Diary of H.E.V. Switzerland 1999.

This diary will be available online, hopefully by Saturday 28th August, at"http://www.ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/hev/".

Friday,Friday, 23 July 1999

We met at Fordingbridge Car Park to drive to Rownhams services, from where we would catch the coaches. Ian had left an hours travelling time, which many people thought excessive. That was until we got stuck in tailbacks on the M27. We arrived in time and clambered onto the coaches in apprehension of the forthcoming 20 hour journey. The first section of the journey passed reasonably quickly and we soon got onto the ferry and sat down (as if we hadn't done enough of this on the coach). As we approached the end of the crossing Ian decided that we could reduce our food bill for the 2 weeks, imparticular the amount we spent on sugar, by acquiring some from the ship's canteen. Various people took sachets of sugar as they bought things and Ian had soon amassed 45 packets.

QOTD: Ian, "I flopped it out outside Claire's house and started waving it around".

Saturday,Saturday, 24 July 1999

We were back on the coach and heading for Switzerland again. In an ideal world people would have expected to sleep for half the journey, but in reality this wasn't possible. There were two reasons why not:

1 James Singing.

2 The coach stopping every 2 hours.

At sometime around 8 or 9am people got bored with not sleeping and we gave up on the idea and started watching various videos: 'Pulp fiction', 'The Rock' and 'Austin Power'.

We finally arrived in Kandersteg at about 4:30pm and we were given a welcome drink by the HEV staff. We were pleased to discover the weather in Switzerland was as good as that that we had left in the UK. After our drink we headed to our subcamps where we found our kit, which had just been unloaded from the two articulated lorries that HEV had borrowed. The subcamps were quite small so it took us a while to get the tents correctly positioned in the limited space we had available. We had camp (nearly) set up in time for dinner, which again was provided centrally by HEV staff. After a walk down to the centre of Kandersteg village, to KongressHaus, we were rewarded with almost edible soggy mashed potato with some sort of meat sauce and also some cheap red wine to accompany it. Nevermind, it was a proper meal (our first since leaving the UK), and proper meals are always good especially when you don't have to cook them yourself. After dinner HEV was officially opened with a flash and an imaginary bang, as well as speeches from Adam Jollans and others. The ceremony was followed by a brief visit to a local bar for a drink before an early night to catch up on some of the sleep that we failed to get on the coach. James slept well away from everyone else.

Sunday,Sunday, 25 July 1999

I had to get up ridiculously early since I had the 'glacier familiarisation hike'. This was arranged for all Form M holders, so that we could learn the route for the glacier hike and also gave the staff an opportunity to check that everyone was fit (or at least as fit as they were) and knew what they were doing. We were given breakfast first, and breakfast at 8am means getting up at sometime dangerously close to 7.

We were driven to Seldon, where the hike started. The 'road' to Seldon left a fair bit to be desired, the drivers wished it was wider, the passengers wished it was less bumpy. I suspect on return of the people-carriers the hire firms wished that they were less prone to grounding on the road.

The walk itself went over the Lötschepass. Our route started by going over a rickety suspension bridge, then steeply uphill to the glacier. We then crossed the glacier and did another piece of uphill until we arrived at the mountain hut at the top, at 2690m. At the mountain hut we also found what must be the toilet with one of the best views in the world - an impressive view of the alps could be found by looking out of the window. This comes with the realisation that this means that most of the alps can probably see in. The route down was fairly quick, and the later part of it in a fairly boring forest. We finally finished at 6pm at a village called Ferden, where we had an ice-cream before finding our way back to Kandersteg by public transport. The first part of this journey was by bus, we piled the kit into the hold, and climbed on for the short journey to the railway station. As we unloaded the kit at the station we found we had 1 more bag than person. With some alarm Dave turned round and said "Martin" - and everyone suddenly realised that he was missing. Fortunately, and before much panic had set in, he appeared round the corner. Having seen the bus disappearing from Ferden he ran after it and then hitch-hiked for the rest of the journey. The remaining leg of our journey, catching the train through the tunnel back to Kandersteg, was uneventful and we arrived just in time for diner (which was kindly provided by HEV staff). After a nice meal of ham with potato salad and a not quite as nice desert of unset angel delight I returned to our unit site.

While I had been out hiking the rest of the unit had spent the day setting up camp, playing cards and loosing in the first round of the volleyball competition. They had finished their day with egg-fried spaghetti (Althea's special recipe, although I'm not quite sure what made it special). In what was left of the evening Althea and I both sent emails home from a payphone - which just left time for a short visit to the bar with another group from our subcamp, 12th Winchester, before we retiredto bed.

QOTD: Sam, "I've done it in 4 different countries". Guesses as to what 'it' is should be submittedon a postcard

Monday,Monday, 26 July 1999

Today provided a well earned lie in - well until 9:30ish for most people. We got up and had a sort-of breakfast while we discussed the days activities. The final decision was that Claire, Ian, Sam, Joel and myself would go cycling while the others went into town shopping. We cycled from Kandersteg up the 'road' to Seldon (where the glacier hike started from), this involved a height gain of around km which was quite hard work in the hot weather. I think 'track' is probably a better description of the route and I'm still impressed that they can fit a post-bus up it. The scenery was really spectacular and it was a great, if tiring, ride.

When we stopped in Seldon we bought an ice-cream, Ian used this opportunity to try out his best German - until the girl serving explained that she was English. This was more embarrassing for Joel who'd muttered "The waitress isn't bad" on the assumption that she wouldn't have heard it well enough to understand. We then had lunch next to the river, amidst moans from some quarters about the sandwiches. After a short break we cycled back, which was quite a lot faster since it was now downhill. We paused part way down to paddle in one of the mountain streams and to wait for a "down half hour" on the road down to Kandersteg (it is too narrow for vehicles to pass so times are allocated for going up, and other times are allocated for going down). We got back to camp at about 4pm.

Those that hadn't cycled had been shopping and paddling in one of the streams on the campsite. We told them what they had missed out on and then we all headed out to the swimming pool. The pool wasn't very warm and James & Joel avoided the cold water (this is despite the fact that James' family own the coldest swimming pool I know of). They also worried the girls by walking around the pool with cameras. Nobody stayed in the pool very long, partly because the sub-camp barbecue was immanent, but largely because the water wasn't very warm and the day was getting cooler as the sun disappeared behind the mountains.

The subcamp barbecue started with various party games. During this I was involved in helping to start the pile of ^w^w hired minibus. The battery was so dead that it wouldn't even bump start soas various people went to find a vehicle to jump start it from I left and turned to see Katherine (who'd slipped during musical chairs) wanting her graze looking at. I took her up to the first aid room and returned to the barbecue just in time for the best bit - the food! After the barbecue we had the choice of disco or sleep. We had to be up for the dawn hike at 2am (and I was supposed to be helping lead it) so I opted for sleep.

QOTD: Karen, "You're getting it French style, and you're going to take it and like it".

Stephen (to Claire), "Oh, put it between your legs and wiggle it".

James, "Me and my dad are both very alike, with both like gadgets, anything you can fiddle with".

Tuesday,Tuesday, 27 July 1999

We got up very early since we had to meet for the dawn hike at 2:15am. I had to help lead the (rather large) group, with the help of Richard. We weren't convinced everyone would be fit enough to complete the hike, but we were both surprised when one person stopped in tears after just 200yds - although they did have an old knee injury to blame. This was followed not much later by another person whose back was causing them problems. Despite this reduction in numbers our group was still (a lot) larger than we wanted as we moved onto steeper ground and it became apparent that the ability of the group varied considerably - so we split into a faster and a slower group. I led the faster (and larger) group to the summit (reaching it at 7am) while Richard battled on with the slower group - including Althea's blisters and Claire's tiredness as well as some people who were just generally slow. In the end Richard made the summit (at 2248m) with Rebecca Brand having ascended around 1km. I quickly returned to the little farm where Richard had left the rest of the slower group recovering their breath and I started leading them down while Richard and the faster group finished admiring the view and followed us down.

We finally arrived back on the campsite at about 11am and collapsed for a while. I took the opportunity to write the first batch of postcards, and Althea and I spent part of the afternoon laughing at large parts of "Cosmopolitan". It rained dead on 4:30pm - something we had been warned that it might well do - but it caught out some people who had go into town shopping without coats. The rain didn't last much over an hour.

The evening meal was my first with our unit - and so my first experience of their cooking. It was Althea's veg stew (something she practised making a lot in Kenya apparently). It was really nice (and I'm not just writing that because I've been told to) and had the advantage of being quite filling. We then had angel delight (almost set this time) before heading out to a bar before we retired to bed.

QOTD: James (to Ian), "I knew you'd do that, as soon as she grabbed it, you'd withdraw".

James (again), "It's a bit hard".

Wednesday,Wednesday, 28 July 1999

My alarm was set for 8:30am so I could wake Althea and she could ring Rogan before he went to work. Impressively Althea actually managed to get up at this time and even more impressively Rogan was in - putting a stop to the deep and meaningful relationship that she was developing with his answer-phone. She soon returned and went back to bed, since we all slept in to catch up on the sleep we'd missed the night before. Besides, we didn't need to meet for white-water rafting until after midday.

The journey out to the activities centre took quite a while since we went on the train, and had to change once. When we got there we got changed into the wetsuit, buoyancy aids, etc, provided and got into the rafts. The river wasn't the most violent that people had seen, but it was definitely really good fun and enjoyed by everyone. James got given an H.E.V. tee-shirt to wear over his buoyancy aid with the intention that our raft would be photographed for the H.E.V. newsletter - 'Extreme Times'. Our raft was also the only one to loose it's instructor, she fell out part way down a rapid - but she was soon dragged back into the raft. We were off the river, dried, changed, and waiting on the station for the train home before the day's rain started. The rain got quite heavy shortly after we arrived in Kandersteg so rather than get soaked returning to our tents Althea, Kat, Ian, Rebecca and I stopped at the chip shop and sheltered there. We got engrossed in a particularly unimportant conversation and since we didn't want to get wet we remained under the shelter for some hours before deciding to return to our campsite. Or at least it had been a campsite when we left it, we returned to find some combination of a lake and a quagmire. This and people frantically digging ditches around our tents made it look more a scene from the World War I trenches. Everyone was impressed with the team spirit as large numbers of people from the rest of our subcamp joined in the effort, but the darkness and rain hampered the work and we decided that the sensible thing would be to go to bed and sort out the site in the morning. Since we had no big activities planned for the next day there would be plenty of time for this. We were given temporary accommodation elsewhere on the subcamp, so we moved our sleeping bags and went to bed.

QOTD: Ian, "Sit on Althea's arse".

Stephen, "I think you ought to stroke it".

Thursday,Thursday, 29 July 1999

We got up early to finish the trenching effort. We learnt that we were by no means the worst-off on the site, as H.E.V. staff decided to relocate all of Camelot subcamp, where the entire subcamp had been badly flooded. After a couple of hours work Althea, Claire and I went into town. Claire had decided that she needed a new coat; Althea and I went to meet Liv, a friend of Althea's who was been staying with her Gran who lives in Switzerland. After Liv had been show the disaster area that was our campsite we Althea, her and I went back into town for lunch. We found a nice little café where we had nice nice lunch on the patio (it was nice weather again) and spent quite a long time chatting, and viewing Althea's photos of her time Inter-railing around Europe with Liv. While we were in town we did a bit of shopping and I wrote another post card, then we returned to the campsite briefly before failing to get to the station in time for Liv to catch her train. We did the rest of the shopping and returned to the station in time for the next train, so we said goodbye to Liv and returned to the campsite. We managed to spend an impressive amount of time walking back to camp, stopping to admire rivers, views and just to sit and chat.

Dinner was a stir-fry, which was quite nice, and then we got some palettes to place under the groundsheets in our two patrol tents to prevent them flooding again. The evening finished with one of H.E.V.'s discos.

QOTD: James, "Althea knows how to please me"

Friday,Friday, 30 July 1999

We got up at 7am, to give us time to get our kit ready and then head down to the Chalet for the glacier hike. I thought I was slightly late, but fortunately I found the H.E.V. staff just finishing their breakfast so they didn't notice. After their experience on the dawn hike Althea and Claire decided that it would be sensible not to attempt the glacier hike, so they remained on camp as we left. We gave out ice axes to everyone and then were driven up to Seldon, since the route for the day was exactly the same as the one I had done on Sunday. Today, though, I had to help lead the the hike, with Dave Panell (the H.E.V. activities organiser) - this time (unlike Tuesday) it was a sensible sized group.

The first part of the route passed without incident and we were making quite good time as we reached the glacier. We paused for a short talk on safety and the use of ice axes before crossing the glacier, which was also uneventful save one section of path that we had to avoid since it had collapsed into an en-glacial stream. The paths are supposed to be checked for this type of danger, but this hole had obviously formed quite recently. On the other side of the glacier we paused again, this time to do ice axe practice on a steep slope. Everyone enjoyed this, although their technique needs improving - your weight ought to roll on top of the ice axe to dig it in better as you carry out an arrest. Besides arrests, people also practised cutting stepping and climbing slopes with the axes before we decided to continue to the top of the pass. Dave decided that I should take a small group up an ice slope, because they were quite proficient with their ice axes and they'd enjoy it. After getting the rope out and two belays later we decided that maybe it was a little steeper than he'd intended. We arrived at the mountain hut about 30 minutes after everyone else, and had a short lunch break before heading down.

We got down to Ferden in plenty of time for the 6pm bus, and Karen bought me an ice-cream as a thankyou. We all caught the bus and this time the journey passed entirely without incident, although we did have to stand on the train.

We were back on camp by 7pm, and we cooked pasta for diner. During their day Althea and Claire had walked up to lake Öschinensee and been swimming (briefly) in the cold water their.

After dinner there was the international campfire, then Althea and I went to phone and mail people, after which we bought some chips and went to a bar before bed.

QOTD: Ian, "I tied up Karen".

Stephen, "This feels stiff enough".

Karen, "That's the first I've sucked and I'm very proud of myself".

Saturday,Saturday, 31 July 1999

Most people got up at 7:45am, giving us plenty of time before the coach left for Berne at 8:45. I think Althea was pushing it a bit by delaying getting up until 8:40! The coach journey to Berne took about an hour, and when we got there people decided the first thing they wanted to do was have some 'proper' food at a McDonalds. The coach driver seemed to know where the McDonalds was in virtually all the major European cities, so he gave us directions. When we got there Althea revealed that this was the 13th country she'd eaten in a McDonalds in, and I think Sam had eaten inquite a few too.

We went to see the famous bears in Berne first, then to a cyber-café to read (some of) our email. We then went shopping for presents. Toblerone and Swiss Army Knives were high on the list for in Switzerland they are half the price they are in the UK. Althea spent ages failing to decide what present to get Rogan, so in the end we persuaded her that what he'd really want was a huge stuffed teddy bear - so she bought one. Ian carried the bear back through town, much to the amusement of everyone else there.

We caught the coach back to Kandersteg, and Althea's bear was given it's own seat for the journey. Back on site it was decided to get the H.E.V. office to look after the bear for the remainder of the camp. Somebody had left some Toblerone on the table in the dining shelter, and this had been eaten by squirrels - which we thought was quite amusing. We then we started preparations for dinner, this was a curry, and was cooked by James. We'd invited John, our subcamp leader, to dinner, who (at the last minute) told us he'd be late because someone on the camp was late back from a trip. This unfortunately meant that the rice was kept warm for 45 minutes, not something that rice likes very much so it was a bit sludgy. We didn't moan too much though, because he did bring everyone a bottle of beer. We sat and chatted for most of the rest of evening.

QOTD: Ian (to Althea), "Where do you want to do it then, ay".

Karen (to Claire), "Are you sure it's not just the action of doing that".

Claire, "I've done it with your brother".

Sunday,Sunday, 1 August 1999

We were woken up at 7am (because it was Swiss National Day) and we found the breakfast stuff. We decided that it would be fitting to give Joel his birthday present today (a day early) since it was a Swiss Cow bell. He put it to good use waking up some Americans, who weren't best pleased about it! We then gathered on the sports field for breakfast with everyone else on the site, where we were greeted with probably the worst P.A. system imaginable. This P.A. system was then subjected to announcing a list of people with birthdays today we were allowed to return to our sites for a sleep, to do the washing up, or a quick pause before the kanderchallenge games.

We bought chips for lunch because it was suddenly realised that food for lunch had been a slight oversight while shopping the day before. After lunch we got into costume and set up our croquet game on the games field, with all the other stalls. While people walked around the stalls we were treated to music from the Hampshire Youth Band (not that there weren't enough people from Hampshire on site anyway) who were finishing their European tour. They decided to capture the spirit of Swiss National day with tunes such as 'Land of Hope and Glory'.

At 4pm we all changed into H.E.V. tops for the group photo. This took ages because the photographer took loads of photos with different cameras, we had sensible photos with normal cameras, sensible photos with digital cameras, silly photos with sensible cameras, silly photos ... oh you get the idea. Once the photo-shoot was finally finished we had a mad panic to sort out the food for the Lancelot subcamp buffet meal, and to prepare the keep for it. The meal went well, despite being interrupted by a couple of rain showers. The meal was followed a rain storm, which was followed by a campfire without a fire. Unfortunately the rain continued to return from time to time during the campfire, although it did stop for the parade into Kandersteg for the village celebrations. We didn't stay in town that long before heading back to camp for bed.

Monday,Monday, 2 August 1999

I got up at 7, so that I could go with Althea, Claire and Ian who were paragliding at 8. On the way we passed Joel, who was already up for some reason to do with not being able to tell the time, so we wished him a happy birthday. I took photos of the first group paragliding, and then Rebecca and Karen arrived and it was our turn. We met the instructors and then went up in a cable car. The paragliding was done in tandem with an instructor and was great, I don't think the photos I took during the flight really capture the experience properly.

We had to tidy the site (a bit) before heading out in the afternoon, we went up to the lake after doing a bit of shopping in town. Althea and Claire didn't come as they'd already been to the lake, and James didn't come for some reason that I forget. The water was freezing so we went for a very brief swim, just to say that we had, before returning to the camp.

When we returned we did a bit more tidying before tying Joel to a tree and throwing water over him - well, you have to do something to mark his birthday, don't you? We then left for Joel's birthday meal, which we had at a restaurant in town. I had to go via the campsite office, because Dave still hadn't given us the information we needed for our hike. He wasn't in, so I soon caught the others up. The meal was really nice, and so was the ice cream I had for pudding! We then walked back to camp.

I was quite surprised to meet Paul shortly after returning to the site, he was in my contingent at the 19th World Scout Jamboree in Holland in 1995, and I was surprised that we still recognised eachother. Everyone sat round in the dining shelter chatting, and I managed to get some of this diary written, before we retired to bed.

QOTD: Althea, "I wouldn't use Ian's if he paid me".

Ian, "That's not a mess, it's only superficial".

Tuesday,Tuesday, 3 August 1999

We had to get up early again, well Ian, Joel, James, Karen and I did. Today was the start of our expeditions, and our unit was split into two groups. My group were doing a 4 day expedition, including quite a lot of time up in the mountains, while the other group were doing an easier expedition staying down in the valley. Since their days were shorter than ours they could lay in as we prepared to leave. Our route started by heading through Kandersteg and then up to lake Öschinensee, where we had 'elevenses'. We then continued upwards for the rest of the day (we'd chosen a hot day for it too), eventually reaching the Blüemlisalphütte SAC, a mountain hut at 2840m, after around 7 hours walking and about 1,600m of ascent. In the hut we collapsed, and Joel fell asleep so he was obviously more tired than he made out on the way up. Dinner was provided by the wardens at the mountain hut, and then we played cards before going to bed.

Wednesday,Wednesday, 4 August 1999

We got up fairly early again, for we weren't going to miss breakfast which was also provided for us. We then left, started the very steep descent that was the beginning of our second day. This first section was quite slow, but the pace picked up a lot as we reached less steep ground closer to the valley floor. We then walked down the valley towards Kiental, and made such good time that Ian decided we had to do a 2km detour at the end - after which we bought some food and an ice cream. We found the campsite just in time for the rain, which fortunately was light and didn't last long. Ian, James and Joel put the tents up as Karen and I cooked the curry that we had for dinner. The evening was spent, as had become traditional, playing cards

QOTD: Ian, "Right I'm going down again".

Thursday,Thursday, 5 August 1999

We didn't get up as early as we intended, so after a hurried breakfast of soup we made up for lost time by using a chair-lift to cut off the first 300m of ascent. We then finished the ascent of Gerihorn (to 1947m), pausing on the way for a drink. We stopped again at the top to admire the view and have a bit of lunch, a break that was interrupted by a herd of cattle. We then descended to Fruitgen.

The original plan was to camp in Fruitgen, but unfortunately the campsite was fully booked, so H.E.V. had arranged a dormitory for us instead. This came with many advantages, such as really nice showers, but unfortunately nowhere to cook our evening meal in the pouring rain. We decided we could probably get away with cooking in the dormitory if we were careful, so this we did - with Ian and James keeping a careful watch. Karen and I did the cooking again, since we hadn't messed up the curry the night before and tonight's meal was also curry.

Not entirely surprisingly we followed dinner with several games of cards before bed.

Friday,Friday, 6 August 1999

We got up early, for two reasons: we wanted to be back on camp as soon as possible to help with the packing up, but the main reason was that we didn't want to miss breakfast! After breakfast we set off up the valley to Kandersteg, which wasn't very far and so the walk only took us until lunchtime. The afternoon was spent tidying and packing, for we had everything on the lorries by lunchtime the next day.

In the evening H.E.V. provided a farewell dinner, which was nicer than the welcome dinner, during which various awards were presented to people - some sensible (one person had their Queen's Scout Award presented by the acting director of Kandersteg International Scout Center, and Grandson of Lord Baden-Powell, Gerad Baden-Clay) and some not so sensible. After the dinner was the last H.E.V. disco, where I got a free drink for helping lead the various hikes (who said scouting didn't pay well?). People had been told not to get drunk, because of the journey home, but I wasn't altogether surprised to find someone lying very drunk on the stairs. I was more surprised to end up as the first-aider looking after them and escorting them back to camp.

The nice day had given way to night, and torrential rain which soaked everybody returning from the disco and flooded Camelot subcamp (again). The lorries that were to take the kit back to the UK were already on-site, so it was decided that the easiest thing was to move all of Camelot into the lorries, where they slept of the night. After everything was sorted out, and I'd satisfied myself that the drunk person would be okay I went to bed.

Saturday,Saturday, 7 August 1999

We amazed our subcamp leader by being the most organised group for once. We got up early and had all our kit packed into palattes well before most people, and in plenty of time for the lorries and coaches - despite the fact that our coach was the first to leave (at 1:45pm). So, that was it, we left Kandersteg and started the 20 hour drive home - with more videos to help us survive. Althea had Rogan's bear to keep her company for the long journey, and this time he didn't get his own seat on the coach!

Sunday,Sunday, 8 August 1999

What is there to say, the ferry crossing was uneventful and we arrived on time back at Rownhams services before 9am. And so the trip ended and we returned home to catch up on some sleep.

Walking Log, for those interested. Not all of it is applicable to everyone. In your own logs you should state that it was with a group of Scouts in the notes section.

Date	Location	Route	Notes
13 July 1999	Stickle Tarn, Lake District	From the Dungeon Gill Hotel up to Stickle tarn and back	Hot and dry. To practise security on steep group, ropework and talk about mountain safety.
14 July 1999	Scafell Pike, Lake District	From the upper Langdales up Rossett Gill, then Great End, Broad Crag, Scafell Pike, down via Esk Pike and Bow Fell.	Started hot and dry, fog and rain closed in shortly before summit of scafell pike.
15 July 1999	Side Pike	From upper Langdales up side pike and back down.	Cloudy, but mainly dry. A quick walk to say we'd done something that day.
25 July 1999 (Stephen Only)	Lötschepass, Kandersteg, Switzerland	From Seldon at 1500m, climb to 2690m at top, then down to Ferden.	Dry and hot. Included crossing glacier.
27 July 1999	Alpschelehubel, Kandersteg, Switzerland	From Kandersteg at 1200m, up Alpschelehubel (2248m) and back	To see dawn, first half of hike in darkness. Second half fine and dry.
30 July 1999	Lötschepass, Kandersteg, Switzerland	From Seldon at 1500m, climb to 2690m at top, then down to Ferden.	Dry and hot. Included crossing glacier and ice-axe practise.
3 Aug. 1999 to 6 Aug. 1999	Blüemlisalp, Kandersteg, Switzerland	From Kandersteg to Blüemlisalphütte SAC (2840m) on day 1. Day 2 took us down to Kiental. Day 3 was over the Gehriorn (1947m) to Frutigen. Day 4 was returning to Kandersteg along valley.	4 Day expedition. Mainly fine and dry.