Bernese Alps (Switzerland), 20-28 August 2017


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Day 7. Hollandiahütte refuge - Grosser Aletschfirn glacier - Konkordiaplatz

We got up quite early but decided to wait for the rain to stop before leaving the refuge. We set up belays on the descent to the glacier, so it took us a long time to get down. It would have been better to get down without belay, as there were two crevasse mazes lower down, we did not realise how long it would take us to get to Konkordiaplatz. The descent on the Grosser Aletschfirn glacier was easy with few crevasses. The first zone of crevasses started where the snow cover on the glacier disappears. This year, there were two areas of crevasse mazes which were difficult to navigate through. We had to jump across fairly wide cracks and cross narrow bridges. We navigated through the second zone via a concave part near the centre of the glacier. The guided groups which we saw going in the opposite direction veered much further right.

The red line shows our track. The arrow shows direction of travel.

The first part of the descent from the refuge is via a ridge, we did not belay here.

Climbing down the via ferrata.

Some people are enjoying good weather...

Waiting in a queue.

Overall we belayed over 100 metres, with two intermediate stations.

An intermediate station

Securely fastened.

It took us around 2 hours to get down to the glacier. We then followed our yesterday's tracks back up to the pass...

An easy descend from the glacier followed a snow-covered glacier with few crevasses. Zoom in to see our refuge on a rock in the centre of the image. The steep glacier on the left was covered with fresh, white snow. We saw rocks falling from this glacier but they could not reach us.

Yasha punched through a snow bridge but his fall was stopped by his backpack. Lova helped him to get out.

A crevasse hidden below a weak snow bridge which Yasha punched through.

We saw two groups walking back and forth at the edge of the snow-covered glacier, near Konkordiaplatz (zoom in to find them). It looked like they were practicing glacier walking - but in reality they were trying to find a way through a crevasse maze. We are walking down the Grosser Aletschfirn glacier, the longest glacier in Europe (23 km). The glacier flows to Konkordiaplatz, then turns right and keeps flowing much further down. The glacier joining Konkordiaplatz from the left is Jungfraufirn, the glaciers flowing down are Ewigschneefäld and Grüneggfirn. Zoom in to find Konкordiahütte refuge on a rock to the right of Grüneggfirn glacier (it is hardly visible).

A piece of chocolate to cheer us up before getting into the first crevasse maze.

Long lateral crevasses cut through the glacier. Some had to be jumped across.

Walkinf around the crevasses is safer but sometimes connecting bridges were quite narrow.

We set up belays for crossing a narrow bridge. We are throwing our rope to another rope team to belay them.

A narrow bridge.


We were surrounded by the crevasses. Sometimes we had to retrace our steps to find a better way, just like in a real maze.

Free at last! The crevasses became fewer and further between and then disappeared altogether.

Well deserved lunch break.

It was getting cold. The sun came out for a minute but then the rain took over.

We camped on the glacier covered with small rocks as originally planned. The ice was right under a thin layer of rocks. We had a kitchen shielded under a huge boulder which protected us from the wind.

Our camping site on Konkordiaplatz. Zoom in to find fresh blue ice on the icefalls on Ewigschneefäld glacier.

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