Andrey and I intended to climb the Schwarzhoren ob Grindelwald (2928m). We started a bit later than planned and couldn't park as close to the mountain as we wanted. Leaving the parked car at dawn we made good progress on frozen trails. There is still very little snow in the mountains and we also picked a Southerly approach. Still, by the time we reached the Schreckfeld at 2000 meters altitude we were digging our way through snow. This is a ski area and usually quite busy. Not on this day though. The snow is still not good enough for skiing and most lifts aren't running yet. Perfect for us. Unfortunately it became more and more obvious that we wouldn't reach our objective in time. We estimated at least three more hours to the summit which would leave us only little more than an hour of day light for the return. Maybe we shouldn't have picked the shortest day of the year for a 2000m ascent ;-) It was also getting dangerously warm, increasing the risk for avalanches. So we decided to scramble up the Schynenblatten instead. These are steep slopes (35° - 40°) connecting two ski areas. Turned out to be a lot of fun and provided a feeling of "mountaineering light". We arrived back at the car at sundown, proving we had made the right call not to go for the summit.
~+-1350m, ~22km
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