up, was Karl in the middle and myself bring up the rear.... on the way up, but on the way down, I was now at the front! Meaning, I was leading the snow ridge back down, this was even scarer than on the way up!
​The lack of fitness told on the steep journey down, with my quads burning for 2/3 of the way, but we were all got safely down and a well earned beer at the station before heading down.
A big Thank you to Jean-Francois and https://www.bergundtal.ch for an amazing experience.
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(Zoom in on some of the photos to see how really small we humans are!)