2009 - D T Price - the DHO

D.H.O Walking Week 2008
Michael Oliver
Downhill only Journal 2009
Until September 2008 I had only ever visited Wengen in the winter and was looking forward to seeing it verdant
and green. However, when I arrived it was raining, misty, and there was a sprinkling of snow on the trees not much
further up the mountain! Fortunately that was as bad as it got and the weather improved throughout the week.
There were twelve of us booked into the Sunstar and we were
joined on most days by other club members who had their own
places in the village. On the Monday twenty-two of us met for
lunch in the Männlichen restaurant!
The week started with a relatively easy walk on the Sunday. In
a very fine drizzle, and with poor visibility, we walked down to
Lauterbrunnen which had the benefit of being below the clouds!
After a leisurely coffee we followed the road up to Isenfluh,
where we had an even more leisurely lunch, before carrying on
up to Grütschalp. There were several viewing points on the
way but unfortunately no views! From there it was back to
Wengen by cablecar and train.
On the Tuesday several of us did two walks, either side of
the “walking the cows” ceremony. This is when some of
the villagers dress in traditional costume and walk the cows
down to Lauterbrunnen for the winter. The cows themselves
were decorated with flowers and huge bells and it was quite a
spectacle, though I suspect it is put on mainly for the benefit
of a handful of tourists. One cow broke ranks and tried to go
into the Co-op – she must have heard about the special offer on
the moosli!
After this we had a picnic lunch on the train to Eigergletscher
and followed the Eiger trail down to Alpiglen. The conditions
made this a dramatic walk, with quite deep snow in places and
the famous north face appearing and disappearing in the clouds.
We also saw a spectacular waterfall, a taster for those in the
group that went to the Trümmelbach Falls the following day.
If I thought Tuesday was good, which I certainly did, Wednesday
was even better and undoubtedly the highlight of my week.
Trusting the weather forecast which said it was going to be a
bright sunny day five of us met for breakfast at 7.00am before
catching an early train down to Wilderswil. From there we
took a quaint old mountain train up to Schynige Platte, a place
that had completely passed me by until this week. We were
going to walk to First, and knew from the signs at Schynige
Platte that we had to reach there by 5.00pm, when the last
bubble descended. This gave us more than seven hours, which
proved to be ample.
The forecast was correct and it wasn’t long before we stripped
down to short-sleeved shirts and shorts for the first time in
the week. The first part of the walk was in alpine meadow,
with great views of Interlaken and Lake Brienz. We also got
an outstanding view of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau soon
after. The terrain became quite rocky for a while before we
started our ascent of the Faulhorn. While not particularly
steep this was long, and made more difficult by the amount
of snow on the ground. Still, once we’d made it, it was more
or less downhill all the way to First. We dropped below the
snowline, walked along the edge of two lakes and saw (and
heard!) marmots gambolling in the meadows before eventually
reaching the bubble lift. A fantastic day, with a huge variety of
scenery and plenty of marvellous views. And the company was
great as well!
As usual in Wengen the social life was busy. On the Wednesday
Roger and Sarah Hoyle gave a drinks party and on Thursday
the D.H.O invited many friends from the village to a social
evening in the hut. On Friday Suzi Fuchs invited us to her
apartment for a few glasses of wine after she had led a walk
from Gimmelwald to Chilchbalm and back down to Stechelberg
for a late lunch. This walk was interrupted for a few minutes
to let a herd of pigs come past on a narrow forest track! In
addition to the organised affairs some of us felt that it was our
duty to ensure that Jeremy’s ownership of Rocks bar would be
a successful one!
My “easy” day was Thursday, when Martin and I walked
up the Männlichen. Somehow we managed to take a wrong
turning on the way up, but this meant that we saw a tree being
felled at fairly close proximity. Close enough to make us run
when it hit the ground anyway! The route we took was short
and steep so we stopped regularly “to admire the views”. We
also walked through the avalanche prevention barriers, which
are much bigger than they appear from the cablecar. We were
back down by early afternoon and helped get the hut ready for
the evening.
This holiday seems to be an annual event now, and I can
thoroughly recommend it. The atmosphere is very relaxed
and no-one is put under any pressure to do anything that they
don’t want to. On most days we didn’t decide what walk we
would do until that morning’s breakfast and there were usually
at least two groups doing different things each day. The routes
themselves were well signposted and easy to follow – easier
than the maps in my opinion! I’ll definitely be back for more,
and may even get to go up to Jungfraujoch next time.
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