Towards the end of the second week, most of the leaders and the
scouts were given a rest day to recover before the overnight glacier hike.
But three of the hardier members of 3rd Gidea Park and Dave's mate Ross had other ideas.
We are here. We are going up there.
We decided to climb a blue route path to the top
of a peek we hadn't done before.
The chair lift.
The peek was called Bier and was perhaps the nearest
peek to Kandersteg. Blue routes are not easy routes so we had never
attempted it before.
We soon discovered that we could get half way up by using the chair
lift. Well we were supposed to be resting!
Stranger still was the fact that the chairlift took us
to a place called lager.
The weather on this day was pants! absolutely pants! But
it gave us a chance to hike in less than perfect summer conditions.
The lads in
the rain.
Resting.
Bier is on the left hand side of the
Oeschenensee valley. We had climbed the right hand side many times
before, but this was our first time on this side.
Occasionally the rain would stop, the clouds would part and we
would over heat. Then the downpour would start again. Initially
we just plodded on regardless.
Being a blue route, some of the paths were a little bit
exciting to say the least. Some bits were made easier by the existence
of cables, attached to the rocks.
However the persistent precipitation didn't make life easier.