The 'ard group!
Hard hike - BlumisalpHutte
by Rob Nichols
After the tobogganing, my Group which consisted of Andy B, Andy P, Dave G, Lee J, Gavin J, Andy H, Rob and Barry Neal, James Bewley and me plus the Leaders - Pete and Robin - walked for about 10 minutes, then found a big rock and sat down for a Group photo. Nearly everyone wanted a photo so everyone gave a camera to Pete - he was about to take a photo when a lost Lambert walked up to us. We immediately made him take the photo of us. After this we had our lunch and set off up the first mountain. This was quite exhausting, so we stopped at a clear stream and filled up our water bottles and walked on. We soon got a good view of Oeschinsee Lake from where we saw the other Groups at the bottom.
We carried on until we got to a viewpoint where we could see the FrundenHutte which is where the medium Group were staying. We then walked on and then we could see our hut - the BlumisalpHutte. It looked miles away. We soon got to a little village of small huts - this sold drinks and everything but we didn’t stop. We carried on and then it started to get harder. We started walking up towards the hut. We stopped on a ridge and here we heard the sound of ice cracking. We saw large boulders of ice falling down from the glaciers opposite.
We carried on and soon got to a hill which looked impossible. We slowly made our way up, stopping after about 20 steps. We soon got to a big bit of ice so some of the group started to play on it. Robin decided he would slide down, but this all went wrong when he couldn’t stop. He hit a rock and shouted and swore as loud as possible. After he recovered we kept on walking and got to a flat piece of land - here we could see the hut as clear as the blue sky behind it. A sign said it would take 10 minutes to get to the hut. We started walking up the winding path and after a while it seemed like a lifetime. Andy Penneck who had forgotten his water bottle suffered from heat exhaustion and took much longer to get there, because he forgot to tell anyone that he didn’t have anything to drink.
We finally got to the top and collapsed. We bolted in and went to our room. It was a room with a big shelf which was a big long bed. Underneath was also a big bed. We put our stuff down then went down to make dinner. Dinner was pasta with chicken. It was quite nice. We then watched a thunderstorm and then went and played cards. This lasted for an hour then we had a bottle of coke between 6 of us which was nearly a tenner. We carried on then and we went to bed at 9:30 p.m. We watched the lightning from our room then went to sleep.
Tuesday, 20th August, 1996 - Wednesday 21st
Medium hike - FreundenHutte
by Scott Davies
We got up at 8 o’clock and prepared for the hike and had breakfast, which was cereal. Our Patrol (Jon’s) had to make breakfast for the following day. We had to pour milk into small Happy Shopper drink bottles. Jon had a lot of trouble pouring the milk into the bottles. He spilt half a pint on the table.
Then we set off for the hike in our Groups and walked into Kandersteg and caught the chairlift up to toboggan slides. We all went round once. After that time round we knew who the slow Scouts are. Both of the two slow Scouts were part of Jumpers. Spud and Lambardo both had a queue of 3 people once everybody had gone once - 4 or 5 people went again. BUT they had to pay for themselves.
Then we started to walk up to the mountain huts. We found that Steve Adams, Jordan Wright, Lambardo Garth Ward had walked off in the wrong Group, but luckily we found them again. We set off in our 2 Groups. Steve Fenn’s Group had a group of mixed abilities with me Scott, Jordan, Jon who were quite fast, James who was medium and Lambardo and Steve Adams who were slowish. When we got to the mountain hut we all flopped on our beds. After about 5 minutes we decided to play cards. About 8:30 we had dinner which was soup, followed by pasta with some crap tea. Then we went to play cards again, then we went to bed - well we tried to, because the Germans next door kept turning the lights on and off.
Wednesday - Some Scouts woke up at 7:30 and some at 4:00 because of a stupid helicopter landing at the back of the mountain hut. Most of the Scouts who woke up at 4:00 o’clock went back to sleep and got up on time except Jon Neal who was counting sheep whilst everybody was getting up. He woke up when we took his pillow away. We went to have breakfast. We had bread and a pot of jam. Whilst there, there was a camera crew who had a cooked breakfast. We set off at 9:30 am on our way down the mountain. It took us about 2 hours to get down to the lake. We met the top Group down at the lake. The walk down the hill from the lake to the campsite took us about 1 hour down a very, very steep hill. When we got back some people started to walk down to the swimming pool which was a 30 minute walk. It started raining so they came back and by that time it was time for tea. After tea we had a volley ball league. There was no winner but a two-man team consisting of Barry Neal and James B beat Owls 7 -5. We had an early night which was at 10:00 p.m.
We carried on until we got to a viewpoint where we could see the FrundenHutte which is where the medium Group were staying. We then walked on and then we could see our hut - the BlumisalpHutte. It looked miles away. We soon got to a little village of small huts - this sold drinks and everything but we didn’t stop. We carried on and then it started to get harder. We started walking up towards the hut. We stopped on a ridge and here we heard the sound of ice cracking. We saw large boulders of ice falling down from the glaciers opposite.
We carried on and soon got to a hill which looked impossible. We slowly made our way up, stopping after about 20 steps. We soon got to a big bit of ice so some of the group started to play on it. Robin decided he would slide down, but this all went wrong when he couldn’t stop. He hit a rock and shouted and swore as loud as possible. After he recovered we kept on walking and got to a flat piece of land - here we could see the hut as clear as the blue sky behind it. A sign said it would take 10 minutes to get to the hut. We started walking up the winding path and after a while it seemed like a lifetime. Andy Penneck who had forgotten his water bottle suffered from heat exhaustion and took much longer to get there, because he forgot to tell anyone that he didn’t have anything to drink.
We finally got to the top and collapsed. We bolted in and went to our room. It was a room with a big shelf which was a big long bed. Underneath was also a big bed. We put our stuff down then went down to make dinner. Dinner was pasta with chicken. It was quite nice. We then watched a thunderstorm and then went and played cards. This lasted for an hour then we had a bottle of coke between 6 of us which was nearly a tenner. We carried on then and we went to bed at 9:30 p.m. We watched the lightning from our room then went to sleep.