In the automotive industry, “GT” stands for Grand Touring and describes the vehicle class of street sports cars. Among mountain guides, “GT” means glacier trekking, more leisurely than sporty - but grand touring indeed! Most of the time you walk there for hours and kilometers. It may not be the supreme discipline of mountain sports, but the experience is still incredibly intense.
The start was exciting. More or less on the Jungfraujoch, Adi Büschlen (another guide) and I decide to swap our guests for scheduling reasons. Instead of a group of 8, I now have a group of 4 and instead of two, I'm "on the road" for three days: Konkordia-Hollandia-Lötschenlücke. The Hollandia hut is already closed, but we should find perhaps the best winter room the Alps have to offer.
My four guests are scientists, earthquake experts, we quickly find ourselves in intersting conversations. Occasionally I remember something from my own student days. S-waves, P-waves, sure… here we go. We leave the Jungfraujoch with a few other rope teams.
It always seems to me like an armada of ships leaving the harbor and heading for the next landing point called Konkordia. The hut sits like a lighthouse high above the glacial sea. Until then it's GT as usual, the Konkordia hut is full to the brim but enjoyable, the curry lentil soup is great. From the cozy terrace you had no idea how exciting the next day was going to be.
While all other ships set off for Fiesch the next day, we head to the west. Soon meter-high ice waves pile up, a labyrinth of crevices as an amuse-bouche. We look for our way past impressive ice formations, finding a path through here and there. The route to Hollandia leads around the Cape of Good Hope. But we won't let ourselves be sunk.
Finally, we tackle steep climbing along the chain path to the Hollandia hut, which is lonely waiting for us. We enjoy 20 eggs, 2.5 kilos of hash browns and a meringue dessert. And while it gets cozy inside, the Milky Way passes by.
We look deep into the sky for a long time, discovering planets, stars and satellites. Questions and answers.
- Will humanity ever be able to reach another star?
Only if we succeed in folding space.
- Alien life?
Pretty sure. But it would only be detectable for us humans if the foreign civilization was in a similar stage to ours and was sending out radio waves.
Either the strangers aren't ready yet. Or already over it. In other words: they have wiped themselves out. That's why it's quiet in space. Suddenly the mountains around us seem very small.
The next day everything is big again. The path to Fafleralp is long. The landscape is an impressive natural spectacle, but also a dramatic one. The edges of the Lang-Glacier have melted far below, icy fins rear up as if they were revolting against the inevitable. We are in the process of wiping ourselves out.
When we were sitting under parasols at Fafleralp, back in civilization, a rockfall thundered into the Lötschenlücke. A brown cloud of dust hangs in the valley for a while. Then this GT ends, which for once didn't just take place on the ground.
How much longer will we be sending radio waves? And will the next species, which considers itself the most intelligent in space, search for us in vain?
The bus leaves at 1:18 p.m.
Photography by Laurentiu Danciu
