Across the Aletsch Glacier to the Konkordia Hut

Some presents can’t be wrapped. So for Annina’s birthday, Nicolas came up with something different: two days on the Great Aletsch Glacier, the longest and mightiest stream of ice in the Alps. On Sunday we travel to Grindelwald, the starting point of the whole story. In the evening we eat at Restaurant Pinte, which is really delicious and exactly the right way to ease into the days ahead. We stay at the Hotel Residence: rather old and a bit dated, but perfectly fine, and in the morning there is a lovely breakfast box to go.

With that box in our backpacks we ride up to the Jungfraujoch on Monday. At 3454 metres the air is thin and the wind is cold, while down in the valley it is high summer. We take our time for the round tour with all the viewpoints, stand at the window above the glacier for ages and walk through the ice cave, where the walls glow blue and the floor is polished smooth. It was amazing, and at that moment we still don’t know that we will have this very ice under our own feet a little later.

Because this is exactly where we meet Richie, our mountain guide for the coming two-day tour. We get crampons and a climbing harness, he shows us how to put both on properly and explains the rope, the knots and what to do if someone breaks through. Then the three of us are on the rope and set off, out onto the accumulation zone of the glacier. The snow is still firm from the night, and the only sounds are our steps and the rope dragging across the firn.

The further we descend, the less snow there is, until at some point we are walking on bare ice. The crampons bite in with a satisfying crunch, and suddenly you can see what lies beneath the white cover: crevasses, channels, polished waves and a blue that seems to come from deep below. Richie picks the line and we follow in his tracks.

Along the edge the ice gives way to glacial moraine and rubble. We balance over loose blocks until we stand at the foot of the famous staircase: a good 550 steps lead up the rock face to the Konkordia Hut. They are the clearest proof of how much the glacier has shrunk. When the hut was built it sat almost at the level of the ice; today it clings to the wall high above the glacier, and the staircase has had to be extended again and again. Step by step, with heavy legs and the glacier at our backs, the climb is a proper adventure.

Up at almost 2850 metres we are rewarded with a dinner that tastes twice as good after a day like this. We have a double room with a view of the Jungfrau and the Eiger, and once the sun disappears it goes completely quiet outside. No cars, no village, no lights, only Konkordiaplatz, where four streams of firn merge into the great Aletsch Glacier, and a sky full of stars above it.

At 05:00 the alarm goes off. Breakfast in the still dark dining room, crampons and harness on, and at six we are back on the ice on the rope, this time heading towards Fiesch. The first rays of sun catch only the ridges high above us and turn them orange, while down here we are still walking in the cold blue of the shade.

For hours we walk across the glacier, always along the dark medial moraines that run through the ice like tracks. The scale up here is hard to grasp: what looks like a short stroll to the next rocky outcrop takes half an hour. Only at the edge, where the glacier meets the rock, do the first grasses and shrubs appear again, with streams of meltwater in between. At Märjelensee we leave the ice for good, and we keep looking back at the way we came for a long time.

From Märjelensee a gondola and the train take us back to Basel, and the contrast could hardly be greater: crampons on our feet in the morning, back home on the sofa in the evening. Two days that felt like a small expedition in the middle of Switzerland, and probably the most beautiful birthday present you can’t wrap in paper.