Hikr gathering – when hikrs meet hikrs, hikrs hike with hikrs and hikrs hiccup with hikrs

First of all thanks to Alpin_Rise and ossi for organizing this happening. It was a wonderful weekend for me too! It was very nice to see all the hikrs I’ve read about and seen pictures of in person. I was not surprised but pleased anyway, to find out that hikrs think alike, have the same interests and immediately get along well. We all spoke the same “hikr language” and knew a lot about each other just from reading our hike reports. I’m sure such a gathering will happen again!  


My approach to the hikr crowd – Climbing Dent de Ruth & Amelier

Even though the Grubenberghütte is not exactly ideal to get to by public transportation, I decided to do it anyway. I arrived in  Saanen at 9 AM. My plan was to meet Sputnik et al. on the way up to Dent de Ruth around 11:30 AM at the Amelier saddle (P. 1945). I walked up the Grischbachtal or Vallée des Fenils and near Refuta walked up to the farmhouse of le Ruth. While walking up to the hut at P. 1945 (the Amelier saddle), I saw 6 hikers climbing up towards the Dent de Ruth. I knew for sure that they where hikrs, because I heard one of them scream: “Hello 360”!

I got up to the Amelier saddle pretty much exactly at 11:30 AM and saw two hikers coming from the Grubenberghütte. I expected them to be Sputnik and ironknee, but it turned out to be Alpin_Rise and ossi. Alpin_Rise first thought I was Stani, but soon it was clear who I really was. We shortly talked a little bit and they then told me that it was Sputnik et al. who went up the Dent de Ruth already. Then  Alpin_Rise and ossi went off to climb their “salut les copains” and I followed the others to the Dent de Ruth.  

The hike up to Dent de Ruth doesn’t need any further explanation. The path up there from the Amelier saddle has been well described before, but is also obvious with all the ropes and path traces. It looks kind of frightening from below, but once you’re in the south flank, it’s much easier than expected. All the critical passages are equipped with ropes. 

On top of the west summit I met the illustrious hikr troop: Löxli, Sputnik, ironknee, Bombo, Schlumpf and Bergtiger. Even though I never met them before in person, it felt like seeing old friends. After visiting the east or main summit as well, we then went back down to the Amelier saddle and from there followed the ridge to the summit of Amelier, where we stayed for quite a while before walking to the hut.

At the hut we then met up with karin_4 and otti who came with lots of goodies like chocolate cakes and an additional bottle of Appenzeller (two bottles were already there…). Bombo forced us to eat some of his homemade brownies, which we had to wash down with Appenzeller ;-). This was the beginning of a boozy jollification.

Later Leni, Maesi, runmountain and dabuesse joined us in the hut and around dusk Alpin_Rise and ossi made it back to the hut too and the hikr troop for the day was complete. Dinner was fabulously spicy and as one already heard the ethanol content in some of the hikrs blood was rather high.  


A nocturnal S/NW traverse of Husegg  

What do hardcore hikrs do when a conflict of interest forces them to be quiet during a party or leave the room? Of course they choose to leave the room and climb a mountain.

We were only half way through discussing the list of 500 plus hikr reports or the content of PMs, when a friendly remark came from the Zuckerspitz dormitory to let us know that it was time to sleep and be quiet. The request was heard but had little effect on us. Besides a few sshh be quiet after some loud laughs (at least a sign we didn’t just ignore the request), nobody really felt like ending an otherwise very funny and nice party.

About an hour later or so (around the time when one end of the table was discussing somebody’s “ZS III+ Überschreitung” of a mountain, the other end was intensely debating privacy issues of certain pictures, and the middle of the table was about to finish the third bottle of Appenzeller), two “want to sleep” SAC members came out of the Zuckspitz room and tried to insist on their right to get some sleep, because they wanted to get up early in the morning. Since they didn’t understand Russian, they were unable to follow Sputnik’s alpinistically founded argumentation, why it is not necessary to get up early in the morning when spending the night in the Grubenberghütte. So the situation kind of escalated.

We realized we couldn’t really party any more without getting into more trouble and making some people very upset. So one fellow hikr suggested to climb a mountain called the Husegg instead. Brillant idea I thought and so did a few more hikrs. Getting ready for the night hike was kind of a long process and probably not the quietest thing either. Luckily there where only a few full beers left so Schlumpf didn’t have to carry too many of those along in addition to his ice-pick and crampons.

Nobody really knew the route up to the Husegg, but ironknee clearly pointed out where we had to go. The exact route to the summit under normal conditions would have been a straight line from the hut, but due to the fact that some hikrs had more than just one shot of Appenzeller, it turned out to be some sort of u-shaped slalom line. For some reason the hill was much steeper than expected and most of us got out of breath faster than we normally would.

We made it to the top and enjoyed the view, the moonlight, hikr company and the last few beers. We didn’t particularly like the cold wind and the fact that we had to go back to the hut.

It was decided that we wanted to do a proper “Überschreitung” and so for our way back down to the hut we went down the NW ridge. After we reached P. 1941, we had to traverse the south west flank in order to get back. Bombo decided to (or was appointed to – I don’t remember) lead the group in the “most difficult” part of the hike. He successfully guided us through mud and other tricky passages and made sure our shoes and pants got really dirty :-). We made it back to the hut at around 2 AM and then decided to go to sleep to not upset anybody any more, even though we didn’t really feel like it.
 


Fenek joining the crowd, a hung-over breakfast and saying bye 

For some unknown reason it has been easier to get up in the morning than on this day, but the nice welcome and smile of Fenek, who decided to join us for breakfast, cheered us up. The breakfast table was like a feast and there would have been enough food for at least 20 more hikrs!

Unfortunately I had commitments later that day, so I had to leave rather early and couldn’t go up to the Zuckerspitz with the rest of the crowd any more. For the way back, I decided to walk down to  Saanenmöser, and dabuesse as well as runmountains joined me for this walk.

We walked along the marked path first down the Mittelberg and then via Hinderi-, and Mittleri Schneit down to Hinderi and Voderi Bergsimne and via Bergmatte to the train station of  Saanenmöser. We missed one train by one minute, so while waiting for the next one we ate some lunch. On the way home we chit chat about and reviewed the hikr meeting and somewhere between Spiez and Bern all fell into comatose sleep.    


Lessons learned:

• We are not fluent if it comes to “SAC hut”-Knigge :-) We will make sure not to organize any hikr meetings any more where we have to share the hut/room with non-hikrs.
• “Spiritus intus” (for example beer, Appenzeller, wine and Williams) makes a hill appear steeper than it actually is
• One does not need crampons or a pick in order to climb Husegg, also, strictly holding onto a bottle of beer when hiking in the cold night with gutsy winds and not wearing gloves, might cause “Kuhnagel” :-)  

 Saanen – Underbort – Grischbachsäge – Refuta – Le Ruth – P. 1945 – Dent de Ruth West and Ost – P. 1945 – Amelier – Grubenberghütte  
Grubenberghütte – Husegg – P. 1941 – Grubenberghütte
Grubenberghütte – Mittelberg – Hinderi Schneit – Mittleri Schneit – Hinderi Bergsimne – Vorderi Bergsimne – Bergmatte –  Saanenmöser


PS: If you read this and you are the non-hikr part of this story, please take it with a pinch of salt. After all I feel a little sorry for you too. No doubt you would have been right and we were the guys breaking the rules. It was bad timing to be in the hut on that day and maybe instead of trying to fight for the right, you should have joined the party. Anyway, I sincerely apologize for your 3 hours of lost sleep.