Celebrating New Year in the name of cross-country skiing

The past few days have gone in the name of cross-country skiing. We, me and my cousin, visited our uncle's place in south-western Finland. All in all, we had time to do skiing for four days and our daily pace was approximately more or less 15 kilometers (between 13 and 18 km's any way). So during those four days, we skied total of 60 kilometers, which was some kind of a goal for us. The tracks were in pretty much perfect condition, so it was really pleasant to do cross-country skiing from that point of view.

Of course it's easy to ski even more, but those sessions, we had, were quite normal "just go out and ski" not some 30-kilometer "take hot chocolate and lunch with you" days.

I think that it's time to do some climbing for now...

Nothing special

Wow, it has been quiet for a while. Probably, because I haven't been doing anything really special or exciting. But still, I´ve been messing around with a bunch of things, although this time no pictures are taken.

Winter is going on quite well in Finland and there´s surprisingly snow here in the southern part too well before Christmas. So I´ve luckily been able to start my cross-country skiing season a bit earlier (few weeks ago) compared to the latest winters. And at the moment, it´s snowing so hopefully the tracks will be in even better condition.

What comes to climbing, I´ve been leading indoors and messing around with routes of 6a´ish. I´ve also done some bouldering and managed to climb my first 6b on 45 degree overhang during last Sunday´s session.

Back home in Finland

For now, I´ve been few weeks back home in Finland. I´m just trying to get used to the´normal´ everyday life again after the most awesome summer ever. I´ve had also some time to spare to do indoor lead climbing and I spent the last weekend in forest with our local scout group.

Helvetia part X: Balmhorn 3698m

Cool,

Again one so awesome day off has gone. I decided to match few days off for doing Balmhorn with our grounds assistant. Balmhorn is the highest mountain peak nearby Kandersteg. The summit is 3698m above the sea level. Today was the first attempt to do it and well the weather couldn't be more perfect.

The route to Balmhorn and back from Sunnbuel valley

View towards Zackengrat ridge

We left the centre and took the first cable car up to Sunnbuel at 8am. From Sunnbuel, we hiked towards Sagiwald, where we took the path up towards Schwarxgletscher. Before we started heading up towards Zackengrat ridge, we got ready for roping up with crampons and ice axes. The way up to the ridge was actually easier than I thought. Then we took the ridge up towards Balmhorn. It was quite snowy before the pre-summit, so walking up was bit harder, but we managed. Finally, we reached the summit around 3pm and the view was so amazing...

The summit 3698m (view towards Kanderfirn glacier)

We had our lunch at the summit and after we started heading down the same route. Except, we had to walk down from Sunnbuel, cause the last cable car down goes at 5.30pm. We finally reached the centre at 8pm, so quite nice 12h alpine day off...

Helvetia part IX: Staff snow'n ice

Again, one of my most awesome days off. I had last two days off in row to participate in the staff snow'n ice, more precisely it was snow'n ice combo.

On Wednesday, we left the centre bit before 8am and started to head towards Oeschinensee cable car station. From Oeschinensee, we hiked up the path towards Fründenhütte. The path was pretty cool, especially when it started to get bit steeper and more zic-zaccy after a while of hiking. We finally reached Fründenhütte around 11.30am. The view from the hut is just so amazing...

Sunset view from Fründenhütte

On Wednesday afternoon, we had the first part of snow'n ice combo, which is basicly the glacier workshop. A bit of walking around the glacier roped up to each other and jumping over small crevasses. After a while, we got a chance to practise the crevasse rescue and the set-up itself. Some of us also got lowered into a crevasse to be rescued after a while. When we were walking back towards the hut, we actually got into a real situation, when one of us jumped over a crevasse bit too far and pulled the next guy into it. Luckily, we didn't need to build a pulley system, cause it was quite easy to just pull the guy up with the rest of the group.

Roped up on the glacier

Crevasse rescue practising

Back at the hut, the dinner was amazing as it usually is at SAC's (Swiss Alpine Club) huts. We had soup, rice and some brown meat sauce, and chocolate pudding for dessert.

Next morning was quite cool, when the supply helicopter provided some stuff for the hut just after breakfast. After the 'sandstorm', we started heading towards the glacier again for the second day, which includes ice climbing. We roped up the glacier for a while and finally arrived to the ice climbing spot. We ice climbed for a while and then started to head back towards the hut, where we had our packed lunches around noon. After lunch, we just packed everything up and started heading back down towards Oeschinensee and Kandersteg.