In order to prepare we were hiking in the Italy Sella Group for 5 days. We slept on about 2500-2800 meters for some nights and tried to accustom our tired bones to what was upon us. While we were in Italy the Finsteraarhorn was quite far away - we really enjoyed the beautiful landscape and the hospitality there.
Then we took the train to Grindelwald - Switzerland. We had a nice accomodation in the DownTown Lodge. After two days of rain (which we more or less spent in the bouldering hall and the swimming pool nearby) we decided to hike to the Schreckhorn Hut before loosing all our acclimatization again. During this hike it already came back in our minds that the mountains in Switzerland are something different than the Dolomites or the Allgäu.
Now, we are sitting on the Kleine Scheidegg in Switzerland on 2061m above ground on the cosy sun terrace of the Grindelwaldblick restaurant looking at the summit of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. Tomorrow our tour is going to start.
Our plan: Walking to the Finsteraarhorn Hut over the Jungfraufirn and the "Grünhorn Lücke" (first day). Then getting up quite early, hiking over another glacier and rocks to the "Hugi Sattel" (4088m). From there it goes further up following the ridge up to the summit of Finsteraarhorn on 4274m (and then back to the Finsteraarhorn Hut) (second day). For the third morning the plan is to descend over Rotloch and Oberaarjoch to Oberaarsee.
Looking at the summit of Mönch some lost memories from last year come back to our mind - also doubts and the question why we are actually doing this. Up to now the tour to the summit of Mönch was the "biggest" thing we have done so far. It is so nice sitting here in the sun drinking our coffee... our life is good as it is... why the hell should we go up this dumb rock... But we are also getting excited. Will we be able to do it? How will it be up there? The great view all around... only few people have the chance to stand up there... and so the day passes.
