At KISC we run Snow & Ice activities, alongside the hiking and climbing that I help to run. They're all about having a play about on glaciers. This means roping up together, wearing crampons and using ice axes - pretty cool kit :-)
I signed up to do some Staff Snow & Ice on the Frunden Glacier - above lake Oeschinensee. The weather was amazing, especially considering the really bad weather we've had all summer. The hike up was really great - staff hikes are awesome because I don't have to walk *really* slowly! The route up is all really nice and challenging, and loads of great views of the lake.
So in the afternoon of the first day we had to get the kit on - harnesses, helmets, ice axes, crampons and ropes. There was one of the specially trained guides on the front of the rope, and then we tied in to make sure that we don't fall into crevasses! For the first part of the afternoon we we walking around on the glacier, jumping crevasses and testing the crampons (they're amazing - they stick on any gradient), then we did some crevasse rescues - chucking (read: lowering) people into crevasses and then rescuing them.
On the way back down we did some more jumping of crevasses and I actually fell into a crevasse! Well actually I was pulled into the glacier by Steffi (DE) who was on the rope in front of me. It was actually quite fun, I didn't hurt myself and was pulled out in a few minutes.
In the evening we stayed at the Frundenhutte, a pretty cool hut with a really nice atmosphere. The sunset was incredible and it was awesome to be up there with friends.
The morning after we went back out onto the glacier to do some ice climbing. I was really looking forward to doing this as I've always wanted to have a go - it was actually easier than I thought it would. The technical ice axes are really good at gripping the ice, and as I said before the crampons can stick to anything.
We also did some more crevasse rescues later on so that everybody had a go - that's Doug (US) in the crevasse being rescued. Being in the glacier is amazing - you can see right down maybe 20-30m, which shows how thick the ice is.
Posted via email from Ali's Kandersteg Adventure
