Figure 1.-- During the Summer our Scout troop always held a 2-week long Summer camp somewhere on one of the Alpine meadows. This terminated always with a 2 or 3-day long hike over the Alps. Summer camp for Swiss Scouts was a process that generally started in the Spring. I have some photographs of the first Scout Summer camp my father organizedfor the Scouts from Montana and Sierre. Here is the kitchen that first year.

During the Summer our Scout troop always held a 2-week long Summer camp somewhere on one of the Alpine meadows. This terminated always with a 2 or 3-day long hike over the Alps. Summer camp for Swiss Scouts was a process that generally started in the Spring. I have some photographs of the first Scout Summer camp my father organized for the Scouts from Montana and Sierre. It was not far away, as it was in 1941, just above Montana on one of the Alpine meadows. I was too young to join in the camp, but I heard all the stories about it from my brothers and couldn't wait until I could join in the adventure. My real first Scout-camp experience was in 1947 when I went to summer-camp under the leadership of my brother who was 7 years older. We went to an location near St. Moritz and camped right near one of the lakes. The lake was much too cold to swim in it, but we had to go there to wash up. A lot of my Scouting experiences were at my boarding school which had an active Scout troop. The one thing our school troop did not do was summer camping. All of us after spending so much time at school, were anxious to spend the summer at home with our families.

First Montana and Sierre Scout Camp (1941)

During the Summer our Scout troop always held a 2-week long Summer camp somewhere on one of the Alpine meadows. This terminated always with a 2 or 3-day long hike over the Alps. Summer camp for Swiss Scouts was a process that generally started in the Spring. I have some photographs of the first Scout Summer camp my father organized for the Scouts from Montana and Sierre. It was not far away, as it was in 1941, just above Montana on one of the Alpine meadows. The pictures show, how primitive the instalations were, as eveything had to be built by the scouts. I was too young to join in the camp, but I heard all the stories about it from my brothers and couldn't wait until I could join in the adventure. I was much too you to participate in this summer-camp in 1941, but I vividly remember hiking up to it and visiting it.

My First Scout Camp (1947)

My real first Scout-camp experience was in 1947 when I went to summer-camp under the leadership of my brother who was 7 years older. We went to an location near St. Moritz and camped right near one of the lakes. The lake was much too cold to swim in it, but we had to go there to wash up. We had to cook all our meals and the lodging was rather primitive. We had built an rope-slide form the hand-built latrine to the camp site. So we could slide down after having done our business. Most of our activites were around camping-skills. Halfway through the camp my mother had sent us fresh clothing. As it was just 2 years after the end of World War II, lots of things were still rationed. With the goodness of her heart, she had packed a bottle of oil to improve our cooking. Unfortunately the bottle brocke in transit and my borthers and my clothing were soaked in oil .... The highlight of the camp came at the end. We took a 3-day hike through the high mountains and valleys of the Grisons. One night we stayed in the highest year-round inhabited village in the Alps, called Juf. One day, we were washing our pots on one of the streams. The pot got away from us and went down toward a water-lock. Some Scouts opened the lock to try to retrieve the pot. Unfortunately they were not aware that with that action they diverted the water away from the local village-powerplant and the village got blacked out. Naturally the inhabitants were not very happy with us. These are some of the vivid memories. I recall that this hike was very tough and I thought I would never get to the end. Just 11-years old this made very proud of my self. I think the self confidence I got from Scouting helped a lot when I went off the boarding school the following year.

Boarding School (1948)

A lot of my Scouting experiences were at my boarding school which had an active Scout troop. The one thing our school troop did not do was summer camping. All of us after spending so much time at school, were anxious to spend the summer at home with our families.

Sources

Voute, Tom. E-mail message, June 8-10, 2006.