Vital Adventures!
By Sally Lisle
Our first view of Piz Palu (3900m)
In June, when I would normally be having my busiest time of year working, gallivanting in the hills keeping people safe (or better yet teaching them to keep themselves safe), I found myself with a completely blank diary. Not only this but I was banned from the mountains of Snowdonia where I would normally find joy, release and meaning in my life. My friend Nick was in the same boat and so, after weeks of debate and uncertainty, on the 1st of July we committed and travelled to Switzerland in search of adventures. It was controversial. Should we travel? Morally? As climbers and mountaineers we are all so used to the management of risk, but in this new pandemic arena of life, had we made the right assessment?
Corona virus management strategies we employed:
We drove out in a van so we could completely control our sleeping arrangements each night. This also meant we could leave it to the last possible moment to pick our objectives – weather and snow conditions now superseded by an area’s Covid-19 infection rate as the deciding factor.
We picked the Eurotunnel rather than a ferry so we didn’t need to leave our vehicle.
We researched the most effective facemasks and were religious in wearing them indoors or around other people.
Washing hands and using hand sanitiser were regimented into daily life.
We took dehydrated meals – enough to bivi for all of our adventures if the huts were unsuitable. Thanks so much to ActivEat for supporting us and providing the most delicious dehydrated meals on the market.
Day one – a classic Swiss way marked path leading us up to the crag
Waking up on the side of a lake in Andermatt to the glorious sunshine and the sound of marmots calling us into the mountains that towered around us, I dared to start believing that all our best laid plans were actually going to work. We went to a café and ordered coffee (something neither of us had done in months). Then we sat outside, pausing to check we weren’t dreaming. The Swiss seemed to have an entirely different approach to the UK. Everywhere you looked systems were in place to ensure social distancing, temperature checks were in place before you ordered food or entered supermarkets, and everyone was patient - totally calm, respectful and always smiling. The situation wasn’t ruled by confusion and fear. Where we had just come from neighbours were telling on neighbours for going out for exercise more than once a day and wearing a mask somehow made people feel like you were accusing them of being infected. Sat in the sun drinking beautiful coffee there was a feeling - we’re in this together and we want you to be here. It took little time for our doubts to melt away and to get in to the nitty gritty of planning our first objectives.
Essential Swiss coffee for planning
We had such a successful trip – I think it was down to a few reasons.
Defining what a successful trip is in advance
Being really well suited climbing partners
Being organised and flexible
Remaining optimistic and trying
A healthy dose of sheer dumb luck
A successful trip to me is achieving your goals and not getting injured. It is really worth working out what’s important and what your goals are first. This is partly why I think Nick and I were perfect adventure buddies. All our goals were complementary. Nick needed to check out how corona virus was being managed in the huts to ensure his Pride Expeditions trip to the Haute Route could run safely. I really wanted to learn and hone some of my skills. Our shared aims were to have adventures, push ourselves, achieve some objectives that are hard for us and eat really tasty food. Part of what made us able to succeed was that we know each other so well; it is easy to be honest with each other about exactly how we’re feeling even if we don’t know why. This was particularly useful this time as both of us had had such an unusually long time away from climbing during lockdown so assessing how we were performing and feeling together was really helpful. It’s also great to know you’re able to trust the other’s judgement – Nick might make a different decision or solve a problem differently to me, but I know it’ll be safe. This is great sharing the fatigue that comes from being the main decision maker. Something else that made the pairing work was that our past experience differs significantly. I am always found on the rock. Wherever I am that’s my go to adventure, especially when granite is on offer. Nick is an all-round explorer, has oodles more experience on glaciers and is motivated by iconic mountaineering routes – giving me the perfect opportunity to learn from the expert, whilst still getting to feel competent and share knowledge being slick on the rock routes. So satisfying to share and enable/be enabled by someone to try harder in less familiar terrain.
Our tick list was LONG and covered all of Europe! A couple of weeks before our trip, with the weather and Covid restrictions/risks as clear as they were going to be, we brought our dream big objectives down to this short list…..
The Salbitschijen Südgrat and Westgrat
Piz Palü Traverse
So enough to go at then! We kept the options around Switzerland open blessed by the freedom and safety of being separated in the van (named Ifan).
One of those glorious rest day of prepping, the day before we headed up to the Badile
Being organised was even more crucial than usual in the Alps, but still just part of the process. As the huts were running on reduced capacity we needed to book them a few days in advance to there was a tad more reliance on the sheer dumb luck that the weather would play ball and behave as the forecast predicted. The hut guardians are mountain people and they were incredibly welcoming. They would bend over backward to enable you and even provided cooked dinner when we were late after a few of the bigger objectives.
Covid precautions varied between huts. There were usually sitting times for meals, with social distancing observed or at the very least screens dividing diners. We would be allocated a table and couldn’t help feeling a bit useless not being able to help out as is normal in huts. In the Salbitz hut our table was reserved with my very own beautiful blackboard place name - there we sat down in a little booth created by thick plastic shower curtains! So while the food systems felt bizarre, they all felt really safe. The sleeping arrangements were less reliable. The government had worked with the Swiss Alpine Club to come up with strict guidelines about maximum capacity and who could sleep in each room. Heidi at the Sasc Furä hut was the strictest and it felt wonderfully reliable. Unfortunately, a couple of huts were less scrupulous, choosing to email us directly when the booking system said they were full. It felt daft having such bomb proof systems around food and then to be put in bunk next to a stranger in a room of 8. I really do understand why the rules were deviated from and sympathise. It was not just about the loss of earnings the owners must have been suffering. The hut guardians I have met are kind hearted and so clearly passionate about sharing their space and enabling time in the mountains for as many people as possible. While this does not excuse it in my eyes, it did help to see the good natured intentions it came from. We chose to camp or bivi when we could, which also helped to keep costs down.
Beautiful named place setting
We had three weeks, achieved so many of our objectives and only had to turn around once on Bioncograt when the dubious weather window we were hoping for didn’t appear and the prospect of the day turning into a long, cold and viewless Scottish Winter suffer fest didn’t appeal.
So amazingly successful really. All goals ticked. Huts checked, skills learnt and refined, objectives achieved, LOTS of lovely food consumed and most importantly hearts and souls replenished.
A wealth of scientific studies have confirmed what we already know – nature and outdoor activities are associated with psychological well-being and healthy cognitive function. The positive impacts range from increased happiness, positive social interactions, sense of meaning and purpose in life, resilience, memory, attention, imagination and creativity. All of the courses I run for Far Out Coaching are driven with the aim to enable people to gain these benefits as well as any technical skills they are striving for. I cannot imagine a more important time in our lives to ensure we harness the power adventures in nature can bring us. We are going to be more able to work together, come up with, share and implement solutions to the incredibly difficult problems the pandemic continues to create and find joy and meaning in hard situations. So it is your responsibility – get outside, find a green space and plan adventures ☺ Do it safely and respectfully, but please do it.
