normal magazin nummer19 winter

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44 natur | nature
per fec tly kit ted out, however. Four kilos of
spaghet ti and two bot tles of red wine later,
the hut was buzzing with eight happy people.
The nex t morning, we set of f towards
the Sustenhorn before dawn and reached the
glacier af ter a three-hour climb. The mighty,
seemingly end less ice f ield stretched out be-
fore our eyes and the summit was within reach.
But the f ina l ascent took longer than expec ted,
and the high a ltitude and stif f breeze didn’ t
make it any easier. I had a lready mar velled at
the Sustenhorn f rom the Titlis many times, but
standing on the summit at
3,503 metres gave me a whole
new perspec tive: it rea lly
hit me just how minute hu-
man beings are. On the way
back down, we cou ld see that
the wind had struck again
and made the snow rock-hard. Markus led us
safely past huge glacier crevasses to Hotel
Steingletscher. Af ter a lmost 2,000 metres of
descent across a glacier, we f ina lly had access
to hot running water and an indoor toilet with
a f lush for the f irst time in three days. Af ter a
long trip to the bathroom and a hot shower, I
felt like a new man. We had worked up a big
appetite, so we enjoyed a cosy mea l and then
hit the hay at around 9 p.m. The following
morning, I got up ex tra early to have another
shower. The weather had turned during the
night and, af ter three days of sunshine, we
were greeted with a mi x ture of snow and fog.
Over time, you star t to develop a pleas-
ant routine when climbing. Ski tours are
a lmost meditative, with ever y step follow-
ing the prev ious one; and with each step you
leave the stresses of ever yday life f ur ther
and f ur ther behind, giv ing you the chance to
clear your mind. As they say, the journey itself
is the reward, so we pushed ahead through
the white, mysterious landscape towards
Fünf f ingerstöcke. But then the mystica l charm
simply vanished: we got caught in a storm, so
we skipped the summit and decided to head
straight for the Sustli hut. Once there, we
were greeted by the hut wardens and some
af ternoon sun. But what do you do when you
get to a mountain hut at two o’clock in the
af ternoon? Right – you have a nice long nap! In
the evening, we felt a lit tle melancholy as we
rea lised we wou ld be reaching Engelberg the
following day and a ll going our separate ways.
Because I’ d had a few
beers, I had to get up in the
midd le of the night to relieve
my bladder. The Sustli hut
is set in a wonder f u l loca-
tion opposite the mighty
Sustenhorn and, like most
SAC mountain huts, it has a separate out-
house, so there were wellies at hand for me to
brave my way across the snow. As I stepped
outside, I looked up to see a clear, starr y sky.
The moon lit up the landscape and the moun-
tains seemed close enough to touch. But I
wou ld have done bet ter to look down at the
ground than up at the mountains; I stumbled
and before I knew it I was f lat on my back.
The following morning, unscathed f rom
my night-time tumble, I joined the others as
we put the skins back on our skis and set of f
on the last leg of our journey. We climbed the
Grassen (2,946 m a.s.l.) in optima l weather
conditions, and thorough ly enjoyed the 2,000
metres of descent to Engelberg through the
f inest powder snow. It was a glorious feeling
to be able to ski a ll the way home. Throughout
the entire tour, we on ly saw two other peo-
ple – and that was f rom a distance. That ’s two
people in f ive days – what a wild and won-
der f u l place we are priv ileged to ca ll home!
The ski tour finishes with
a 2,000 m descent.
Abfahrten wie diese entschädi-
gen für die strengen Aufstiege.
Descents like these make
up for the tough climbs.
Wir sind für Sie da.
Versprochen.
Weil Erfolg für alle etwas anderes ist,
ist die beste Beratung die ganz persönliche.
Erfolg ist
Ansporn zu
mehr.
Benediktinerkloster 5 | CH-6390 Engelberg | Telefon +41 (0)41 639 62 11
Telefax +41 (0)41 639 62 13 |
Gymnasium | Sekundarschule (IOS) | Internat
Zweisprachige Maturität
(Deutsch/Englisch)
International Baccalaureate
(IB World School) Spor ting Park Engelberg
Engelbergerstra sse 11
CH-6390 Engelberg
Phone +41 41 639 60 00
info@spor
and fun.
game.