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Arolla 2011

Submitted by David Pettit on Fri, 08/07/2011 - 16:16

Duffers' Arolla Trip - Summer 2011

Camping Arolla Bertol

6th-21st August 2011

  • Jon
  • Amy
  • Ian
  • Emma
  • David

Campsite

Transport

Outward:

  • Jon, Amy and David in Jon's car. Depart evening of Friday 5th, stop overnight somewhere, arrive afternoon of Saturday 6th.
    Tunnel: Folkestone to Calais, check-in closes 20:20, departs 20:50, arrives 22:25
  • Ian and Emma travelling independently, arriving in Arolla Saturday 6th.

Outbound hotel

Mister Bed Lille Lomme - 36EUR for a triple room!

Return:

  • All in Jon's car. Depart on Friday 19th or Saturday 20th, stop somewhere en route, arrive evening of Saturday 20th.
    Tunnel: Calais to Folkestone, check-in closes 19:36, departs 20:06, arrives 19:41

  • Ian and Emma have booked train back from Huntingdon at 9.21 on Sun 21st. Hope that fits ok with someone giving us a lift there if possible. DP: I can give you a lift.

Return camping

~11 hrs driving Arolla-Calais, + breaks http://route

Can we do it in one, or is that going to kill us? How many drivers are we having? Need to leave time for breaks + possible Sat traffic. Would save moving for 1 night though.

Possible hotel: Mister Bed Strasbourg (29EUR per triple room)

Possible camping locations: Aigle (1hr15 from Arolla), Fribourg (2hrs), Basel area (3hrs), Offenburg (4hrs), Strasbourg (4hr30). Haven't searched for actual sites yet. This assumes we are going the Germany route.

Food ideas / requests

Will think more about this tomorrow, but we should aim to be as many non-perishables as possible tomorrow.... I don't plan on being non-perishable!

Breakfast

  • Cereal - muesli + branflakes?
  • UHT milk
  • Tea - normal and mint
  • Soya milk

Lunches

  • Could take a few bags of bagels as an initial bread stock
  • Salami type sausages
  • John West tinned tuna and sweetcorn in mayo
  • Cheese (buy there?)
  • Vegetable paté
  • Peanut butter
  • Squeezy honey
  • Blocks of chocolate - mix of dark, fruit and nut
  • Mars bars
  • Peanuts
  • Dried fruit and nut mix / dried fruit - anything available for reasonable price
  • Malt loaves
  • Cereal bars - not as many as last year!

Evening Meals

  • Big bags of crisps for sharing
  • Biscuits

  • Cup-a-soups

  • Beer: Some traditional alps lager might be good. Supermarkets often sell boxes of 250/330ml bottles called something like 'Tesco French lager' which is actually imported and nice.

Some initial ideas, please add and amend:

  • Curry (Indian and Thai) - rice, coconut milk, curry paste, chickpeas, veg
  • Stir fry - noodles, veg, soy sauce or some other vegan sauce?
  • Is vegan pesto available? Yes! (AB) If so, pesto pasta + veg-
  • Tinned Stagg(?) veggie chilli is decent, + rice
  • Tomato-based pasta slop with optional salami (buy as whole dried sausage) or tuna
  • Fajitas - wraps + sauce + veg
  • Risotto - risotto rice + stock cubes + veg
  • BBQ (in the sun this year) - take out a disposable or two and buy meat etc there
  • Bolognese - Soya mince + tinned tomatoes + veg + pasta

Lots of tinned veg could be an option to add to meals. So could meat!

Shopping list to buy

Sandwich or freezer bags

Gear

Shared

  • Tents: DP, IP, Jon
  • Stoves: DP, IP, Jon
  • Gas/fuel: If all 3 of us take some there should be plenty - again, cheaper than buying over there.
  • Ropes: Ian, Jon
  • Rack: Ian - nuts, hexes, quickdraws. DP - I have two slings and three quickdraws. Jon - Possibly buying some. If you want to buy some, I'd strongly recommend as being cheap and light. I bought 2x12cm, 6x18cm, 2x25cm, and added 3x60cm slings - on non-sport routes I steal krabs from the short QDs and make slingdraws for long extenders and spikes.
  • Ice screws: IP, EF, JM. AB and DP to buy.

Journey

  • Hi-vis vests: One each compulsory. IP, EF will brign theirs.
  • Swiss motorways have a 'Vignette' system. Do not drive onto a motorway without one - stick to the windscreen, usually top corner passenger side. Often you will be on motorway as soon as you cross the border, so either buy online http://here (never done it), from a German service station near the border, or pull over at the border and buy one in the kiosk.

Individual

  • Harness
  • Helmet
  • Ice axe
  • Crampons
  • Krabs
  • Belay plate
  • Prusiks
  • Teddy bear
  • She-wees
  • Knee tape (Jon only)

Route ideas

From Dix Hut:
La Luette (F+/PD-)
Pigne d'Arolla (F)
Mont Blanc du Cheilon (PD-/PD)
Hut details: 61 CHF members, 72 CHF non-members, phone 0041(0)272811523

From Vignettes Hut:
L'Eveque (PD)
Hut details: 61 CHF members, 72 CHF non-members, phone 0041(0)272831322

From http://Bouquetins hut:
Mont Brule (PD-)
Hut details: 18 CHF members, 27 CHF non-members (no food available I think?), phone 0041(0)218454944

From Bertol Hut:
Tete Blanche (F)
Dents de Bertol (F)
Hut details: 59 CHF members, 69 CHF non-members, phone 0041(0)272831929

  • Maps: Ian - 1:50000 (borrowed). DP will buy one/some to cover whatever we do. Jon - Ian, which do you know the numbers of the maps we want?
  • 1:50000 = 283 Arolla. Also Kompass 115 - Val d'Anniviers, Montana, Val d'Herens (available on Amazon too).
  • 1:25000 = probably split over 1327, 1346, 1347.
  • Sometimes other publishers have walking maps available locally that cover a better area on 1:25000.

  • This shop were efficient last year

  • Guidebooks: Valais Alps West (Alpine club) (Ian - borrowed), Schweiz Plaisir Alpin (optional extra), Valais walking guide (Kev Reynolds) (will try to photocopy - Ian)

One can look at maps online at MapPlus and Wanderland

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