Bernese Oberland..

After a brief visit to the UK it was back to the Bernese Oberland on Sunday to start a week of work for for Alan Kimber (Westcoast Mountain Guides), Mark Seaton and Jonathan Preston.

Together we spent the week traversing the Bernese Oberland climbing the Grunhornli (3595m) and the remote Finsteraarhorn (4273.9m), again experiencing some challenging weather.

Again starting in Grindelwald under the shadow of the North Face of the Eiger, we got the train to Jungfraujoch and descended to the well positioned Konkordia Hut. This glacier was in much better condition than my previous visit due to the fresh snowfall in the intervening week.

Following this an ascent of the 'Grunhornli' put us in a good position to climb the 'Finsteraarhorn'. As the highest summit in the Oberland it's a popular objective but not easy, being surrounded by a lengthy glacial approach on all sides. We made relatively quick work of the North West Ridge in cold and windy conditions before tucking into the famous "Finsteraarhorn Rosti" back at the hut. Ant and Dec are pictured just below the summit above.

With bad weather forecast we decided to escape to Oberaar near the Grimsel Pass. This was a rewarding experience in itself with 14km of glacier, heavy rain, slightly strange hut guardians, erroneous phone numbers, grim taxi's and a massive landslide. But that's another story....