Author's note.
There is a small amount of French in this story to give it a little more authenticity. I hope any French friends will forgive any errors as it is over fifty years since I studied the language.
Hi.....I'm Tom. I'm 41 and currently work in the administration department of my local university based in the south west of England.
I want to tell you a story of what happened to me when I was twenty. I had many friends when I left my senior school at 18 and went on to university in the midlands where I studied Applied Maths.
Although we all went different ways with our studies a particular group of us kept together and would meet up regularly during our breaks.
We basically started out when a climbing group was formed in 4
th
year of senior school. It became clear that some were a lot better at climbing than others. However the group kept together by splitting into two sections. One side was the pure mountaineers who solely wanted to climb, made up mainly of the smaller wiry type of guys, and a section of which I was a member who preferred to walk in the mountains enjoying the scenery.
We organized trips around the UK while we were all still at school. I guess being at an all boys school made us look like a rough crowd sometimes but in reality we were ordinary lads who wanted to enjoy our youth.
After several years of climbing and walking around the mountainous areas of our own country it was decided we should become a bit more adventurous and travel abroad for our activities. A small group got together to plan where we should explore.
As I was one of the younger members I just sat back and let the others get on with things. One of the guys came up with the idea of travelling to Switzerland as his parents had some contacts from when they had stayed there.
The place they agreed that we would set up our base was a chalet that had been converted to allow groups of youngsters to enjoy Switzerland without the expense that normally you would expect in that country. Effectively there were four large rooms for sleeping upstairs with a bank of showers and toilets in-between them.
Downstairs there was a kitchen area and a large dining room and some storage rooms. There was also a small annexe where a caretaker/cleaner guy lived.
It was decided that we would hire a coach to take us to our destination mainly because the weight of all the climbing gear would be more expensive and cumbersome if we flew.
In some ways it was also easier as we would be able to travel from door to door without having to organize transfers.
It was the end of July when we set off early one morning as it was close to a 24 hour drive even having two drivers to avoid any long rest stops. The one advantage though was that we could take a few beers on the coach to help while away the journey. Mostly it was games of cards or reading which filled in the time.
The drivers did a brilliant job in keeping to our schedule and mid morning on the second day we were climbing slowly up a winding snake of a road to the hanging valley above us where our destination of Kandersteg was situated. The driver called for one of the organizers to come to the front of the coach with directions to the chalet. It was quite easy to find as there was only one major road running through the village and we were soon parked outside.
The caretaker was waiting for us and showed the guys to a storage room that had been allocated to store all of our gear. We were then shown up to one of the bedrooms and I was quite surprised to see that the sleeping arrangements were made up of four what I learned were called 'Alpine Beds'.
An alpine bed for those who don't know is a large mattress laid on the floor upon which you place your sleeping bags and or blankets. In this room each of the four could accommodate 10 people. We were a party of twenty-one.......and me being the youngest you can guess who had to sleep on my own....not that it really worried me. They are usually boxed in by some sort of storage space to place bags and shoes etc. and often are a place to sit on top of. It's a cost effective way for young people to travel and stay abroad.
The caretaker told us there was a party of fifteen French people who would be sharing the room with us arriving the next day.
Anyway we got ourselves sorted and decided that we would have a quick bite of lunch and then have a wander around the small town. Nicely refreshed we had a look at the large map on the wall and it was obvious that it was a linear town....running along the valley with one main road parallel to a swift running shallow river fed from the glacier melt. There were several footbridges that crossed the river and joined up with a graveled path that ran alongside the railway line.
The railway was electrified and at the head of the valley disappeared into a long tunnel through the mountains and ended up in Italy.
We ambled along the road looking into various shops until we reached the head of the valley then crossed the river and strolled back to the chalet along the path. We had booked an evening meal for our first night and were all glad to eat more than the snack food we had in the coach.
After eating the two groups planned their activities for the following day. There was a strict rule in the chalet that lights out was at 10:00 pm.....allowing for up to eight hours sleep before an alarm woke everyone at 6:00 am with a continental breakfast served from 6:30. This was to enable all the groups staying at the chalet to get on with their activities.
The climbing group decided on some local climbs in the valley and with the walking group we decided to go from the 4000ft height of the valley up a ziz-zag footpath into a side valley and walk to Blausee.
The path was quite steep and as it was our first walk we didn't rush. In all it was a 1200ft change in height and most people were a bit breathless at the top. The views down to Kandersteg were beautiful on that clear sunny day. We continued our walk in this higher valley to the lake at Blausee. It was only a small circular lake but was renowned for the blueness of the water. We stayed there for a snack then explored the valley a little before retracing our steps back to the chalet.
The climbing group was already back and was sat in the dining room area with smirks all over their faces. 'You'll never guess who is sharing our room' was whispered quite loudly. 'Go on' one of our group said. 'They are a French walking group......late 30's early 40's. ALL FEMALE'.