Kakani International Training Centre, Nepal

This week, I have been on my travels visiting Kakani International Training Centre in Nepal.
This is a small Scout Centre about 23km away from Kathmandu, the capital located high on a ridge at about 2000m altitude on the edge of Shivapuri National Park. They have just under 44 hectares of land running down each side of the ridge.

The main Dormitory building at Kakani, with the 8000m peak of Manaslu in the background

At Kakani, they have many fantastic - eco ideas to make themselves incredibly sustainable and eco friendly, so we will run a series of eco-blogs about Kakani so that more people can see some of the incredible work that they are doing here.

One of the main things that they do at Kakani is grow a lot of their own food and this first blog will look at their food production.

Tea is the main drink here and is consumed morning, noon and night. Ask any pinkie and they will tell you the importance of a good Tea Break.... At Kakani they have 20,000 tea plants within their grounds which currently produce 8kg of tea each year. That's a whole lot of tea, but only fills about half of their needs. As the tea plants grow and more plants are planted they hope to make all that they need.

Eco can be refreshing! Fresh tea bubbling away at Kakani on the solar oven

Aside from all of this tea, Kakani provides food for itself by keeping chickens, goats, having a greenhouse and nursery to grow vegetables and having over 20,000 fruit trees - which mainly go into Jam. Kakani produces a lot of the food that it needs and then buys the rest from the local community, reducing food miles and helping the local economy.

The Greenhouse at Kakani

As everyone who has tried our Secret Life of Bees activity knows, bees are under threat worldwide and are really important not only for making honey, but also for pollenating our crops. So it was really good to find the bee hives at Kakani and see the bees doing what bees do best - making honey. True to form the bees here are under threat and only 3 of the 8 hives were inhabited. The bees here are being bullied and chased away by the somewhat frightening Asian Giant Hornets which are after the honey. A sting from this bad boy of the insect world can kill a human and the bees have little or no defence against them.

Inside one of Kakani's bee hives

Look out for future eco blogs about Kakani Internaitonal Training Centre - or if you want to learn more visit their website www.kakani.org

Jonathan (UK)

Programme Director

New Recycling Centres

For many people it does not sound that exciting, but here at KISC it has happened... we have new recycling centres all over our buildings!!

As I am one of the many Staff who deal daily with rubbish and recycling I am always keen to make our system more eco friendly, and, at the same time easy for our guests.

Swiss recycling is a very complex system and different from systems in other countries. This is why we try to make it easy and educational for our guests from all over the world.

But what’s new?

All our recycling centres are now exactly the same- and colour coded! 

The different containers have examples on them so it is no longer necessary to read the English to find the right container!

Happy recycling!

Michael (DE)

Maintenance Manager

Snow & Ice

Coming from a hot Mediterranean country when I think about ice it`s usually in a glass with a nice cocktail but this week I learnt there`s much more to it! After ice skating for the first time during our last staff night out and enjoying every second of it, I was looking forward to the Snow & Ice Combo up on the Frunden glacier with some other staff members and our awesome guides Eoin (IE) and Darren(ZA).

 

Glaciers are pretty awesome things and here’s 10 facts about them:

1. They are persistent bodies of ice that form when snow and ice don’t melt and keep accumulating for centuries.
2. Glaciers are constantly moving downwards or flow like a frozen river.
3. The Taku Glacier in Alaska is the thickest glacier in the world; almost 1.5km thick!
4. Glacier melt comes from both the ice that’s melting at the top of the glacier due to the sun’s heat but also from the bottom due to the heat from friction caused by the flow.
5. As glaciers move they eat away at the surrounding rock to eventually form valleys that have a U shape like the Gasterntal!
6. Crevasses form due to differences in glacier velocity as parts move at different speeds and directions, forces cause two sections to break apart, opening the crack of a crevasse.
7. The fastest glacier moves between 20-30m a day!
8. Even the planet Mars has glaciers!
9. When walking on a glacier one has to be very careful to avoid going over snow bridges that might have formed over crevasses since these are unstable and one might fall through!
10. You should spend more time on glaciers because it’s great fun!

 

 

During our time on the glacier we learnt how to walk safely being tied to each other, using ice axes and crampons. Progress across a glacier is sometimes slow because one has to negotiate crevasse jumps and check if the ice is stable enough for people to walk on. We also simulated a crevasse rescue where we were lowered into a crevasse and the remaining team rigged up a system to lift the person back up to safety which is what would be done in a real life situation.

 

So now you know a bit more about glaciers and how awesome they are I ask you to do one simple thing to give them a hand! Always switch off the lights when you’re not using them because global warming is a glacier’s worst enemy as it causes accelerated melting! So go out there and save those glaciers!

 

See you on the ice!

 

Jean-Marc (MT)

STS Summer 2012

New Eco badge

If you have been at KISC, I’m sure you’ve passed the tunnel on the way to the chalet from the campsite. Also I’m sure you’ve seen the beautiful art drawings on the wall such as the KISC Crystal, the Swiss flag, or the different badges.

A few weeks ago, we made some changes to our tunnel. One of them is………….

Ta da ~ KISC’s new Eco badge!! It’s so cool, isn’t it? Nobody has got the new badge yet. Come to KISC and get it!! Don’t know the way to earn the badge?

Let me tell you about it.

Eco is one of our 3 programme themes here at KISC (International Friendship, Eco and High Adventure). For each section we offer a bunch of guided and unguided activities you can do during your stay.

For the Eco award we have 5 activities you can participate in, divided in two different areas. You should complete 4 items from each area to gain the Eco award. One area is called ‘Natural World’. In this area you go out and explore and learn about nature. The other area is called ‘Eco Actions’ in which you can learn how to co-exist with nature and what you can do to protect the environment we live in.

Natural World

1. Take part in the Evolving Alps Hike
2. Complete the Gemmipass Eco Hike or the Electrifying Oeschinensee Adventure
3. Get more then 75 points in the Eco-I-Spy
4. Take part in a Centre Guided Hike, Snow & Ice activity, Climbing activity or any Winter activity
5. Go Bat Watching or stargazing with our Astronomy Activity

Eco Actions

1. Follow the Green Campsite Trail
2. Finish the Green Chalet Trail
3. Take part in the Solar Power Experience
4. Go to the Eco room, look at the displays and do one of the unguided activities using the leaflets there
5. Take part in The Secret Life of Bees

Find out more information about the different activities on our homepage. Why not be the first person who gets the new badge?!

Hye Mee (KR)

STS Summer 2012

 

Solar Power

As you already should know, there's a lot of cool stuff going on around the Centre. Did you know that you can easily pop popcorn with help from just a mirror and the sun?

I didn't, but today I was trying out what our Greenpeace guys are teaching our guests every day – Solar Power Experience.  It was pretty amazing. 

The earth fits 1.3 million times in the sun if you compare the sizes. It's huge! 

It's actually more than enough of energy to get from the sun to meet all of our energy needs. Isn't that cool?

So we started up with a description of the suns size compared to the earth. Can you see the little needle compared to the big ball? But the distance is not true in this picture..

We tried to heat a stove with only the help of some mirrors pointed in the suns directions. It warmed up really quickly. 

They also had a quiz with really good questions that you learned a lot from. A European uses fourteen times much energy than a person living in India, and an American twice as much as a European..  

And what makes an activity better than popcorn? Just a few seconds and the popcorn was all over the place. The heat goes up to 200 degrees in there.

Then we were using magnifiers to burn into wood, I was so amazed about this, it was so easy and fast. 

As you can tell from my words, there's a lot of amazing things you can try with just power from the sun. And if you want to make the world a better place, you should start using solar power instead of anything else, because as you can tell we have loads of it. And KISC loves to be ECO friendly as you know!

  

Kristina Bogren (SE)

STS Summer 2012

Magic Forests

In the early 1900s people with illnesses related to their lungs, like turbeculosss, went on pilgrimage to the "fresh air of the alps" to get rest and hopefully get better. Infact the air is cleaner than most of Europe. An easily seen indicator of that can be seen in the woods from Kummenalp to Ferden during any of the hikes going over the Lötschenpass. The indicator is lichens.

Lichens are organisms consisting of one fungus and usually one alga. Lichens are very tough organisms when it comes to clima. They can i.e. be found in deserts, in arctic places, rain forests, rocky coasts etc. They need no soil to be able to grow, because they take the water directly from the air. The fungus part takes care of collecting water and the alga part takes care of providing the organism with energy through photosynthesis.

The way they collect water though, makes them very vulnerable to air pollution and especially a substance called Sulfur dioxid (SO2). Sulfur dioxid comes mainly from petroleum and therefor cars, motorcycles, planes, industries and power plants. Fortunatly the air here in the alps is clean enough so that these magic forests may be. Lets keep it that way!

Simon (SE)

Summer High Season 2012

Juicinator - The Juice Maker

One of the newest Eco activities available at KISC is the Juicinator! But what is the Juicinator?!

The Juicinator is an old bike that has been given new life, by our hardworking Pinkie crew, as a man powered juice-maker. In less than 5 minutes you can blend your own custom juice or smoothie, using just the strength of your own two legs.

But how does it work? The back wheel of the Juicinator is pressed against a much smaller wheel that turns the blades of a blender. So as people pedal the bike the blender whizzes to life. All parts used to convert the original bike are pre-loved… that’s right the entire bike is recycled to make this activity that much kinder to the environment.

The Juicinator ran for the first time this week, a very exciting moment, and the verdict so far has been glowing. Guests have loved the bike as well as the delicious smoothies that have resulted. We now have two recipe suggestions for people to try:

BP’s Favourite      
1 Handful Berries                                           
2 Oranges (squeezed or chopped)  
2 Kiwis                                                            
2 Spoons of Sugar 

Pinkie’s Twist

1 Handful Berries

2 Banana’s

2 Cups of Milk

1 Spoon of Sugar

Ana (PT)

Sarah-Jane (AU)

Summer 2012

Work in grounds, doing what?

About one month ago a very strong wind blew here in Kandersteg, this was the worst wind in 10 years. It came from the south and is locally called « foehn ». The next day about 340 trees were down on the ground or half standing on our campsite. This meant a lot of work for the staff team and the work parties who came to help us during spring. But what could we do?

First, the chainsaws started cutting the branches from all the tree trunks, then the trunks were cut into logs of one metre length. These were piled on the sides of the paths to leave the campsites clear. Luckily for us one week we had the Chainsaw Dutch Work Party who helped us and sped up this work.

The branches then needed to be put into the chipper. All the wood chips could be used to fill in any unsightly holes on the campsite and to create a soft ground around the challenge activities.

We then split the one meter logs and they were stored it in the wood compound areas. This wood can be used during campfires or to warm up the chalet with the woodburner.

Once the staff realised how much work needed to be done on the campsite they all came and helped during their free time. Thanks to our current team consisting of the Grounds Assistant, Sam (UK), the Maintenance Assistance, Michael (DE), with Jorge (ES) and Jesse (CA) as helpers. 

Natalia (CH)

STS Spring 2012

Water for Everybody!

Kandersteg produces 100% of the needed drinking water out of the Oeschinensee. This water isn’t only good for the fishes and the tourists to have a cold swim in it, its quality is also so high, that it can be used for drinking water.

Thirsty? Oeschinensee provides Kandersteg with delicious fresh water on tap!

At the upper hydro-electric power plant, water is collected both to generate electricity, and to become drinking water.

The UV light treatment process

Two simple steps are between lake water and the refreshing liquid we get out of our taps.

The first step is a natural filter the clean the water from glacial mineral, little stones and other big dirt. Water leaves Oeschinensee through the ground - the porous bedrock filters the water before it flows out of the ground upstream of the turbines.

In the second step the water gets treated with UV light to kill all the germs. And that is it already! No chlorine or other chemicals need to be added. The water is constantly monitored for cleanliness and is consistently many times cleaner then the recommended limit. 

The average use of Kandersteg is at about 1000l/hour. But per hour Kandersteg can also produce about 2500l of fresh water. So there is no danger that you ever run out of water in Kandersteg!

The overflow comes out of water fountains all around the village.

So come and enjoy one of the best and freshest waters of Switzerland.

Michael Geyer (DE)

Maintenance Assistant

Electricity in Kandersteg

For the most of us water comes out of the tap and electricity comes out of a socket. But who knows where both are actually coming from?? We do!!

On our last Staff Night Out the Pinkies had the possibility to see all this.

Jack (UK), Pedro (PT) and Melanie (UK) finding out all where their electricity comes from

Kandersteg produces 85% of it’s electricity needs with it’s own hydro-electric power plants powered by the rivers coming down from Oeschinensee and from the Ueschinen valley.

In fact in summer Kandersteg produces more electricity then it uses and sells the excess to the rest of Switzerland. In winter, water levels are lower and some electricity has to be brought in.

Inside the control room at LWK

Together with our guides from the Water and electricity supplier – the LWK, we saw all three power plants with the different turbines.

The oldest turbines are from the 1940’s and the newest one is from 2010.

Producing its own electricity with water has a long tradition in Kandersteg. The first power plants were built in the early 1900’s to electrify the hotels in town.

Inside the original power plant at Oeschiwald

From those early days Kandersteg grew and so did the power plants.

It is quite impressive how this little village in the Swiss Alps tries to be independent and environmental friendly at the same time.

Producing electricity with water doesn’t cause any CO2 or anything dangerous for the environment.

The only thing which gets produced besides electricity is heat from the turbines. But this heat gets used to heat the LWK’s headquarters, Kandersteg Village School and the local swimming pool. Everything is taken care of… Swiss efficiency!!

One of the modern turbines at LWK. The turbine is blue and connects to the generator (red) which produces electricity. The silver box heats water to heat the building using excess heat from the generator

If you want to hear about our drinking water, then wait for our next blog!

Michael Geyer (DE)

Maintenance Assistant



A Story Of Frogs

It’s spring time at Kandersteg! After a very sunny and warm March, April is (until now) cloudy and alternates between rain and snow with a little bit of sunshine.  Even if it is quite annoying you can consider it as typical “April weather” for this region. This constantly changing weather in April is triggered by a big temperature gradient between Northern Europe and Southern Europe in spring. The air temperature tries to balance itself bringing constant weather changes in Central Europe.

Pinkie checking out the frog eggs



The frogs around the Centre don’t seem impressed by the changing weather and are happily reproducing themselves.

One lunch time we had the chance to observe them at close range around the Centre. Their behavior raised plenty of questions and lead to an interesting discussion about what they are exactly doing, where they come from and where they’ve spent the winter.

I did some research and I would like to introduce you to the secret life of the frogs.

Frogs are hibernating animals, they “sleep away” the winter and when spring arrives the animal “wakes up” again. A high concentration of glucose in the frog’s vital organs prevents them from freezing. When they wake up from their winter dormancy they migrate to their breeding sites. The female frogs lays between a hundred to a thousand eggs while the male attaches itself to the female’s back to fertilize the eggs. This position is called “Amplexus”. The male frog sits on top of the female’s back and grasps behind her front legs around her middle section. This can actually last for several days.



The "Amplexus" position



Did you know that frogs are a good sign for an intact environment? Having lots of frogs in an area tells you that the environment is healthy and complete. If for some reason frogs are suddenly missing, then this is telling us about problems in our environment. The frogs are also beneficial to humans because they eat so many insect pests. So it is an important matter to protect them.

Many frogs don’t survive the migration because there are many roads to cross. How can you help?

Make people aware that there is a place where a lot of frogs are crossing the street. In some streets there are constructions built to prevent frogs crossing these roads. In the evening people go and collect the frogs in baskets and then carry them across the busy roads.

So in conclusion the KISC frogs say “quak, quak”.

Irene Vontobel (CH)

Eco Assistant

 

 

 

 

The Awesomeness of Bikes at KISC

Arguably the most amazing aspect to life at KISC is the fact that you’re living and working with people from all over the world.  The “permanent mini-jamboree” may be a cliché, but it is a very real part of the KISC experience.

We’re a bunch of internationals living in a high and enclosed valley in the Bernese Oberland, but we’re certainly not cut off from the outside world.  There’s trains connecting us to the north and south, two cable cars and one gondola in the village allowing for quick access to the higher alps, and besides all that there’s plenty of activities going on in the village all year round.

This is all good, because from the point of view of someone coming from outside Europe, you don’t want to be (or even to feel) closed in.  This is where bikes are especially important. They’re a relatively quick, cheap, and easy form of personal transport, and they’re also a very environmentally friendly way of getting around.  Not only do you not need to use any fossil fuels for the trip, but the extra physical activity is healthy and highly enjoyable too.  It’s great that KISC offers the staff free bikes to use whenever they like, because it frees us up to go and enjoy the outdoors whenever we can. They're particularly useful for getting to and from our local ski slopes though the winter

Sure, sometimes there’s snow and ice on the roads, but though this requires some extra care it’s not too much of a hassle to navigate over safely.  There’s also other cars and buses moving about the village, but the drivers of these vehicles are all proceeding with caution too so they’re no great danger.  There’s really no significant reason not to use bikes to ride around Kandersteg.

Sometimes being environmentally friendly means putting in a little extra effort for the good of the planet.  In this case it’s the opposite; riding a bike to the slopes is a far more attractive option than other forms of transport – the environmental friendliness of this means of getting around is a bonus.  The most appealing feature is the independence it provides, you can go whenever and wherever you like.

Unless you’re a European who brings their own car to KISC, bikes are pretty much the only option for personal transport.  Bike riding can become a habit, a habit you can take back home.  Because if bikes can be a good option for getting around town in the middle of winter in the Swiss Alps, then why don’t we use them more in our more comfortable lives in our home countries?

Eco - Skiing

Skiing is the flavour of the month here at KISC right now.

With some record snowfalls and sub zero temperatures this season, ski conditions couldn’t be better and there is nothing that we like more then a ski day here in the Swiss Alps.

Skiing is one of the best ways to get out into nature in the winter and enjoy our mountain environment.
But Skiing is certainly not the most eco friendly activity around – man made snow, ski lifts, mountain restaurants and man made ski pistes bulldozed into the mountain all pollute in different ways.

So we were interested to see what actions our local ski resorts were taking to try and minimise their impact.

Adelboden is our nearest large ski resort – with a staggering 31 lifts and 53 different ski runs spread over a large area and they are trying some new eco-initiatives this winter season:  

• The Aebi chairlift, one of the main lifts in the network, is committed to using only green energy through the winter to power it.
• Snowmaking at Adelboden is free from chemicals - just water and air are used.

• They have invested in the latest Piste machine, to groom the pistes at Aebi, with far lower emissions then normal
• The longest piste at Aebi, now has an “Energy” ski run with signs informing skiers of their eco policy.

There is still some way to go at Adelboden - it would be awesome to see the initiatives spread from the Aebi area to the whole ski area.

But it is great to see that they have made a start and are considering the environmental impact of skiing.

That is all for now on Ecoblog - it is time to hit the slopes!

The Colour Changing Kander River

The Kander River flows in front of the main chalet here at KISC.

The Kander River in Winter

This river is an on-going mystery to our guests since it regularly varies in colour. It changes from blue to brown to green and sometimes even appears colourless.

To explain the colour changes within this river you must follow the river upstream to its source.

The Kander River is sourced from the Kanderfirn glacier. As glaciers migrate they erode the rock beneath pulling fine grained sediment into suspension. This suspended sediment is called natural rock flour.

The Kanderfirn Glacier

The river colour changes depending on the quantity and type of rock flour.

Rivers containing a lot of glacial flour turn the water a milky brown colour, this gets stronger with high precipitation levels.

In conditions where fine silt and clay particles are suspended they absorb all but the blue wavelengths giving the water a strong blue colour.

Often the river appears a turquoise colour when it is full of quartz and feldspar minerals and meeting with larger bodies of water.

If you look out the window at the Kander River today it is a murky brown colour this is due to the ongoing modification work on the river bed. Keep watching KISC ECO BLOG for more information soon.



Avalanche!!

The snow just keeps on coming here in Kandersteg!

Whilst this brings great conditions for Winter Sports it also brings dangers with the potential for avalanches.

Avalanches are a spectacular example of the forces of nature in action and are perhaps the most significant natural hazard in the snow covered mountains surrounding Kandersteg.

There are two kinds of avalanche, loose snow avalanches which start from a single point and slab avlanches which occur when a whole layer of snow breaks away.

Loose snow avalanches are often harmless and do not reach high speeds, however slab avalanches can devistate large areas and can reach speeds of up to 200-300km an hours if the conditions allow.

Slab avalanches can occur by natural means.  If after heavy snowfall the snow layers do not bond together sufficently, weak sections and fractures can form across the snow pack which can grow and grow until the whole layer falls away leading to an avalanche.  These fragile layers can also be transformed into slides by snowsports partcipants.  If they are unfortunate enough to be in the avalanches path this is often enough to bury the person.  In order to ensure safe skiing and snowboarding in resorts teams of engineers are on call to trigger avalanches artificially with the use of explosives.

The timing and location of avalanches are notriously hard to predict, however it is possible to estimate the likelyhood of an avalanche occuring.  Here at KISC we print the local avalanch bulletin daily to ensure all of our guests are equipped with the most up to date information on the conditions in the local area.

For more information on avalanches check out http://www.slf.ch/lawineninfo/index_EN