Day 11 - Goodnight everyone

What a day!  Up not too early and then chalet cleaning.  The lady that runs the chalet is very thorough but we were away and on the 12.12 to Bern where we had lunch.  We got the 16.32 train to Basle and met Mick and his friend Hans for pizza.  We got our flight at 20.50 and, well, you know the rest.  So finally a huge thank you to all the adults and kids for making this a great trip and I look forward to your comments and memories both here and at the Feedback Evening.  Dave

Day 10 - White Water Rafting and River Cruise

Today is our last full day and we had to leave the chalet at 7.45am to get the 8.12am train.

At Spiez the over 12s plus me, Evie, David Mott and Kate got off to change trains and go to Boltigen, where we met our guides from Swiss Adventure. The under 12s plus Rowan, Roger, Alex, Mick and Dave Hunt went on down to Thun, again to meet some guides from Swiss Adventure.

The rafting was great fun, although the river was pretty low and we were grounding on rocks more than once. We were out 14km later at Darstetten and headed back, again via Spiez.

The under 12s went from Thun to Bern and got trains home, although they were a couple of hours behind us.

We managed to tidy some parts of the chalet ready for tomorrow's departure - we'll be aiming for the 12.12 train.

We had dinner in the main Centre and you can see some of the thousands of scarves they have here (pic 1). We also took a picture outside for posterity (pic 2).

The kids were all running around trading scarves and badges - make sure you have a new scarf for our return in September!

They're heading for beds now - apologies there are no pics of the rafting etc., but there might well be some footage on the DVD. As a compensation, I thought you might all like to see where your offspring are sleeping!

See you all at Gatwick North tomorrow.

Dave

Day 9 - Snow & Ice Part 2, The Gemmi Pass, Rodelbahn and Lake Oeschinensee

Again we have some guest bloggers for you, so over to them straight away...

April (under 14s):

Today we got up from the Schwarenbach in our big room that we had all shared the previous night and got ready for our lush breakfast in the hotel (a buffet of cereals) then we all got ready to go on a hike up to the highest point the under 14s were going to visit. It wasn't very long and all the views were beautiful, we passed a lovely blue lake and all the girls were desperate to go for a swim but unfortunately we weren't allowed:(

Then we came back for an ice cream then headed back to the chalet in time for lunch. Then we got our stuff ready for tobogganing. It was great and so fast (apart from when we got stuck behind all the little kids) then a few of us got the chance to go down to the lake and have a quick dip. Then we came back for dinner for an end to the night.

Conrad & Matt (over 14s)

When we woke up after a very nice sleep (except for when the others in the bunk room woke us up) of about 11 hours we had a breakfast of porridge and bread. We had hot water to drink as there is no running water available at Frunden Hutte.

We walked out on to the glacier about 8am in our crampons and learned how to climb out of a crevasse with ice axes. It was very cold when we sat down but OK when we moved around.

We walked down from Frunden Hutte, leaving about 1pm and got to Lake Oeschinensee about 2.30pm. Everyone except me and Alex swam in the lake but we woossed out.

Editor's comments:

We were out of the Schwarenbach (pic 1)by 9am and off to Gemmi Pass via the Duechensee lake (I think). The drop from the Gemmi down to Leukerbad is pretty impressive (pic 2), and it is a busy route so we passed lots of walkers. Our pic 3 is the sunset last night from Frunden Hutte, copyright Matt Hornsby.

After coming back past Schwarenbach we headed down the Sunnbuhl and through the centre of town (pic 4) then up the cable car to meet the over 14s. As it was we were running a little late, so we met them at the Rodelbahn (tobogganing) rather than plan A, Lake Oeschinensee. We then went on the rodelbahn, which is always a highlight! See pic 5, 6.

Some of the under 14s popped down to Oeschinensee for a dip and we took a picture to show you just how far up Frunden Hutte is (pic 7). You have to look carefully - it is directly below the glacier in the middle at the top, just under the shadow and to the left of the other glacier on a promontory on its own - it is a tiny white dot!

Dave

Day 8 - Snow & Ice Part 1 & Schwarenbach

We're back again from another over-night stay and we have 2 guest bloggers for you, to reflect the split in the programme. Kieran, first, on the over 14s and then Freya on the under 14s.

Kieran:

Today we went up to the Frundun Hutte to do the Snow and Ice Workshop. It began as a cable car ride to lake Oeschinensee, from there we had a four hour hike up a mountain that was really steep and all up hill and we all had really heavy packs because the water at the hut was not drinkable so we needed enough water for the walk there and back.

Once we got there we had our lunch and admired the view, then we put on our extra layers and went out onto the ice and got lowered into a crevass and wandered around on the glacier, roped up all the way. Then we went back to the hutte for a dinner of carrot and coriander soup and spaghetti bolognaise and we all had seconds/thirds of both, we then retired to our dorm to sleep in our comfy beds.

Freya:

Today we got a cable car up to Berghotel Schwarenbach. When we arvived at Schwarenbach there was one room that we all slept in, the girls in one section of the room and the boys and leaders in another, although they were very close together (a bit too close:)). After playing in the park, which contained a hammock, a round-about and a rocking horse, we went to a really nice restaurant. For dinner we had pasta and sauce - it was very yummy mummy (: then we all went off to bed, it was a bit cramped and we weren't allowed to talk:( but it was still quite nice with the view and it was a nice place to stay(:

Editor's note:

Not much to add to that. The Frunden Hutte is up about 2,500m, and is around 900m of vertical climb; quite a slog. The under 14s had a more relaxed day with a trip on the Sunnbuhl lift, taking them up to 1,800m, so another 200m of climb to the Schwarenbach, which is about an hour's walk (pic 1). The bunk room is comfortable but basic (pic 2). Hopefully I will add some pics from the Snow & Ice, once I can get them from the other guys.

Dave

Day 7 - Rock Climbing and The Three Valleys

I woke up about 3am and looked up through the skylight above my head to see a shooting star! Not bad at all.

The forecast was rather inclement but, well, there was hardly a cloud in the sky. I thought you might like to see Ueschinenhutte in the morning sun (pic 1). The upstairs window is the room the boys were in, while the leaders and girls were in the 2 smaller rooms at the back. The best bit about this hut, though, is definitely the view from it, as shown in pic 2.

The kids were exhausted, despite the mandatory 10pm bedtime. Mind you, I'm not sure they went to sleep very early!

The over 14's, with David Mott, Kate Hovell and Alex Newman, went up on the Three Valleys hike. You'll have to wait for the pics, but they were over 2,600m and apparently it was spectacular. They were gone by 7.30am and even with rickety wooden stairs, I don't think anyone woke up.

Everyone else was finally roused at 8.45am. They should have been climbing by 9am, so we were a little behind schedule. After a quick breakfast, we were out to do some bouldering, getting used to hand and foot holds (pic 3).

From there we quickly moved on to a proper rock to climb, which was much more challenging (pic 4). By the way, this rock and the second one we were climbing actually come from an avalanche on Altels, which is 2 valleys over! About 5m cubic metres of snow and rock fell off the mountain and killed 6 people and about 150 cattle - the worst avalanche ever in the Alps.

We headed back up to Ueschinenhutte for lunch and to gather all our kit, then down to a bigger rock for more climbing (pics 5 & 6). We were there until 3pm then started back down the valley to our chalet, arriving back about half an hour after the over 14s.

We had dinner then went up to the centre to see a presentation about alpine adventure - ice climbing, crevasses, avalanches, etc.

The over 14s have packed up kit again as they are off at 7.30am up to Frundenhutte for the Snow & Ice workshop. The under 14s have an easier start to the day before they go to Gemmi Pass and overnight at the Schwarenbach.

Well, we're all out again tomorrow so no blog post; we'll be back on Saturday. Apologies for the lack of guest blogger but we again seem to be running a little late and we are all needing some more sleep!

Incidentally, I've had Nokia Sports Tracker running on my phone so I have uploaded all our trip data here. The glacier day got split in two as my battery ran out!

Finally, I am going to send details of the Chief Scout Gold presentations to Dave Jackson for possible forwarding on to the Argus. If anyone can keep an eye out in case they use it, that'd be great!

Dave

Day 6 - The Ueschinenhutte

We're back!

You might have seen that we put some photos up from Day 4 now - there are stacks more and everyone will get a photo CD and DVD some time after we get back. I've taken about 500 photos and everyone else has been snapping away too.

We had an easy start to the day, which was a good thing as everyone was pretty weary from yesterday's exertions. We had a late breakfast and caught up on a few chores then packed up our lunch ready for our afternoon stroll.

It is quite a stroll up the Kander valley then a right fork up a steep slope past the waterfall (pic 1). At the top there is a bench (pic 2) for a rest then a push on up the flatter section of the valley. It is still quite a way to Ueschinenhutte though - it is far up the valley obscured by the slope on the left of the picture.

The over 14s had gone up first and the under 14s followed, so dinner was well on the way by the time they arrived. We had to carry up all our provisions with us, so we loaded up some of the speedy older Scouts! Still didn't slow them down enough really though.

After a nice dinner we presented Dillum and Kieran with their Chief Scout's Gold Awards (pic 3). We then chilled out and off to bed for the 10pm mandatory lights out. Some of us stood outside looking at Cassaeopia to see the meteor shower.

There was much banging of heads on low rafters and complaints about the smell of the "long drop" toilet, but everyone seemed to enjoy being lulled to sleep by the sound of the river and the cow bells.

Dave

Day 5 - Bettmeralp & The Aletsch Glacier

It was a very early start today - up at 5.30am and breakfast for those that were awake enough to open their mouths.

We were away at 6.15am and on the train at 6.40am, heading down to Brig in what looked like being a clear morning (pic 1).

We got a train to Beatenburg (I think, but I am sure someone will correct me if I have it wrong!) then the cable car at 8am up to Bettmeralp.

We met up with our guide Bernhard Stucky and his assistant Heli and we were walked up from about 2,000m to 2,300m - it was pretty foggy and we couldn't see anything much. However the day warmed up as we crested the highest part and the clouds cleared to give us a great view down to the Aletsch glacier (pics 2 & 3), which is the largest in Europe. Now, fact fans, pay attention - it is 23km long, about 1km deep and every 1m of snow makes 1cm of ice.

We headed down a very steep and rocky path to the glacier itself which is down around 1,900m. We had a quick snack and put on our crampons, roping together (pic 4) and heading further on to the ice.

We walked about 3km on the ice, from 11am to 2pm (pics 5 & 6). It was fantastic, really nice scenery and dramatic crevasses. We had a couple of tumbles and trips so apologies in advance for the ripped trousers that'll need a stitch!

Once we'd finished on the ice we headed back up out of the valley - a very steep climb! These guides didn't let us stop as long or as often as us soft scout leaders - a lesson to learn there!

We got over the top and back down to Bettmeralp (pic 7) and the return journey via Brig to Kandersteg. There were some heavy legs (amongst the leaders too!) as we walked back up the track to our chalet.

Luckily Mick's friend Peter was here and cooked us dinner, and later on entertained us with his guitar (pic 8).

The Scouts all seem to have a second wind, and some are still awake now. Luckily we aren't going anywhere until 2pm tomorrow so we can get some sleep.

We'll be up at Ueschinenhutte tomorrow night, so no post - we'll be back on line on Thursday.

Dave

Day 4 - St Beatus Caves & Interlaken

The forecast wasn't fantastic today so we got up about 8-ish and headed down to the station around 9.45am. It was, in the end, a bit of a rush and luckily the train driver actually waited for the last few before pulling out. The locals wouldn't have liked that one bit as they tut if the trains are a minute late.

We went to Spiez then walked down the hill to Lake Thun, which is massive! We got a ferry across the lake - ours was about the 3rd stop on the route, and it took 40 minutes. I have now added a group photo at the Lake (pic 1).

We had a 20 minute walk up the slope and explored around St Beatus caves (pic 2). Very impressive.

Once we had finished there we had lunch and walked back down to the lake. Our ferry wasn't due for almost an hour so we had some time to kill, and many of the Scouts (in fact, all bar Ben, Zoe, Jack and Dillum) went for a swim in Lake Thun (pics 3 & 4). From the reactions, I think we can safely attest that it is cold in there!

We got the ferry around to Interlaken West and let the kids loose on the town for almost an hour, although it was pretty wet by now.

We were back at the chalet about 6pm, although Rowan was later. As we got off the train he noticed someone had taken his wallet - he got back on and took it back off the thief before getting the next train back! Our "Have a go hero".

We had a nice dinner and sorted kit for tomorrow.

We have an early start tomorrow (5.30am) so apologies but no guest blogger and no photos today. We'll get some on here tomorrow though!

Dave

Day 3 - Gasternal Valley

We had set breakfast for 8am but there was a few that were less energetic and some of the Scouts weren't up until 8.40pm.

We were delighted to see a clear blue sky and everyone's spirit was turned to 11, to use a Spinal Tap expression.

We have a guest blogger today so welcome Sian, I'll hand over to her for awhile...

Today's been the best day so far in my opinion, the group were split in half in the morning and the first of the two groups went to collect the bikes from a shop in Kandersteg. We were running late and spent a long while trying to find bikes of the right size for the group, and then when practicing one of the group fell off the bike and grazed his knee. It looked like we were going to be a long way behind the other group but once we got cycling time flew by. We arrived back at the chalet, picked up our bags and headed for the road. It was a LONG tiring walk up the winding mountain, seeing as though we had to push our bikes but we reached the river side and it was extremely beautiful. We kept going until we reached the other half of the group ,who had hiked up, in the car park. After a brief stop we were off again onto flatter ground (though there were some rather steeps dips that we had to push our bikes up) and about an hour more cycling we reached one of the waterfalls that slithers down the mountain from the glaciers on top. Motty decided we should all take a shower in the waterfall, everyone was much obliged as it's been very nice weather today. I can tell you, that water is freezing cold, even more so than the sea in Brighton! Soaking wet, we cycled on to meet the others for lunch. After lunch the two groups swapped. Group 1 hiked, eating berries, climbing hills, etc. we decided to cross the river, using teamwork we managed to spot a place where many trees had fallen across the river, and we all climbed across. Working as a team we helped each other across the logs and onto the bank, they should be very proud of themselves! After getting lost for a bit, they managed to get back to Kandersteg and relaxed! I'd like to give a shout out to my Mum and Dad, I've found 3 of your little notes in my stuff and I'm really really missing you. Hope you are well and looking after the snake.-Sian

Thanks for that Sian, excellent.

So I was in the other group and as Sian says, we walked up. I have put a picture of the group on the bridge across the river as we made the ascent - it is about 300m from the Kander Valley up to Gasternal and in pic 2 you can see the view back.

Our group didn't walk very far but we ate a lot of strawberries (pic 3) and blueberries. The Scouts were very happy to stay around the lower end of the valley, paddling in the river and, as Sian says, it is very cold, as you can see in pic 4. We also crossed the river on a variety of bridges, from proper concrete ones to others that were little more than fallen trees (pic 5).

We did the same cycling route as the first group, and quite a few had a dip in the waterfall (pic 6) did but then carried on down the valley. It is pretty exciting coming through the 2 tunnels, especially with dark sunglasses on - you can see nothing in there! Of the 14 in our group, 8 had crashes although they were all minor and everyone in the group is fine.

We continued on down to the bottom of the village and left the bikes back with the hire shop, before walking back up through town (pic 7) and up the track to the chalet.

There were some weary Scouts by the time we were back and after dinner and showers there were some card games and bed at 10.30pm.


Tomorrow we are going to the caves and Interlaken, and then the next day is the re-re-scheduled glacier hike; it'll be a shock to the system for those that struggle to get up at 8.00!


Dave

Day 2 - Saturday - Up In The Alps

Firstly, I thought you might like another picture (pic 1) from our vantage point at the camp fire yesterday. It was pretty full! There were scouts from Germany, USA, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Denmark that I recall.

Anyway, back to day and it's a good job we have flexible plans!

Today we were going to go up to the caves and to the Niederhorn but we couldn't get booked on the cable car and the forecast was dreadful. Instead we walked down towards the town centre and got the Adelboden cable car up a good few hundred metres. The photo (pic 2) is when we were still pretty close to the ground, although it didn't feel like it (I have no head for heights). For orientation, our chalet is a few hundred metres to the right and the Oeschinensee lake is in the valley you can see to the left of the pic.

We wound our way down through the fog from the top and intermittently had some nice views. It was a pretty gentle stroll really, although some of it was quite steep and we thought we were in for heavy rain more than once.

We saw some nice flora and David Mott swore he saw a monkey on the hillside on the way down, although I suspect it was a stray scout.

We crossed a couple of rivers and headed back down to the Kander Valley, getting to the chalet about 1-ish. We had a late lunch and avoided the worst of the rain.

In the afternoon many of us had a stroll down to the village itself and browsed around the shops, although they close at 4pm on a Saturday.

There has been showering (yes, honestly!) and then many of the Scouts got dirty again playing football. Cards are also proving popular and I suspect TVs and gaming consoles aren't really missed at all. We have also started making a hot air balloon so if we get that to fly we'll report back and maybe post a pic or too.

Inevitably last night many weren't asleep until after midnight and I think a few were up quite early too, although I was still asleep until after 7am so I can't be sure. There is some tiredness evident this evening so we are just having some trifle before packing in for the evening. Tomorrow won't be too intense; although it is quite a trek up to the Gastern valley it is flat-ish once there.

I had hoped to get some guest bloggers but they all seem to busy playing tonga.

Thanks for the cricket news - I may not bother with the highlights I am recording!

Dave

44th Rendition of Singing in the Rain?

Browsing the KISC Photo archive, I came across this!

Sage.

Gutten abend from Kandersteg

Hi everyone!

Well, we have arrived - sorry for the lateness of the hour in posting, but it has been a busy day. Once you left us we went through security, then lots of sweets were purchased, along with copies of the Daily Telegraph (for the free bottle of water).

Our flight left shortly after 8am and we nearly left Dave Hunt's bag behind - one of the ground crew was carrying a rucksack back to the terminal as the label had fallen off and it needed identifying. That was a stroke of luck!

Unfortunately April's bag was also missing when we got to Basel; hopefully it will be here tomorrow. We met Mick's friend Hans at Basel airport and he escorted us to a park for lunch then the train station, where we got the 13.01 double decker to Spiez. A half hour wait at Spiez then another train to Kandersteg, talking to some American scouts.

We walked up to the chalet and settled in. After dinner we went up to the International Camp Fire and performed a fine rendition of Singing In The Rain (quite appropriate, it threw it down earlier).

Everyone is now (hopefully) going to sleep. Tomorrow, instead of the glacier day we are off to the caves. W'll post in the evening, hopefully with some photos.

Goodnight all.

Dave

Programme change

In view of the weather forecast, we are swapping our programmes for Saturday (will now be caves) and Monday (glacier). Fingers crossed the rest of the weather is OK!

Must get an early night tonight...

Dave

The weather

Thanks to everyone for making the kit check relatively painless. Now we don't see each other until 5.45am on Friday morning at Gatwick North terminal - apparently check in zone E.

If anyone doesn't have currency yet, you can order from Travelex and collect at the airport before you go through security.

Also, thought you might be interested in the weather forecast - seems to be good right up until we get there!

Dave

Practice Hike 4 - it's a monster!

I think I owe 14 kids an apology! I have a new map measurer, which told me this route was about 14km, which seemed fine. Well, according to my Nokia Sports Tracker software, we had done 22.7km before the battery packed up (we were near the finish by then though). With that in mind, an even bigger well done to everyone! You can see all the stats here. It shows speed and altitude, luckily I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor!

We started from Beeding Hill (pic 1), running a little behind schedule because I was late. No change there, then. We headed down the scarp slope towards Tottington Manor, which is just visible in pic 2. This was actually quite a tricky path - narrow, with stinging nettles and quite cut up by the horses' hooves. It also got very steep at the bottom.

Once we got to the Manor, we met Siân, who had problems finding the start point. We stopped there for an early lunch (pic 3).

We went up to Longlands Wood, which was very nice. Bit cooler and shadier in there!

We next went towards Edburton, which is a typically quaint (i.e. expensive!) spring line settlement along the foot of the Downs. For awhile now, we had seen the looming scarp slope and now we tackled it (pic 4). That did spread us out a bit, and we were all a little puffed by the top.

We walked down the gentle dip slope on Summers Down, and went over the bypass on Southwick Hill. The legs were definitely getting tired by now, but there was no conceivable short cut back to the car park. I texted ahead to warn everyone we'd be an hour late, although this actually ended up to be about 75 minutes.

We pushed on up Thundersbarrow Hill (pic5) then for the last 2km we were back on the Monarch's Way - a final descent and ascent over the crest of the hill and the final half kilometre is downhill with the car park in sight.

This really was a long trek and the calves were feeling it a bit by the time we were back home, but well done to all!

Dave