Aletsch: glacier travel for beginners

by Nigel Phipps

Over the years, my wife and I have encountered glaciers while hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter, mainly in the Chamonix area. We have also done a bit of crevasse training. During this time, the allure of Europe's largest glacier had been growing for us. So, in August 2017, we left the Jungfraujoch (3454m) with a guide to spend four days hiking down part of the Aletsch glacier and then across to the Grimsel Pass.

In the week prior to the trip, we had spent 48 hours at altitude on Mont Buet above the Chamonix valley in order to get some acclimatisation. We then spent three days at the delightful small town of Meringen. This was chosen as the nearest town to what would be the end of our Aletsch trek, with a train connection to Interlaken and its service to Jungfraujoch. It is also the home of the Reichenbachfälle where Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty came to a sticky end.

Our first surprise was just how crowded the train at Interlaken was. Jungfraujoch is a honeypot and is on the Bollywood circuit in Europe. It has also been marketed as Europe's highest mountain, when what is in fact meant is that it is Europe's highest railway station. Most of our fellow travellers were either Chinese or Indian. The place is out of this world with a range of things to do and see both indoors and outdoors – ice sculptures, golf, sledging, shopping - and, on arrival, there is a noodle bar and an Indian snack station which many clearly love.

We had arranged to meet a local guide at the station at the Jungfraujoch. Finding our guide was not as problematic as we had feared, as few people were in mountaineering kit. We immediately headed through the tunnels to the start of the hike. Despite some less than optimal weather forecasts, our guide was adamant that we would have four beautiful days, with just a short storm on the first evening. Our start was a bit concerning, but he turned out to be right. While we travelled light, we had warm clothing (necessary for the evenings) and bad weather gear (never used).

Most days involved 5 to 6 hours on the glacier, roped up. I learnt quite early on that falling was a painful experience – I had been taking photos as we walked. The glacier requires attention and the easy start had lured me into a false sense of relaxation. But it was not long before we had our first “ooh-aah” moment. We came to a 30 foot deep crevasse with a raging torrent at the bottom. Our guide cut a step in the side and needed us to jump. It was all doable but, for someone who has to work quite hard at managing mountain fears, it did get my thinking straight on what we were doing.

The ice comes in all shapes and forms, with colours ranging from clear blue to white, to black from the rock and dust blown onto the glacier. And for the most part all is deeply quiet, that is until the Swiss Air Force come along, or a rock fall comes crashing down. Some of the crevasse fields were awe-inspiring; walking a ridge between two of them to get through did increase the heart rate.

Some other big “ooh-aah” moments were at the end of each day when we had to climb to the huts: Konkordiahütte (2850m) required a climb of 464 steps on a metal ladder up the side of the cliff; the route to Finsteraahornhütte (3048m) was an easyish scramble; Oberaarjochhütte (3258m) was the smallest hut with no running water and required a combination of cables, ropes and ladders with protection from falling rock to get access.

The remote situation of each of the huts was spectacular, with beautiful, albeit very cold, sunrises from the balconies. For mountaineers, these huts all provide good access to a range of peaks. The food and drink were good, with free hot tea continuously available at the huts at which we stayed.

After we arrived at the Konkordiahütte (so named because it is situated at the meeting point of three glaciers), we had the bad weather forecast by our guide. One young London couple had had a difficult time walking up from Fiesch in the worsening weather, with navigation through the crevasses disorientating them even further. They had an ambitious programme of climbs over the next few days.

As we left Konkordia, we parted company with the Aletsch glacier and moved onto the Grünegg glacier that proved to be quite a steep rise to the highest point of the tour (3500m). It is an area that had been out of bounds for many years after the Second World War and used as a training ground for the Swiss army. The glacier is now releasing spent (hopefully) military ordnance which can readily be found on the surface of the glacier.

We then crossed the Fiescher glacier including putting a foot through a snow bridge for another “ooh-aah” moment. Five and half hours later, we had a final scramble up to the Finsteraahornhütte. This hut is wonderfully remote with a hard day's walk to get back to a road. The hut also provides a good base to climb the imposing Finsteraarhorn (4274m), the highest mountain of the Bernese Alps. At dinner, we were inspired by meeting a family group with two teenagers who set off the next morning for the summit.

Departure from the Finsteraahornhütte was via a gently sloping ridge and then an abseil down a scree slope on to the Fiescher glacier. We continued down for a while (total descent of 500m) before turning sharply left on to the Galmi and then Studer glaciers for the 600m rise to the Oberaarjochhütte. This felt like quite a long day on the glaciers. In all, it took us just under 6 hours of generally easy walking apart from various crevasse sections. Here we needed to watch our steps quite carefully and be more mindful of the spacing on our rope cordon. With the blue skies, the scale of the glaciers ringed by their various summits was awesome.

At sunrise on Day 4, we left the Oberaarjochhütte for Grimsel Pass and some spectacular views. This hike included a 900m descent on the Oberaar glacier and an awkward time on the moraine as the glacier petered out, before finishing on a good mountain path and an amble alongside the Oberaarsee reservoir. Not long after setting off, however, one of our guide's crampons broke. After various attempts to strap it up, he had to accept that he would do the next three hours as we walked off the glacier with just one crampon. Given the difficulties he faced, I have now decided that for any walk requiring crampons, I will take a third complete crampon even if it does add to the weight of the pack.

Time had passed at a different speed on the glaciers. The remoteness and stillness is surprising given we were at the centre of overcrowded Western Europe. And it opened our eyes to even more possibilities.

The scale of the environment
Photos by Nigel Phipps

The crevasses

Oberaarjochütte

The weather

Sunrise

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