Allmenalp Via Ferrata, Fründenhütte and Hohtürli (25.-26. August 2007)

Team: Andy, Marcel, Isabelle

Saturday

We took the train to Kandersteg, walked to the start of the via ferrata and started the 350 metres of ascent. It was my second time on this route and I never got any kind of anxiousness or whatever due to the height. It was however a very warm day and I for my part was sweating like a pig!

Climbing aided by iron bars

Marcel (it was his first via ferrata) and Isabelle were both pleased about the route. From the end of the climb a path led up to the top station of the cablecar where we had a well deserved late lunch. We then took the cable car down to save some time and started our ascent towards the Fründen hut. The sun was beating down as we followed a path through scattered coniferous trees and shrubs. I suddenly caught a movement near the edge of the gravel trail and then we all saw a European adder (Vipera berus) slithering away. The reptile was beautifully patterned, just way too fast for a picture! Sorry guys!
We were sweating profusely and felt thoroughly cooked when we got to the Oeschinensee. I was amazed to see such a number of rowing boats on the lake and heaps of day tourists hanging around the shore. The lake was set in a magnificent scenery indeed. The far side consisted of a sheer cliff, the remainder was surrounded by rocky beaches and stands of coniferous trees. We had a short break, took off our boots and stood into the cold water of the lake. We then continued uphill.

Isabelle tramping on the way to the Fründen hut with the Oeschinensee in the background.

Some flags on the top of a knob high above indicated the position of the hut.
We ran out of water about 3/4 up and felt pretty exhausted when we finally arrived a the hut. No wonder as our total ascent was around 1800m under very hot conditions.
Maggie came out to greet us, however, she had not much time and soon shot off to the kitchen again. Then it was already time for dinner, delcious and plentiful as usual in such huts. Having eaten so much I was in need of a stroll to help digestion. Thus Isabelle and I went after that geocache that is hidden in a cairn about 180 metres from the hut.
Shortly afterwards Marcel and I decided to have a sun-downer (coffee with schnapps and whipped cream). It was a calm evening and we just sat there enjoying the scenery and marvelling about past tramps and those yet to come.


Sunday

Marcel stayed at the hut to hang out with Maggie. Isabelle and I planned to go over the Hohtürli Pass into the Kiental. There was a trail crossing along a grassy, narrow and exposed ledge to the other side of the valley high above the lake. We had read the route description the day before: it was rated T5 (most extreme of the hiking trail rating) but the exposed sections were said to be fitted with steel cables. We decided to give it a shot and descended around 400 metres to where the route took off. We put on the via ferrata gear and headed off. When we got onto that grassy, steep strip I was feeling somewhat uneasy. It is one thing to climb using a rope or doing a via ferrata where you clip into the cable. It's a totally different thing to walk on a path as wide as a foots length on a slope with a drop of a few hundred metres below. We then came upon a recent slip, maybe 15m wide where all the grass was gone, and so was the 'trail'. A few slanting foot prints indicated where some other people had crossed and just a few centimetres further down the was no dirt left but only a smooth rock for a few metres downhill, then followed some rubble and then the cliff! This was dodgy as. To cross here you'd have to be either extremely brave or extremely stupid. I felt like neither and we decided to abandon this plan. Especially because we had not knowledge about the rest of the route, maybe the worst was yet to come? We had to retrace our steps and then descend all the way to the lake, then start the ascent on the other side again.

The Oeschinen lake in the morning.

It was a very hot day again and we sweated a lot as we made our way towards the pass. I gave a shot at quick ascending and managed to do an average of 14m per minutes according to my GPS (that's 840 m/h). On the way we lifted another geocache and came to the top (Hohtürli) after a relentless track up some steep scree slope. Another 60m climb brought us to the Bluemlisalp hut where we had some lunch. The total ascent was now 1200 metres.
We then started another downhill part. The first section was pretty steep and we fell into a smooth jog that had us cover 800 metres downhill in 30 minutes.

Cairn on the way to the Griesalp.

By the time we got to the Griesalp, we had accumulated a daily total of 2600 metres downhill!
From here we took one of the two little buses that left for Reichenbach, both crammed to the limit! I had always been under the impression that one needed to travel to e.g. India to see such scenes, but I have been mistaken! It was impossible to fall anywhere, there was simply no room for that, which was good as was well cause this route is the steepest bus route in the whole of Europe! Well worth every cent of it!!!