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Tag: glacier

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Another weekend full of sunshine! So we decide to take the train to Kandersteg. We stay at the Kanderhuette which is great, because it is very cheap and still a cosy place and it also includes a kitchen. The next morning we walk up to the Oeschinensee. This lake is super beautiful! 🙂 We are very early and only a few other people are there. We take a long break here before we continue hiking up to the Bluemlisalphuette. From the trail we have a good view of the glacier (or at least what is left of it) and for a few hundred meters the trail also goes along the moraine. After a steep ascent we reach the Hohtuerli. From here it is only another 10 minutes to the hut.

The Bluemlisalphuette is a very nice place! We stay there for almost two hours and enjoy the sunshine and the perfect view to the Bluemlisalp! Tonight is a concert at the hut and the helicopter is flying in the instruments! When all instruments and musicians are there they start to play music! This is fantastic! On the way back we walk over the Heuberg which offers a great view down to the Oeschinensee. This was definitely again one of the best hiking days this year! 🙂

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I love hiking through the Alps, but about one year ago I decided that I would also once in my life see the mountain range with the highest mountains on Earth. So I decided to go to Nepal! This time my sister was coming with me.

Nepal is very famous for trekking as it offers the best views of the mountains. We decided to walk the trek to the Annapurna Base Camp which takes about 8-10 days and goes up to 4100m. Hiking in the Himalaya is a great experience! People are very friendly and helpful and the landscape changes almost every day. During our trek we walked through forests with monkeys, crop fields, small villages, bamboo forests.. until we finally reached the glaciers!

But besides the always nice looking photos of the mountains, Nepal also has some sides that you mostly do not see before you have been there. As I have never been to a country outside Europe, I was a bit shocked by the pollution. The country has so much nature to offer but people do not always respect it. Rubbish is thrown out of bus windows and into rivers. Many rivers are full of plastic bottles. Many people burn their rubbish over night which leads to bad smell while you are sleeping. Cars and buses are very old and produce a lot of emissions..

I hope that people will continue visiting Nepal and enjoy the beautiful nature and hopefully the money the tourists spent will be used to improve the situation of the country.

But instead of writing too much, I will show some photos to give an impression of our trip.

Kathmandu

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Pokhara

Trekking to Annapurna Base Camp

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Chitwan National Park

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Published on Leave a comment on Alpine Crossing 2013 – Day 15: Gran Paradiso

Today we got up at 4am… It was still dark when we started to Gran Paradiso. There were quite a lot of people which had the same destination today… At the beginning we were quite fast. At about 3700m my feet became quite cold – even if we were moving all the time… Lisa had the same problem. Exactly the same we experienced last year when we climbed the Finsteraarhorn. There we thought it was just because it was terribly cold that morning. This morning was different and still we had cold feet. Probably our shoes have a bad temperature isolation…anyway :) Up to the last 100m going upwards was like taking a walk in the snow :) The glacier was completely covered with snow and everything was frozen. So we had no troubles with crevasses. Also the height we almost didn’t feel. The last 100m were very steep and the panorama to the other side opened. We were able to see the Monte Rosa Massife and the Matterhorn. Unfortunately the summit was quite crowded. At the very top is a Madonna statue located. A quite narrow ridge leads to this statue and all the time people want to go to and away from the Madonna. From the ridge it goes downwards almost vertically…hard to say how far but if one falls down he won’t survive for sure. This was the worst part but we finally made it to the Madonna statue and back :) The descent was very quick and much easier. Meanwhile the sun came out and made the snow  getting soft so that we could partly slide down the way. At 12 o’clock we were back at the hut and enjoyed some pasta. After another hour in the sun we climbed down to a small Rifugio on 2000m. From here we will continue tomorrow :)

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Published on Leave a comment on Alpine Crossing 2013 – Day 11: Refuge de Requin – Courmayeur

What a great day! We got up at 6. After a quick breakfast, packing and putting on all the equipment we left the hut at 7:15. The first thing was to pass the ice fall which was to the right approx. 200m above our heads. We asked the guide if we should wear the helmet. He just smiled and said: If you feel better…. :-) But if this comes down you don’t need a helmet ;-) And so we quickly crossed the ice fall and luckily no ice and no stones came down at this time – probably also because it was still quite early. The next thing to pass were some big crevasses which were partly still covered with snow. Parts we had to go in parallel to the crevasses what actually created a strange feeling because you never know what is under your feet. After 2 hours the critical parts were done. Then we could fully enjoy walking on the glacier. There were still some crevasses but they were not so big. After 4:30 hours we finally arrived at Rif. Turino which is already in Italy. There were quite some people around which all came up with the cable car. From this hut (~3300m) we planned to climb down to Courmayeur. Unfortunately the path down to the middle station of the cable car was too dangerous since it is very steep and there is still lots of snow. Our guide recommended us to take the cable car at least to the middle station. From the middle station it was approx. 90 minutes by foot to Courmayeur. Here we found a quite nice and cheap one star hotel :-) For dinner we had a huge pizza :-)

Published on Leave a comment on Alpine Crossing 2013 – Day 10: Montenvers – Refuge de Requin

Today we got up at 7am. We had a typical french breakfast – a croissant and a coffee :-) After reorganizing and packing the bag again we met Gianni – our guide – at 8:20 at the train station. At first we climb down a via ferrata 300m until we reach the glacier Mer de Glace. The ice is melting very quickly – so every year the ladders of the via ferrata have to be extended by several meters. On the glacier we put on the crampons and the rope. At the beginning the glacier is not very steep. Later this changes and a labyrinth of crevasses opens up. We now need much more time to find our way. Some crevasses are 2 meters wide and hundreds of meters deep. We cannot see down to the ground. It is like a black hole – scary… Some crevasses are still covered by snow. The snow forms a bridge across the crevasses which may or may not carry ones weight…you never know… After 4 hours walking on the glacier we do a short break and then go another via ferrata upwards. After an hour we climbed about 400m and finally arrived at the hut. Several hours we still had the quite strong sun before another thunderstorm arrived. From the hut we have a great view on the ice fall.

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