Saturday, June 29, 2013

Summer season kicks off with mid summers day skiing

The summer mountaineering season started on Monday and the tempertures soared to a mighty 36degrees.
Reuben and I started the week with an ascent of the South East face of the Gallinhorn which over looks Kandersteg.
On the Tuesday we headed around to the Stockhorn where we climbed some good routes while gazing over Lake Thun and the Oberland.
Afterwards we headed round to Grindlewald and caught the train to Kliene Scheidegg and checked into the Hotel Bellvue des Alps. In my view the best hotel in the Alps. It has been carefully preserved just as it was when it was first openend in the 1930's. The food and service was perfect.
On Wednesday we caught the train to the Jungfraujoch and headed to the foot of the normal route on the Monch. The weather was not good and I met a couple of my colleagues who had just bailed from their attempts. We decided to go and "have a look" without committing ourselves. We made the right call the weather improved , the wind dropped and we had the summit to oourselves.
After the Monch we headed back to Chamonix where the next day Thursday it was raining off and on, so we spent it at Les Gaillands rockclimbing.
On Friday we did something unconventional for mid summers day : We went ski touring. We drove to Les Diablerets took the firt lift up and climbed the peak of Les Diablerets. After which we skied some very good "Spring Snow" back to the lift system.

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