What’s special about this region? 

The Bernese Oberland is a huge wilderness area , dominated by the Aletsch Glacier, the biggest glacier in the European Alps. The area is quite remote. There’s the railway up to the Jungfraujoch which gives access to the edge of it, but then there is a huge glacier region with very little infrastructure apart from a few huts.

There is a lot of variety in the climbing in and it’s especially good for ski touring.

Any particular challenges?

The distances you travel or often quite long, involving a lot of glacier walking.  Apart from the Moench and the Jungfrau, everything else requires a day to get there.

What do you say to clients about this region?

I think it’s well worth going there for a few days. It’s quite different from mountaineering in places like Alaska or New Zealand because of the huts.  When the huts are wardened you don’t have to carry any food at all. You can buy beer or wine at the hut and have a nice meal cooked for you. Even when the huts are not catered, they are still heated. The level of comfort in these huts is a lot higher than a backcountry hut in New Zealand.

Special requirements of the clients?

People need to be ‘pack fit’ to make the most of the area.