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On a wonderful sunny morning we take the train from Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg. From Kleine Scheidegg we walk up to the station Eigergletscher. The view around is fantastic. It looks a bit like a model railway.

At Eigergletscher we start to walk the Eigertrail for around 20 minutes. Then we come to a crossing were we turn left and walk up to the beginning of the Rotstock via ferrata. The via ferrata is quite easy, we can enjoy it and have a great view around. The Rostock is a very nice summit, enough space for many people. We lay down and enjoy the sunshine. After one hour or so we walk back down to the station Eigergletscher.

Now we want to walk the whole Eigertrail until Alpiglen. It is a really nice path. We can see the way to the Eiger North Face and think about the people who climbed up there. On the trail we meet many cows and just in time we arrive at Alpiglen. There we take the train back to Grindelwald.

In 2011 we wanted to go up a mountain that is higher than 4000m. Therefore we sent an e-mail to the Swiss mountaineering school GrindelwaldSports and asked which one would be suitalbe. They suggested that we could go up the Mönch which is 4107m high. We trusted them and so in August we travelled to Grindelwald to go up this mountain. To acclimatize we did a tour to the Gleckstein Hut. When we went back to Grindewald the day before we wanted to go up the Mönch it was rainy and cloudy. But the weather forecast was promising. So after a hot shower at the hostel we re-packed our bags and took the Jungfraujochbahn from Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg and from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch. The train was full with Asian people who took photos all the time! We stopped at Eigergletscher and Eismeer to have a look down the Eiger north face. Unfortunately it was so cloudy that we  could see nothing. It is a bit scary to know that this train goes through such a mountain.

We leave the train at a  tunnel and walk a long time until we are out again. When we leave the tunnel it was very foggy, you could only see the next three metres. We started to walk to the Mönchsjochhütte. At this moment we did not feel that the air was thinner. We felt quite well. After around 45 minutes we arrived at the hut. This was a special one! We have never been on a hut at this height before! The people were all very friendly and the owner of the hut, a woman called Heidi, greeted us when we came in. Now it was snowing outside.. and still very foggy. But inside the hut it was very warm and comfortable. We had something to drink and waited for dinner... Meanwhile a very strong headache started to begin.. and the longer we sat the the worse it became.. When it was time for food we were not hungry! We could not believe it, we had not eaten a lot this day. Then there was a lot food and we could not eat it. Combined with a lot of water it was possbile to eat a bit.. Nevertheless the chocolate pudding was the highlight of the dinner and it was easy to eat - at least now we had something in our stomaches. We continued to drink lots of apple juice and water. On our table sat a British guide and his customer and some people from Switzerland. We had a short chat. They wanted to do the Eiger! And wanted to the Mönch at first and then go up to the Mittelegihut. It seemed as if we were the only people at the hut who had not before been on such high mountains.

We slept ok... the air was quite thin and Carsten woke up every few hours... and I had to go to the toilet for three times because I drunk so much before (the toilet was outside and I think it was around 0 degrees or below..). The next morning the sun was shining and it was the bluest sky we had ever seen! We had breakfast and went outside to enjoy the great view! Only snow, mountains, sunshine and blue sky! What a great day to go up the Mönch! We met our guide at a Swiss flag not far away from the hut. His name was Martin and he was really nice. We immediately started to go up - and it went quite well! We could ascend at a good pace and passed some other people. We had a break after around the half of the ascend and enjoyed the view around! We could see the Aletschgletscher and all the surrounding moutains! What an amazing view! We continued to walk up - sometimes you had to walk on the snow and ice and other times you had to climb up rock. That made the ascend very diversified and interesting. Around 200 metres before the summit a very narrow and steep ridge begins. I think this was the most difficult part of the climb! And not for the body, but for the mind! On both sides it goes down for more than 500 metres and there is only a path as wide as one shoe.. But without looking down too often it was doable 😉 So after only one hour and forty minutes we reached the summit of the Mönch! What a good feeling! We had a short break and the guide explained all the surrounding summits. Because there were many people coming up we decided to go down immediately. We took one last photo and then Carsten had to go in front and lead us down. We felt good and went quickly down. When we were back on the normal path to the Mönchsjochhütte and someone could see us coming down he clapped his hands 🙂 What a good feeling to have done it! We really enjoyed this tour but we were also very happy to be down again. We said good-bye to Martin and went back to the Mönchsjochhütte to have something to drink and eat. Again we were not really hungry but we tried to eat some Gulaschsoup. After that we decided to go down to Grindwald, so we took the train and arrived safely back at the hostel were we cooked an amazing dinner and had a good glas of wine 🙂 This was our first, but definitely not our last mountain above 4000 metres.

We start our trip in Grindelwald. There we wanted to take the bus to the 'Abzweig Glecksteinhütte'. But because of a bike race there was no bus this morning! So we walked the whole way to the beginning of the path. It goes up for around 1500 metres. When you walk up you have a great view of the Eiger and Grindelwald. You pass the Oberer Grindelwaldgletscher and then you can already see the hut.

The food at the hut was really good and we enjoyed the time there, looking at the glacier and fell asleep at a bench. We woke up with the sound of the breaking glacier and the chickens that were walking around us.

In the evening some mountain goats and sheep came around.

The next morning the sky was gray and it was raining. We had to go down to Grindelwald. Very wet we arrived at our hostel. The following hot shower was great 🙂

When the weather in the dolomites became cold and rainy we decided to take the bus from Cortina d'Ampezzo to Venice. That seemed to be a good idea, because in Venice we had sunshine and around 32 degrees.

Because we did this trip very spontaneously we had no accommodation reserved. This was not so good - we asked in many hotels if we can stay for one night, but there were no beds available. There were so many people in Venice!

Then we found an available hotel room - but it was very expensive. We checked in and were a bit disappointed that the air conditioning was not working. It was still very hot.

We started to walk around the historic town and were impressed. It's definitely a city worth visiting. Very nice that there are no cars or motorbikes. We enjoyed sitting at the sea and in the evening we had some pizza.

In 2011 we decided to spend our summer holiday in the Sextener Dolomites! We had seen the Tre Cime di Lavaredo on many photos and read about them in so many books that we finally wanted to have a look at them by ourselfes.

So we took the train to Fortezza where we stayed for one night in a hotel close to the train station. The next morning we continued our journey to San Candido. In San Candido we took the bus to Kreuzbergpass. There we wanted to start.

At Kreuzbergpass we were welcomed with lots of sunshine and blue sky! What a good start for some days of hiking! We went up and up until we arrived at the Rifugio Berti. Because this was the first day we did not want to walk too much. So we had a drink and left our bags at the hut. Then we walked around a bit, lay in the sunshine and watched the clouds. The clouds were amazing! We thought that this clouds could lead to a thunderstorm... but there was no one this afternoon. We enjoyed dinner at the hut and discussed if we should take the via ferrata Roghel or the Alpinisteig the next day. This was not a long discussion, because we were both convinced that the Via ferrata Roghel would be more fun 😀

In the night we woke up because there was a huge thunderstorm!
The next morning the sky was very cloudy and we were not so sure if the via ferrata Roghel (which is quite difficult) is still the right choice for this day.. we talked to the owner of the hut, but he said that it will be ok. Therefore we started to walk to the beginning of the via ferrata. A long way up! From the beginning we could the that three men who stayed with us at the hut walked the same way. We couldn't believe it, but when we arrived at the beginning of the via ferrata Roghel the sky was blue - not even one cloud could be seen! We were in a good mood and started to climb up. A really nice via ferrata!! When we arrived at the top we took some photos and climbed down again. Down was not so nice, but it was ok. At the end of the via ferrata we reached a snowfield. We had no crampons and it was quite slippery. After we had passed it we could see a bivouac. And we could see even more.. the weather was changing again! No more blue sky, but dark clouds! We do not like this kind of sky! We had to make decision.. stay at the bivouac over night and wait if a thunderstorm will arrive... or risk it and continue via the via ferrata Gabriella to the Rifugio Carducci. We decided to continue, because it was not soo late yet. From the via ferrata Gabriella we could see the other three climbers still at the descend of the via ferrata Roghel. The via ferrata Gabriela is really nice, Brenta-like!
We enjoyed the first minutes, but then we felt some rain coming down.. or was it just water which came through the mountain? We became nervous, because the air was quite humid and the sky covered with clouds. But we had to continue.. we became quite fast and hurried safely trough the via ferrata. When we came around a corner we could see the Rifugio Carducci. But above the hut really dark clouds!! We had no time for a break and continue. When we reached the descend with its fixed ropes it started to rain! Luckily the rain was not very heavy. During the last part of the descend we had to go down a snowfield. Because of this snowfield we could not access the fixed ropes. Unfortunately the rain became very heavy at this moment and it was slippery. At least there was not yet a thunderstorm. There was a textile rope fixed above the snowfield. We used this to descend. At this time we were completely wet and only one person was able to use the rope at a time. We started to become cold, but we reached the end of the snowfield without any problems. When we finished the snowfield it stopped raining and the sun came out again - weather almost like in April. We had to take a break, because we were very exhausted. So we sat down and ate something. But after a few minutes we could hear thunder! We thought that the hut must be right around the next corner and felt quite safe. We started to walk again and felt very exhausted. Then we saw that it is still a long way up to the hut! The last minutes we were very slow and we heard the thunder. We were so happy when we reached the hut!! The Rifugio Carducci is a really nice hut. The owner is a nice and funny man! We sat down, a nice cappucino, learned some words in Italian and enjoyed the view around. When we had dinner the other three man arrived - around three hours after us.. They were also really exhausted.. After this exciting day we decided to rename the via ferrata Roghel to via ferrata Rock Hell. In the evening the owner of the hut told us that the mountain rescue team had to help six people out of this via ferrata yesterday...

The next morning after a nice breakfast we walked in the direction of the Zsigmondy hut. We passed it and walked along to the Drei Zinnen Hütte. When we came around a corner we could see the Tre Cime for the first time - amazing! But there were so many people!! We had something to eat and to drink and decided to pack our bags to do the via ferrata Toblinger Knoten. So we walked to the beginning - it was full with unexperienced people! People who already had problems at the easy beginning and people who caused many falling stones! And the weather was again not looking good. So we decided to not do the via ferrata this time. Instead we looked for nice and lonely place with a great view and spend the evening there laying around and recovering from yesterday..

The next morning we enjoyed a lonely breakfast in front of the Drei Zinnen Hütte. We were the first people who were up this morning, because we wanted to the via ferrata Paternkofel without so many people around. We hesistated a bit because the weather was still not good and there was said to be a thunderstorm later the day.. But then we decided to do the via ferrata. So we walked through a long long dark tunnel until we reached the beginning of the via ferrata. This via ferrata was quite easy and after a few minutes we were on top of the Paternkofel - alone and the first people this day. We enjoyed the view but because of the insecure weather we started to descend quickly. Then we walked along the Schartenweg to the Büllelejochhütte. A great path! We passed the hut and walked along to the Zsigmondy hut. We arrived there around lunch time. We had some drinks and some food and spent the afternoon watching the clouds. In the evening heavy rain began.

The next morning the weather looked really bad. So instead of going the Alpinisteig we decided to go down to the valley and take the bus to San Candido. On the way down we saw many flowers! We enjoyed these colourful plants and arrived safely back in Sexten. There we took the bus to Cortina d'Ampezzo. We hoped that the weather would change again and that it would be possible to do a two days trip trough the Ampezzaner Dolomites. But the weather stayed bad - at least in the Dolomites. Therefore we decided to go to Venice instead - afterwards we can say that this was a good decision 🙂