2003 - the DHO

As we admired the view, the wind rose steadily drawing clouds
up from the valley floor. We removed skins and skied down, our
success lay in having created skiing for ourselves to the envy of
others who got no skiing that day and went in for a proper
lunch. No one was keen to leave to face the elements again, but
at Adolf's insistence we did. In the complete 'white-out', it was
difficult to know how he managed to guide us to within a few
yards of our intended destinations. But he did, and continued to
do so for the rest of the week in a dazzling display of
professional guiding.
Tuesday
A sunny day created much enthusiasm and we set out to return
to the Jochpass ridge of the previous day. We passed over the
same slopes via cable car and chairs, this time being able to see
a beautifully pristine snow covered world on the way, which
made up for the disappointments of the previous day.
From the ridge we skied down and past the Engstenalp chair
and off the piste map to a frozen lake the Engstlensee. Here we
donned skins, and tramped for half an hour across the flat
corner of the lake, whilst watching an Ibex family being
harassed by a fox. He appeared to be making continuous
circular tracks in the hope of driving one of the agile creatures
of the edge of the nearest cliff. Having made the lakeshore we
set off up the Schafftal Valley into a silent world of spectacular
mountain scenery.
We climbed for 4 hours with a break for lunch, which also
entailed long discussion asto which valley in the far distance
contained Wengen. Clivc Mitchell produced a bottle of
Fendant, but the game was up when it appeared he had only
brought one glass. Sarah Edmonds worried incessantly how her
hat looked; she liked it but daughter Anna didn't and had
banned its use. We all agreed it was wonderful.
©
2003
The ski down was glorious in the most perfect snow, producing
parallel tracks which convinced us all that we were better skiers
than we really were. John Rigby stayed at the back to pick up
stragglers, was it because he was out of breath, or that he
wanted his perfectly carved turns to be noticed as he caught up?
By the time wc had tramped the ice on the Lake and climbed to
the Engstenalp Chair, we knew we had had a good physical day
in the best surroundings. But even better was the run down
from Trubsee, in wonderful snow conditions on a wide curving
track giving the boys a marvellous chance to show off in front
of the girls. The latter unanimously decided the average male
age had suddenly dropped very quickly. Near the bottom we
stopped at the Bergrestaurant Untertrubsee, and had such a
good time we missed the last bus and had to walk back to the
Hotel!
Wednesday
The next morning we reluctantly abandoned our sociable hotel
to face a journey to our hut in a world obscured by low cloud
and falling snow.
We drove for an hour to the hamlet of Fell via Wolfenschiessen,
where we piled into a small private cablecar which took us up
to Bannalp, which whilst at some distance from Engleberg is the
next main valley on the north east side. From here we skied
down to our Hut, the Berggasthaus Urnerstaffel. This was a
much larger and grander affair than had been suggested in the
idle conversation at the Hotel bar on previous evenings. Even
better we found we were between winter and summer seasons
with an empty hut with a choice of single, double, or
dormitory accommodation. There were showers and hot water,
a well stocked bar, and plenty of good food. What luxury, these
Continentals appear to know a thing or two.
Within half an hour our skins were on and we started up the
middle ridge in pristine snow, with cloud now rising above us,
and with an increasing temperature encouraged us to strip to
minimum clothing for the first time, such a contrast to previous
days. Our target was the Bannalper-Schonegg Ridge 2,250 m,
the route summer walkers take on a full days hike to Engelberg
in the far distance.
We passed through interesting land marks, Rosboden (Horse
Meadow) a lovely softly curved hill with little exposed rock;
SteinDorf (Stone Village) where fascinating and variedly shaped
large rocks pierced through the snow. In the final event we
made it only to within some 200 meters of the ridge when Sally
Ireland's binding irreparably broke for walking purposes next
to Church Rock at the end of the Stone Village. We were forced
to return, skiing down by a different route pre-planned by
Adolf, which involved several interesting detours and curves
around small cliffs and large boulders on the East Side of the
valley. Then minus, the unfortunate Sally, we then donned skis
again and descended to the Bannalpsee lake in ever improving
weather, followed by a very pleasant trek back through fir trees
and evening sunshine to the hut.