Colmcille Climbers

The Alps, singlehanded.

The adventure starts as we queue to get out into traffic at the port of Amsterdam, with me driving a new unfamiliar Hotel California (otherwise known as the mothership) or more accurately as the Innertkirchen community centre, and trying, unsuccessfully, to hide my heavily bandaged left hand from the police woman at the gate.

However, 10 hours later we were at the Alpine Meet, with me in a state of total exhaustion!   The rest of the meet is described comprehensively and ably elsewhere, but suffice it to say I spent every day walking up and down paths in admittedly wonderful surroundings, having to   listen to tales of derring do, and dispensing advice and sometimes equipment.   Good to see Raja again.

Another few days were spent in Grindelwald with my son Chris, and his girlfriend Helen, well, walking up and down more paths, (but the one up to the Schrekhorn Hut is quite challenging)and then we went to the north (Swiss) end of Lake Maggoire for a bit of R&R by the lake side. Didnt happen! The campsites were all booked up, so we were driven back up   into the hills.   The beautiful Valli Maggi runs North from the head of the lake, deep into the Lepontine Alps, so we went up to San Carlo,   caught the cablecar, and a four hour walk took us to the Cristallina Hut.   This unattractive hut is lovely inside, the food is great, the staff friendly and they even have a fox!   There are lots of accessible peaks from here, and we did one called Foce di Cristallina, or something like that.

Then we went to the Stubai in Austria.   These are a cross between the Alps and the Dollies, situated less than an hour from Innsbruck, (recommended by the late Patrick Simms),, and I had never been there.   We did a four day   hut to hut, the Stubai Hoh Weg, followed by a one handed ascent of the Zuckerhutl, the highest in the range, on our last day, catching the very last gondola down by a whisker!   This is worth a return visit, with spectacular peaks, Kletterstegs, glaciers, good huts, all very accessible and cheaper than Switzerland.   No one there but the Germans and us.   The Germans know the best places!

Am now back in North Germany, should be home Thursday.

Alan, the Handless Messiah!