Things didn’t quite go according to plan on this trip.

Our original plan was an 8 – 9 day traverse of the Berner Oberland, with some significant summits on the way.

Then there were Plans B, C, D, . . .

And finally there was what we actually did.

The Plan

Our original plan was to start at the top of the Grimsel Pass and walk in to the Oberaarjoch hut, spending the next day “training” on a local peak, probably the Studerhorn.

On day 3 we would cross the Gemslicke, with a side excursion to the top of the Oberaarrothorn, and drop down to the Finsteraarhorn hut. The Finsteraarhorn was programmed for day 4.

Day 5 – up to the Fieschersattel and the Fiescherhorn, descending to the Mönchsjoch hut.

Days 6, 7, and 8 would be Mönch, Jungfrau, and Eiger, with the order and routes depending on conditions (ours and the mountains’). This gave us a day in hand, as we weren’t due down in Grindelwald until day 9.

But it didn’t quite work out like that.

The Full Story

Thursday 12 July 2001

There were three of us – Chris, Agnès, and me. Unfortunately Agnès wasn’t feeling good, and as we walked the road from the top of the Grimselpass to the Oberaarsee dam and then along the lake to the foot of the Oberaargletscher, it became obvious we weren’t going to make the hut.

We decided to walk back out and head for Grindelwald and the Mönchsjoch hut, which would give us the option of reversing our planned route. Spending two or three days in the Mönchsjoch hut would give Agnès a chance to recover.

Tony and Agnès on the Aletschgletscher at Jungfraujoch, about to head for the Mönchsjoch Hut

We arrived at the hut on Friday 13 July. The forecast wasn’t promising – there were flurries of snow, and the (southerly) Föhn wind was bringing mild unsettled weather. By early evening visibility was down to a few metres and the wind was strengthening. We booked breakfast for 7.00 instead of 4.30.

At 7 the next morning it was still grey and blowing strongly, though hardly any fresh snow had fallen. Chris and I decided to wait an hour or so. Agnès’s chest infection was worse – she would stay in the hut. A group of 5 set off about 8.00. We still weren’t sure, but by 8.30 we decided to give it a try – we’d do the Mönch by the shortest route, the SE ridge.

And that’s what we did. 2 1/2 hours up and the same down. The guidebook grade is PD, but the conditions on the ridge probably deserved a “+”. Not knowing the route we started up the ridge in crampons, and climbed about half the route mostly on rock. The visibility came and went – at one point we had a fine aerial view of the tourists milling about around the door that leads from the Jungfraujoch complex onto the glacier. The snow higher up the ridge was mostly soft, and the final summit ridge had impressive cornices overhanging the north face. The wind varied, gusting strongly for a few minutes, then dropping to nothing before blowing up again. We didn’t linger on the summit.

Descending on the soft snow needed care, and we used the anchor posts on the top snow slope. Once we came to the rock we took off our crampons and did the remainder in boots.

And so we completed the only climb of our 10 day trip. Later that afternoon the weather closed in completely, and several inches of new snow fell overnight. Agnès’s infection was getting worse, so after breakfast the next day we trudged through thick mist and blowing snow to the Jungfraujoch station, the train to Grindelwald, and a visit to the doctor for Agnès that afternoon. The rest of the week became a walking holiday based in Grindelwald while we waited and hoped the weather would clear and conditions improve enough for us to at least attempt the Jungfrau. They didn’t.

The unpreposessing exterior of the Mönchsjoch Hut as we never saw it – in sunshine