Day 6 - The Descent

We awoke on the 6th and final day of our mountain adventure to somewhat mixed emotions: relief that soon we would have home comforts again such as showers, drinkable tap water and decent breakfasts, and sadness that soon our exciting expedition would be over and we would have to return to our normal boring lives. 

I say awoke - I hadn't really slept that night, thanks to a very tall German guy who had climbed into the bunk next to me and snored loudly in my direction all night. So it was really more of a rising than an awakening. 

We had all been slightly dreading the descent back down, after the difficult ascent up to the previous day. However, that morning the bad weather had all but vanished, and we were greeted with a spectacular sunrise that painted the tips of the highest peaks golden. We were filled with new life and energy, and with the wind and rain gone, the descent down didn't seem so bad. 

The stunning sunrise paints the tips of the highest peaks golden

We all watched from the terrace with great amusement as my German cabin neighbour and his climbing partner descended on to the glacier and geared up in silence, facing away from each other - they had clearly had some kind of fall out about something. The taller one stormed off in a sulk, leaving the other one looking a little lost and upset. 

We climbed down from the castle hut (not it's actual name) via a different route this time - a steep and narrow snow ridge. Paul remained at the top, lowering us gradually down on a rope. 

Descending onto the Glacier 

Paul helps Ross down on the rope. 

Me descending from the hut, lowered down on the rope by Paul.

Once we'd all reached the Glacier, we roped up in the usual formations and started the long descent down towards the shimmering lake at the bottom. 

Roping up for the final time.

Me at the top of the glacier

It was strange as we descended, we appeared to be walking through three seasons in the space of a few hours. We started out very much in winter, in thick snow with full winter gear needed. Gradually the temperature climbed as we got lower, and soon the snow had vanished, leaving just the solid ice of the glacier. By the end of the journey, we were very much back in summer; the glacier had turned into running water and rocks, the temperature was high, and we saw greenery for the first time in days. 

Descending down from the mountains into Summer

Seeing greenery for the first time in days

Ian in front of a massive boulder. 

After a fairly short walk around the lake, we reached a huge concrete damn, a road, and a cafe - we were back in the civilised world! We stopped for a much needed coffee break at the cafe, before heading on our way to the bus that would take us to Interlaken - our next destination. 

Me on the damn - back to civilisation. 

Enjoying a much needed coffee break

However, the taxi that was due to take us to the bus stop couldn't be contacted, and our only option was to walk it - about an hour and a half hike along the mountain road. I thought that were this situation to occur back home, we would probably be at a loss for what to do if the taxi just didn't show and there was no other means of transport, you'd never consider walking that far! But in comparison to our 6 days of hard glacier climbing, 1 1/2 hours walking on tarmac was nothing, and we happily set on our way. 

Day 5 - The hut that fought back

Today started with one of the most challenging aspects of the whole trip - descending the giant iron staircase back down from the Concordia Hut. Going up had been ok, as you'd just been looking up. But coming down was utterly terrifying! As the stairs are a metal grid rather than being solid, you can see straight down the cliff all the way to the bottom. What's more, there's a handrail, but no sides to the staircase and no end pieces as the stair turns a corner, meaning if you slipped and fell, you could quite easily roll off the stairs and plummet to your death. Just to add to that further, the early morning dew meant the metal handrail was wet and slippery. So it's fair to say descending this was quite terrifying, my heart was in my mouth for most of the way!

Ross's picture descending the very high and very scary iron stair case

Once that hair-raising part of the journey was over, we started on our way back up the next glacier towards the high ridge. The sun hadn't yet risen over the mountains, but as we headed East towards it, we witnessed the most incredible skies and vistas. Suddenly the sun burst over the top of the mountain, painting everything in sight golden yellow. 

The sun peaks out from behind the mountain, painting everything golden. 

Ross on the slope looking back on where we had climbed.

The glacier looks stunning as it slopes up the cliffs 

Working our way towards the high ridge

We made it to the top of the ridge in good time with surprising ease. I had thought that as the days went on I would grow more and more wary and tired, but in fact the opposite was true. My body had adapted to the walking surprisingly quickly; I was finding I could walk much longer and faster with a lot less effort, and my bag was now weightless on my back. After making a quick photo stop at the high ridge, we descended back down over the other side onto the glacier. 

The first team almost at the top

Ian arriving at the top of the ridge

At the top! From left to right: Ian, our guide Paul, Me, Chrissy, Nicola, Jason, Ross. 

Me at the top with my charity t-shirt on! 

As we walked, we could see heavy storm clouds rolling in towards us. The rain is never something that has bothered me; I realised as a young child that living in the UK meant I had been soaked many times in my life by the rain, and it was going to happen many times more, so decided there and then that there was no point in worrying about it. However, the sight of these deep black clouds heading our way as we trekked exposed on the open glacier was a little unsettling. 

Descending back down the other side of the ridge, towards the impending storm clouds

The clouds getting darker and closer

The black sky in contrast with the white snow - an eerie experience

After a while we found ourselves engulfed in the cloud in a total whiteout, with zero visibility. Somehow Paul was still able to navigate across the glacier despite having no visual reference points. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd literally been counting his steps and knew exactly where he was. 

Walking in the whiteout 

Raincoats on! 

Ross stops for a sandwich in the midst of the whiteout 

After a couple of hours of walking like this, the huge mountains at the end of the glacier suddenly appeared right in front of us - much like when they spot the giant ice burgh in the film Titanic. 

And out of nowhere... the mountains appear from the mist

After stopping for a short lunch break, we got the ice axes back out and started on our long steep climb towards our final hut. This trek was tedious, walking in the rain and fog for what seemed like hours, with almost no view. As we walked, we heard numerous small avalanches thundering down from somewhere to the side of us, loosened by the rain. This was quite scary, as we couldn't see them, just hear them somewhere and hope it wasn't on course to hit us! 

Ice axe back out! 

Climbing towards our final hut

The view was limited

Finally after several exhausting hours, we spotted our hut, perched high up on the mountain and surrounded by mist, almost like a spooky castle. By the time we reached the base, we were all completely exhausted and on the verge of collapse. 

The hut eerily looms ahead, perched high up on the cliff like a spooky castle

But our journey was not over. Between us and the hut lay a very high, steep scree slope, almost vertical. As we climbed with our hands and feet, the loose scree gave way, sending us slipping back down. For every two feet we climbed up, we'd slip back down one foot. It was much like walking the wrong way up an escalator. To add to this, the people above would send loose rocks tumbling down your way, another obstacle to slow us down.

Climbing the near vertical scree slope was hard going! 

After this exhausting climb, we reached a high vertical ladder which lead to the hut. This was quite hard to climb, as being bolted to the cliff, there wasn't much clearance for your feet to slip onto the rungs, you had to basically climb it on tip-toe. This was ok though - so long as you didn't look down! A final walk along a narrow ledge took us to the door of the hut, where we all tumbled in and collapsed down inside. Ross comically noted "well that one fought back!" It certainly did. 

Me on the ladder to the hut

This was the most exhausted I had ever been in my life, and it look me a long while before I felt human again. Sitting by the log fire eating a hearty bowl of home cooked soup helped. We joked that perhaps the lady who worked in the hut had arrived as a child, but was too scared to descend back down from the hut, so had just stayed their ever since. 

That evening, we sat and enjoyed a well deserved pint of "lager hell", shared stories, looked at our photos, and laughed until we couldn't breathe anymore at a photo that had caught Ian comically popping into view. The alcohol and high altitude amplified the hilarity, leading me to retreat outside to get some air and admire the evening view.

A refreshing pint of Lager Hell

Well deserved 

The photo of Ian that had us all in hysterics. 

Day 4: Serenity

4:00am. I awake from a deep sleep, having finally recovered from my laughing episode at bedtime and nodded off. The plan is to start out early to complete a high-level part of the trek. However, Paul deems it too dangerous to depart as lightning is still rolling around the mountains. I'm not really sure lightning rolls as such, but I can't really think of a better way to describe it. The others fall back asleep, but I get out of bed and go outside to watch. There's something incredibly mysterious, dare I say spiritual even, about being high up in the mountains, miles away from civilisation in the middle of of nowhere, watching this spectacular light show illuminating the incredible peaks all around you. You might think it was exciting or even scary, but actually it was very peaceful. I don't know why, it just was. I tried to take a photo but with the limited capabilities of my point and shoot camera it just came out black; Ross suggested I call it "essence of night."

I returned to bed and went back to sleep, arising several hours later for the usual breakfast of bread and jam. We head out into the brisk morning air, with heavy clouds still lying low in the sky. Paul decides we should head straight across the glacier to our next hut, leaving out the high level ridge due to the danger of bad weather, poor visibility, and the fact that we'd have no view up there anyway. 

Setting out at sunrise, heavy storm clouds linger in the air

Storm clouds swirl around the mountain tops

So we set off back out into the snow and onto the glacier. The trek itself was relatively long and uneventful, until we reached the Concordia Platz about half way down - a series of impressive Glacial ridges. 

Back onto the snow

Working our way up the Glacier

The sun paints beautiful patterns as it shines through gaps in the clouds

Climbing over this was challenging - many of the crevasses were three feet across. This probably doesn't sound like a long distance to jump over, and on normal ground it isn't. However, when the snow either side of the crevasse is loose, you have a very big heavy bag on your back, big clunky boots and crampons on, and can't get a run up due to the soft and slippery snow - trust me three feet is a lot! 

Approaching the Concordia Platz

Jumping over the crevasses

Some of the crevasses were huge! You can see the unstable snow at the edge of them in this picture. 

It was on a jump over one such crevasse that I almost went in; I landed the jump fine, but one leg landed on solid ice, and the other landed on soft snow which fell away as my leg came down on it. I'd gained enough momentum to propel myself forward and away from the danger, but I'd been very close to going down! These aren't ditches, these are deep, black bottomless pits! 

The Concordia Hut is located about halfway up the mountain in front of us, perched on the ledge you can see. 

Deep black hole

Finally we got to the safety of the rocks across the glacier, but the journey wasn't over yet! Do you remember how I'd said that you never just arrive at the hut, there's always a final little challenge? Well the final challenge for tonights hut, the Concordia hut, was a ginormous ridiculously high metal staircase bolted onto the side of the cliff. Basically the hut had been built at the base of the glacier, but as the glacier had shrunk, they've had to built this staircase down to reach the bottom. The sight of the staircase was daunting - picture a fire escape bolted onto a mountain. 

The iron stairway snaking it's way up the cliff

I shoved in as many Lucozade energy tablets as I could fit into my mouth, then together with Ross lead the way up the staircase. I don't have a great head for heights, but by just looking up it was fine. I was very glad we were in Switzerland meaning the staircase was probably constructed to a very high standard. 

Me climbing up the staircase

Finally we made it to the top of the cliff and into the warmth of the hut, where I was greeted by a big excitable black labrador. I promptly lay down in the dining area and fell asleep, joined by a friendly and very cute kitten that had attached itself to me.

This hut was big, and filled with people. My nearest analogy to it would be a Scout hut, for anyone who has ever been a Scout. I imagine Girl Guide or Brownie huts aren't too dissimilar, although I've never been in one so can't say for sure. 

Finally made it to the hut! The Concordia Platz and the glacier we have just walked down behind me. 

The glacier snaking down the mountain behind me 

The Concordia Hut

Panorama of the Aletsch Glacier

Me and my kitten

That evening, we sat outside in what must be one of the worlds' most exclusive, high altitude beer gardens, enjoying a refreshing pint and watching the magnificent sunset over the mountains and glacier. This was probably one of the most enjoyable and satisfying experiences I've ever had in my life. Imagine sitting in your favourite pub garden with four of your best friends, on a hot sunny day, drinking a cold, refreshing pint of quality lager, watching the sun set over the most incredible scenery you've ever seen. Add to that the fact that no one can physically be in this garden unless they've climbed and trekked for miles then climbed up a long and arduous staircase to get here; you had to earn your place in this beer garden.

Me after a change of clothing and a "wet wipe shower".

Ross, Nic and Jason chilling out in the world's most exclusive beer garden

Watching the sun set over the mountains was the most beautiful show on earth

It wasn't just satisfying though, it was mentally uplifting. Sitting there up in the mountains seeing nature in her finest, I felt everything that had been bothering me in life slip away with the fading light; any qualms about old acquaintances, anxieties about the future or worries about what I should be doing with life left me, and I felt totally at peace. I'm not sure where life is taking me, but I knew right there and then, that was exactly where I was supposed to be. It was the best feeling :-)

There was no where else in the world I'd rather have been than here.