First Alpine trip account

One of our good customers and friend, Gary Scott, spent time and money in the shop last year gearing up for his first big mountaineering trip to the Alps. He's now been kind enough to drop off a brief synopsis of his trip together with some brilliant photographs. As ever, it's good to see our friends getting on with their sports and that the kit we 'prescribe' for them comes up to scratch in extreme conditions. Gary himself now takes up the story...

"In August 2002, myself, my brother Neill and our father Ged, went to Grindelwald with the aim of climbing three peaks. These were the Monch, the Jungfrau and the Eiger. It was to be our first alpine experience and as it turned out it was an excellent one...

The first time we stepped out of the railway tunnel onto the mountain was breathtaking; it all looked so big. We had geared up in the tunnel and were ready to make our first attempt at the Jungfrau. We roped up and set off across the crevasse field towards the start of the route. We'd been going for about two hours and decided to stop for a drink, when we had our first glimpse of alpine weather conditions. We saw the snow coming, but within a couple of minutes we were completely engulfed, whiteout! Time to turn back, and head for the mountain hut. This was our first time out in these conditions, and with 20 feet of visibility at best, we decided to err on the side of safety.

The Monchjoch hut sleeps 120 people and is a fantastic creation, stuck limpet like to the side of the mountain as our photo shows. 5am next morning was start time for ascent of the Monch. The start of the southwest ridge is only a short walk from the hut, so it wasn't long before we donned crampons and started on the route proper. Being inexperienced British alpinists, we were passed by several teams on the way up as well as the way down. The ridge itself had a well trodden route, as bad weather previous to our arrival meant that a lot of people were wanting to get some climbing done. There were a few belay stakes at the more exposed sections, but it was mainly just a steep climb up the snow. The final section leading to the summit was a quite precarious cornice, which at some places was only a couple of feet thick. VERY SCARY!

Once on the summit the view was incredible, looking above the clouds, seeing far off peaks poking through to the sun. After a couple of minutes of solitude we were joined by about 12 more people – time to descend we thought. Above is a photo of Ged and Neill on the summit before the masses arrived!

Next was the second attempt at the Jungfrau. We set off earlier this time, in order to get the best conditions possible. We took a variation of the start of the route which took us up a large snow slope, this was mainly for crampon and axe experience. About a third of the way up we had a decent break, because the next section meant crossing below an unstable looking bergschrund. We needed to make quick time here, and it took a lot out of us. After the bergschrund , you break through the top of a cornice and traverse on the far side of it. There are belay stakes from here, as it is extremely exposed, with what looked like a 2000 metre drop with no stopping. The final section is unbelievably steep, and again has belay stakes. At this point we hit the height of fear, we had never been as frightened as this, and were glad when we started the descent. The journey back to the valley allowed the heartbeat to slow down eventually.

Sadly,we didn't set foot on the Eiger, as for the three days prior to our planned ascent, it had snowed heavily. General consensus from the other guys in the hut was, no way was anyone going on the mountain in those conditions, so unfortunately we missed out on our main objective of the trip. However, there's always next time and so sometime in the not too distant future we'll be back..."

Gary Scott