THE HÖCKENHORN DAWN HIKE
PHOTOS BY DAVE GARDNER & MARK HUTTON .

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Whilst in Switzerland we like to get everyone in the group to hike to the top of a peek.  There is nothing special about this.  We just want everyone to go home with a bit of a sense of achievement.  Getting to the top of a peek can give us this sense of achievement.  And the route up is normally a tad more exciting than Rambling in the valleys.
Group two about to start walking

 The first peek we climbed this year was called First.  For our younger scouts First is a very big peek with steep paths at the top.  For a young scout this gives a great achievement.

Group one admire our destination.  
But for a Venture Scout or leaders, First is no great challenge.  Sure, its a long long way up and the paths are very narrow and steep.  and sure, the view from the top is impressive, but most of us have done it all before.  

Venture Scouts these days want something a little more challenging.

 So not wanting our leaders and Ventures to get bored, or to let them think that hiking is boring we devise hikes that will stretch them a little.  Hiking up the Hockenhorn in time for dawn is designed to give all the Venture Scouts and leaders a sense of achievement.  It's a hike that will test them a little.

Some of the stupidly enthusiastic leaders and Ventures found this a little too easy and went on to do the Rinderhorn a week later but for most, this was as difficult as they come.

By the end of camp we had completed three peeks for the three ability groups.  First for the scouts, the Hockenhorn for the Ventures and older Scouts and the Rinderhorn for the mad leaders.

The first snow field.

 The peek of the Hockenhorn is about 2 hours walk away from the Lötchenpass Hütte.  We generally take the whole group up to the Lotchenpass Hutte as an overnight hike.

The snow is about to get steep.  The sun is starting to illuminate the sky. Yes that is a star - top right.
 It gives our scouts a change of walking on a Glacier and they get to spend the night in a high altitude hut.  Both of these are requirements for the Kandersteg International Scout Center High Adventure Award.

 We also take time out to teach scouts how to use ice axes.

 Then at about 3:00 am those going up the Hockenhorn, nip out and are back in time for breakfast!

As Scout Leader I wanted to give as many of my scouts as possible the opportunity of getting to the top of the peek.  However, it is not an easy hike and the safety of people in the group is our highest priority.  For this reason a couple of the fitter Scouts were not allowed to go as time and again they showed that they were less than mature, a liability and potentially a danger to others.  Maybe next time.

In the end two groups went up the Hockenhorn, separated by five minutes.

We got up at about 3am but for various reasons didn't actually manage to leave until after 3:30.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky so we could see so many more stars, than you can in Romford.

Shortly before dawn, just before the last steep ascent.
We will do that one in three years time!
 Five minutes after starting the youngest  member of the party felt ill and had to turn back.   The first part of the route is a gentle climb across rocky ground.  Eventually we hit a reasonably flat but very slippery snow field.  The top layer of snow had frozen solid over night.

 The picture below was taken from near the top of the Hockenhorn looking West back towards our hut.  The small mountain in the center of the picture is the little Hockenhorn.  We walked across the snow field just to the right of it.

The sun makes odd colours in the nights sky as it rises.  Our altitude here is over 3000m. 
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