Climb & Fly at the Jungfrau (4158m), Switzerland
Pictures taken by Adrian Lutz and Marcel Dettling on October 8th, 2006
Read the story (PDF, in German, 15kb)
| We spent the night in Grindelwald and then took the first
train at 7.15am to the Jungfraujoch. Here, already 3454m/11330ft above
sea level, we arrived at 8.54am. We had put on harness and gaiters in
the train and so, were soon ready to leave. |
| That's the view down the Aletsch glacier, which is covered by some fresh snow. The day was as beautiful as the weather forecast had promised, and we were very happy to notice that even at the often breezy Jungfraujoch, the wind was very light. That were good prerequisites for our planned flight from the Jungfrau. |
| We roped up and
began to cross the glacier, where we had to descend almost 300
vertical meters (1000ft). There was no trace that might have eased our
climb, but indeed a lot of fresh snow. We sank in between ankle and
knee deep. Behind are the train station of the Jungfraujoch, the
observation tower on the Sphinx, and the summit of Mönch. |
| Soon, the going got even tougher. We took the route that passes by the rain meter (weather station) and what you can see here is one of the crux passages. We had to climb these snow covered rocks above with crampons on our feet and the big packs with our gliders on our backs. |
| We made it over the rocks, and now it's time for a break. I was amazed by the bird, that was so keen on my cereal bar that it later even sat on my knee. Maybe it thought we must be friends, because I do fly as well ;-) |
| And we continue the climb. This was the most strenuous part, as there was very soft snow and we had to put up a new trace, all on our own. It was so hard that despite going full speed, we only covered 180 vertical meters (600ft) in one hour! Beautiful view here, with the summits of Finsteraarhorn and Gross Grünhorn behind. |
| Only at 2pm we reached the Rottalsattel at 3885m/12750ft. But since it was October, and thus the temperatures not too high, the snow conditions were still safe to continue. This is Adrian in the most delicate traverse of the climb. A mishap here, and you fall off the 1000m/3280ft high southwest face. |
| Fortunately, in the upper part of the summit ridge, the snow was more packed again. So our progress was faster here, and even with some belaying, we made the last 270 vertical meters (885ft) in just one hour. |
| The summit of Jungfrau is just a few steps away. We reached it at 3.10pm, almost exactly 6 hours after we had departed from the train station at the Jungfraujoch. That's a bit longer than usual, but can be explained by the soft snow conditions and the absence of a trace. |
Yeehaa, we made it to the summit at 4158m/13640ft! There was only very little wind, mild temperatures and the view from the summit was awesome. We enjoyed the ambiance on the summit for a good while. Behind are the summits of Eiger (left) and Mönch (right). |
To reach the launch on the Hochfirn, one has to climb down the north face for about 60 vertical meters (200ft). With around 50 degrees, it's quite steep here, but the snow conditions were excellent and allowed a safe descent. |
| That's our launch site. It's wide open, without obstacles and optimally inclined. Absolutely fool proof, one could say. |
| The snow conditions were optimal, too. It was soft enough that we could safely remove the crampons, but still packed enough to allow for a convenient launch. That's me, just about ready to go. |
| Also the wind conditions were optimal. A laminar breeze of about 8-12km/h (5-8mph) blew straight in at launch. |
| That's me, waving goodbye to Adrian. Hmm, maybe you can see it, my helmet, back protection and the reserve parachute are not really DHV proof. Well, everybody has to take his or her own responsibility, and in benign conditions like on this day, we were 100% confident not to need this added passive safety. |
| A stable high
pressure system, inducing a typical autumn inversion, was over
Switzerland. Thus, we didn't find any thermals at all. But here, even
a sled ride is big, big fun. I'm approaching the Jungfraujoch, Top of
Europe as they say. |
| That's Adrian, playing foto model for the Japanese and Indian tourists on the observation deck of the Sphinx. |
| |
| Just amazing! High above the Eiger North Face, suspended on a piece of cloth by just a few strings ;-) |
| Fooling around in front of the sheer, 1800m/6000ft high rock walls of Eiger (yes, yes, we stayed at safe distance). |
| Time to say goodbye. Perfect view again to the 3 most famous peaks of the Berner Oberland: Eiger, Mönch & Jungfrau |
| We were then gliding over the
village of Grindelwald, passing along the Männlichen in direction of the
Schynige Platte. Here, Adrian is below me. His lightweight harness is
a little different from mine and creates more drag, so I was able to
surpass him by quite a bit. Not that it did matter today,
though! |
| A last look back to the Jungfrau (4158m/13640ft), which is veiled in a white autumn blanket. It's just 45 minutes since we were still up there. Descending by paraglider is really much, much better (and safer) than the long, tiring and dangerous climb down. And more economical, too - we could safe the cost for the train from Jungfraujoch to Grindelwald. |
| That's me, after a happy landing right next to the train
station in Zweilütschinen. |
| Did you miss him already? Of
course, Loecky was with us! But as usual, he just stayed in the
backpack for the whole climb. And what is he saying now? "For
me, as an Everest summitter, Jungfrau is just a baby mountain. So it
was not worth it to walk by myself". Guess who's invented the
bragging... Tigers are definitely good at it ;-) |
| Picture Galleries/Home | Marcel Dettling, 23.3.2007 |