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This is a pretty short walk up from the Lac de Moiry above Grimentz and only the second time I’ve been up here in the summer. It’s around a 400m climb from the lake to hut and only takes 1.5 - 2 hrs to make the ascent. It’s a CAS hut run by the Montreux section and they do a nice selection of snacks when you arrive.

Google Earth File

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Originally I’d planned to go to climb the Giferspitz but that’s it in the centre of the above photo’ with the top covered in cloud. So we decided to take the much easier option of walking from Zweisimmen to Schrönreid which is basically a tour along the top of that part of the Gstaad ski area. It’s an easy walk and takes in the Hornberg which has a nice restaurant at the top. I’ve done some a more strenuous hike from here towards Lenk in the past : Zweisimmen-Lenk

I skied here a lot in the past mostly during the 2005-2006 season and was lucky enough to experience probably the best season they’d had for 30 years or more. There’s many, many pictures in the blog : start here

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Today was the day of the Sierre-Zinal race, it probably the biggest date in the calendar for Zinal and I’ve never seen so many people in the village. Traditionally the finish is right in front of our chalet and one of the sponsors (UBS) have a reception and VIP platform actually on our ground, when they asked for this year we were happy to keep that going and they invited us as guests for drinks and food at the finish.

The photo’s above are of the general class of runners which is open for public entry, they start down at Sierre at 0500 hrs and these runners were coming behind the chalet to the finish in just over three hours which is pretty impressive. The course is 31km and climbs from 500m to 2425m before descending to Zinal at 1680m.

I’ve uploaded some more images to a gallery, I have full versions of these if anyone wants those if I caught you in a shot.

Gallery and images.

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I noticed that Swiss Alpine Guides in Interlaken were running an ice climbing day up on the Steinegletscher and decided to go along. I’ve never really done much ice climbing apart from on mixed routes which have been mostly rock. I also thought it would interesting to see how effective some crampons I’d bought recently were on vertical ice. Normally I only use them steep snow and glacier travel.

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