During February 2020 this page was refreshed and re-published. It had been absent from our website for a decade or more. It was always the intention to restore it but doing so was always a long way down the to-do list. The original pages were some of the earliest published on the 3GP web site and so dated from the time when the web site was by Venture Scouts and for Venture Scouts and therefore not always appropriate for parents to see. Not that any parents had internet access in those days.

Nobody is entirely sure when work on the 3GP website started. The domain name was registered in the summer of the year 2000 but the original version of this page was on the web before then.

Summer Camp Switzerland 1996

The above photo was taken from the Golitschen Chesery (Alt 1832m) At this time, the four members of the Venture Unit in the picture below were on a Queens Scout Expedition. The picture was taken to commemorate the fact that we had just walked up to the cheesery. A climb of 652m from the valley floor.

24 years later, all three warranted leaders depicted in the above picture had retired but still have some links to the group. Five of the Venture Scouts went on to become warranted leaders but 24 years later only two of those are still active in the group.

L to R: James Logan, Dave Gardner, Ross Denton, Mr X

The camp site in Kandersteg is in a steep glacial valley. During the summer around 800 scouts from all over the world will be staying on the campsite at any one time.

The Scouts and Ventures had travelled to camp on the overnight train. Our kit had been driven out by a leader and unloaded onto our camp site.

After hardly any sleep as the train travelled through Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland we had to pitch our tents and gather wood for the first night's meal.

At 3rd Gidea Park we're real scouts and hence cook on open fires everyday for both breakfast and dinner. 

Pictured is the ventures kitchen shelter (above), a laid back social centre where the work almost seems to take care of itself.  A harsh contrast is the lowly scouts kitchen shelter (below).  The scouts were misguided by an older group of lazy ventures who treated these boys like slaves.

[With the benefit of a quarter of a century's hindsight I would say that those "Older Ventures" learnt a lot about Scout Leadership from that camp. One obvious change is that we would never let a Scout cook in flip flops these days!]

Swiss National Day is held on August 1st and is a day where the whole campsite comes together in joint activities.  The day starts early when the campsite staff wake everyone on the campsite by banging pots and pans outside your tents.  Expert revellers will attempt to counter this by staying up late the night before and sleeping through it.  Once awake, everyone on the site has breakfast on the sports field (above).

THE DUCKING STOOL (Nicki gets a good ducking)

One of our first hikes is to Lake Oschinese.  The lake is formed by glacier melt and is therefore very cold.  Once the scouts arrive they must swim in the lake as part of the high adventure award.

Far left: Climbing up the steep valley sides.
Left: A short stop at the bridge.
  

Above is the whole group on the bridge. We take a picture here every year. At this point the group had just climbed 336m from the valley floor in a little under 1km

For three members of our group, 983m on day 1 wasn't enough. After lunch they decided to add an excursion to the Frunedenhutte (altitude 2561m) which is 1039m above the lake and giving them a total of 2022m ascent for the first day. Below is the frankly insane gradient profile for the first day warm up hike conducted by three of the oldest (and most show offy) Venture Scouts. 20k long.

CHEESERY AND MOUNT FIRST HIKE

Once the group is a little more used to walking up big hills with very little food provided we hike to the cheesery and Mount First. Pictured left is the group in the valley before the ascent really starts. In 1993 when we reached the top of First, we met some crazy guy who had started many hours after us and run all the way to the top, where as we got the cable car some of the way!

Above the summit of Stand (alt 2321m) after we had climbed 1149m from the valley floor which is more than the total height of Snowdon. We then descended 40m before climbing up First. Total ascent for the day, 1418m which is of course more than Ben Nevis.

Below Left, Pondering the view from the top of First. (Alt 2548m)
Right: Everyone at the top of First (minus the people with no pluck who went swimming instead)

Above is the Gradient profile for the Stand / First hike to the top of the cable car used to get down. There would have been a flat k or so back to camp at the end. 1418m ascent and a total of just over 10k. There were plenty of Scouts of all ages on this hike.

Years later, two of our leaders were on a Romford District mountain leader training weekend in Wales where we had to hike a 3.8km route with a total ascent of 287m. Some of the participants could not comprehend that at 3GP we would dare to take Scouts on a hike with a 287m ascent. This Swiss hike was five times more ascent and well over twice as long. The highest point was five times the altitude of that Welsh bimble. To be fair these 1996 Scouts were given a couple of days and one hike to acclimatise.

Above: The Lotschegletscher from the est moraine. In 1987 this was covered in deep snow an our Guide led us right up the centre.

Above: Starting the final ascent to the hut.

The glacier hike is the highest that most of the group will reach during their stay at Kandersteg.  The hike stops for one night in the Lotschenpass Hut (Alt 2691m) situated on the Lotschen Glacier itself.  The hut may look small from the outside but it sleeps 35 people on the floor of the loft. In 1996, the main group hiked to the hut where they met up with four adventurers who were on a four day Queen Scout Award hike.  It was decided that those members of the party with a little pluck should get up at 3am and attempt to climb the Hockenhorn (3293m) in time to be back at the hut for breakfast. Pictured left is the Lotschen Hut. Below we teaching Scouts to use Ice Axes.

Below: One of the Scouts practices his ice axe skills near the hut.

Above: Nicki Hare reaches the end of a snow field and tries to avoid falling between the snow and the rock.

The Hockenhorn was a first for this generation of 3rd Gidea Park Scouts. Many of the party had been to Kandersteg before and gone through the usual motions, including the attraction known as Blausee. However in 1996 Andy Jones decided that we should have a go at something new and so off we went at 3am in the pitch dark onto a mountain and promptly got lost. Well some older members of the RVU may deny we were ever lost, but the younger members know we were. The saying older and wiser was disproved on this hike by Andy Lannin who went without an ice axe, preferring instead a state-of-the-art half an old walking pole. Well we did finally manage to get to the top just as the sun came up, which was nice.

This picture below shows the ice field at approximately 3050m altitude just after sunrise. The pointy summit is Kleinhockenhorn and the larger summit behind is the Hockenhorn itself. Our route would take us directly across the ice before heading up the left ridge to the summit.

Above, Andy Points to the sun just before the last ascent to the summit.

Above: The view from the Hockenhorn south to Goppenstein 2000m below. The Weisshorn (4506m) is on the right in the distance.

Close up of the Weisshorn and the Matterhorn to its right.

The above picture was taken at the saddle between the Hockenhorn and its child on the way back down. The Mountain in the background is the Balmhorn (3698m) It would be 2003 before 3rd Gidea Park got up there. We had a couple of more visits to the Hockenhorn first.

We descended to the hut where we met the rest of 3GP. What followed was a 1300m decent in about 5k to Ferden and a bus ride to Goppenstein from where the train was taken back to Kandersteg. The Scouts in 2006 walked the extra 3.5k all the way to Goppenstein but they were a mad bunch.

Someone tipped our leaders off about Burgholz Quarry for our 1990 trip to to Kandersteg. It's a disused quarry located about 30km from Kandersteg and crucially just 1k from a railway station. Typically one vehicle drives to the quarry containing lunch and as many adults as possible. One leader draws the short straw (See Malcolm's face below) and accompanies the Scouts on the train. We catch the train from Kandersteg down to Spiez and then change onto a branch train which follows the route of the "Golden Pass Line" to Burgholz. The trouble is that Burgholz station is a request stop. What normally happens is, we get on the train and then realise none of us can remember the name of the station or how long the train runs for before we need to request the stop. Anyone who has been there before (normally just once and three years previously) has to stick a head out of the window and see if they can recognise a landscape that looks vaguely familliar before pressing the stop button.

The good thing about the quarry is that it seems to have been adopted for climbing with some bolted belay points and plenty of trees to use for setting up climbs. There is a also a handy shelter for lunch. Handy because the altitude is just 750m and the quarry is SW facing. As such it is a sun trap and very hot.

By the time we arrive, lunch is normally prepped and served while leaders and Ventures set up the climbs.

After a good day's climbing, and a downpour, 3GP take over the entire station. Task 1, work out how to stop the train at a swiss request stop.

So after the first pitch has been climbed by all, our guide decided that we were incompetent climbers who had all spent too long in the Alpine Rose the night before.  The rest of the route was climbed "alpine style" up an easier gradient.  This means that two people get roped together so if one falls off, he takes his mate with him (joke).  The idea is to always have a bit of protection (climbing term for wedge shaped pieced of metal fitted into the rock) on the rope so that if one falls, no one falls.  However, Ross and Dave being the best climbers and so at the back, tended to get handed pieces of kit by people saying "erm... this one fell out as well, sorry!"

Picture Above - For most of the day, there was no way I was going to be fiddling with a camera. We were all clinging to the rock for dear life! This was taken near the end of the steep Alpine Climbing section as it started to level off, it looks almost tame from there. Cracking photo though!

As the weakest climber I was in the lead pair with Warren our guide for the day. This section was where it started to become slightly less steep but footholds and hand holds became looser. I was sitting on this slope clinging to a rock with one hand attempting to take pictures with the other and trying desperately to cling to the mountain with my back side!.

The middle pair were Andy and Jem. They simply had to follow us and not knock the belay gear out of the rock. They succeeded with the former task and failed with the latter. But by this stage there wasn't really anywhere Warren could securely position any gear. Behind Jem you can see our final pair consisting of Dave and Ross, our strongest climbers.

Above - Dave our last climber. By this stage it was starting to level off. Its almost a path that! Cracking photo though!

The top of Ortelehore and the end of our climb. "H-U-Z-Z-A, Huzza Huzza Huzza Zey!" The climb had been approximately 180m. We now had the small matter of a 1400m descent to make... and Jem needs the toilet and there is literally nowhere to hide!

[So much for very soon. I'm writing this 20 years later, it was a celebration of ten years of Beavers being officially part of the Scout Movement in the uk. Each colony had to make a flag and get it photographed in interesting places over the summer. We took the 3GP flag up mountains everywhere. Dorothy being a retired Akela and member of the district Cub team had friends in other groups and agreed to take the 1st Romford flag with us. Note, when both flags are depicted together, the 3GP one is always highest. (Little victories...)]

The Summit of Gallihore.

During camp there is normally one or two photos that turn out to be absolute corkers.  This picture of Ross is a fine example of a corker.  The infamous "Ross in Raincoat" picture which Ross has never quite been able to forget. After a hard days walking there is nothing quite like a relaxing beer at one of the local establishments, for those that are old enough - of course (see below.) Left: "Ross in Raincoat" Below right: Ross sports casual catalogue pose. Below Left: Dave sinks his fourteenth (usual lunchtime then).

Andy Lannin with "those sunglasses" shortly before he lost them

Jem gets dressed up.

The Man Himself

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Although a lot of time in Kandersteg is spent hiking, there are many other activities that are undertaken as well.

One day the troop did a hike with a difference - they hiked to a waterfall instead of up a mountain. Pictured left are the troop approaching the waterfall and then actually in the waterfall!

A visit to a swimming pool always makes a good day out. This open air swimming pool had many different pools, slides and attractions. On the left you can just make out the rapids pool which is the pool with the large bend in it.

The trip to Blausee is an experience although in 1996 some members suggested that a third trip was perhaps unnecessary. This was because some of the troop had been to Kandersteg twice before with the Scouts.

3rd Gidea Park Scouts and Ventures take on the world - and lose (although they did do a lot better then the bookies anticipated.)

The camp site in Kandersteg is in a steep glacial valley. During the summer around 800 scouts from all over the world will be staying on the campsite at any one time.

The Scouts and Ventures had travelled to camp on the overnight train. Our kit had been driven out by a leader and unloaded onto our camp site.

After hardly any sleep as the train travelled through Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland we had to pitch our tents and gather wood for the first night's meal.

At 3rd Gidea Park we're real scouts and hence cook on open fires everyday for both breakfast and dinner. 

Pictured is the ventures kitchen shelter (above), a laid back social centre where the work almost seems to take care of itself.  A harsh contrast is the lowly scouts kitchen shelter (below).  The scouts were misguided by an older group of lazy ventures who treated these boys like slaves.

[With the benefit of a quarter of a century's hindsight I would say that those "Older Ventures" learnt a lot about Scout Leadership from that camp. One obvious change is that we would never let a Scout cook in flip flops these days!]

At 3GP we love a good expedition and 1996 was no exception. Four Venture Scouts embarked on a high altitude four day Queens Scout Award Expedition. Regrettably there is no log in our archives so we know very little about it except that they met the rest of the group at the Lotchenhutte for the last night. But as we know, they didn't cross any snow because that wouldn't be allowed.

ABOVE: Outside the KISC office.

ABOVE - Any modern 3GP Scout would point out the tenderfoot (Trousers?)

ABOVE: This looks like the Inner Uschenne looking towards Kandersteg.

ABOVE: This could be near Gallihore

ABOVE: It may be looking towards the Schwarzgratli.

ABOVE: this may be Leukerbad at the South end of the Gemmi Pass.