Having closed down the generally dismal Hollandia Hut the night before with a couple of Dutchmen (what else!) and a cheery local guide, I awoke on Friday to find this.
My hopes for a good weather day were not that high, but as the sun rose, all seemed good down the Loetschen valley.
Looking back at yesterdays misery - the Concordia Platz, with the hut towards the bottom right. The large peak at the back left is the Finsteraarhorn which tops out at 4,274m.
Whilst the rest of the Hollandia Hut headed northwards up the glacier towards the Abeni Flue, we just couldn't turn down the sun drenched slope covered with 6" of poofer-schnee just outside the hut.
It was certainly worthwhile and made up for yesterdays misery.
Whilst the Abeni Flue is the Cardiff of the Bernese Oberland, we couldn't turn it down. So we followed the crowds (and the heli) to the summit.
Ditching some gear at the bottom, we ascended as the crowds beat their way down. From the summit, at 3962m, we had a great view of the W face of the Jungfrau...
...eastwards to the Finsteraarhorn...
..the nasty looking Aletschorn - our route would have been up the icy left ramp....
...and some more generally famous mountains!
After a bit of sastrugi at the top, it was poofer-schnee time!
The beaters had all skied down the lookers left of the slope, leaving us the right side by the ice-wall to ourselves.
A bit repetitive, but I like the sequence. It is worth pointing out that my camera lens was incredibly dirty at this point - hence all the dust marks. I could only spend so long on photoshop removing them. Here's the ice wave!
Past the ice wall and down to the glacier.
Canadian Style!
Yet another view of the nasty looking Aletschorn.
The icefield that we had to skirt on our way to the Concordia hut on Wednesday, with the Finsteraarhorn in the background.
Figuring out how to get to Blatten.
