After racing the Jungfrau Marathon on Saturday, I spent the next few days in the Lauterbrunnen region. On Sunday the gang did an easy hike from Stechelberg to Trachselfauenen. Probably 4 or 5 miles roundtrip. It was a dreary morning with clouds filling the valley. It rained off and on during our hike. Luckily this wasn't race day weather. We caught a huge break having a rain free race.
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| Bit of an dreary, drizzly day on Sunday. |
On Monday, Fio and Riley headed back to Zurich. Riley to fly back to the States. Fio to go back to work. I hiked from Lauterbrunnen up to Gimmelwald.
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| Cemetery in Lauterbrunnen beneath Staubbachfall. |
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| Looking back at Lauterbrunnen as I climb out of town. |
Initially the hike was fine. Then it began to rain a bit. Then rain harder. Then get colder. And by the time I got to Gimmelwald, it started to turn to snow. Really glad this wasn't race day. Stayed at the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald for the next 3 days.
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| View from my room at Mountain Hostel. Began snowing as I arrived in Gimmelwald. |
When I woke up on Tuesday, the upper portions of the mountains had received significant amount of snowfall. My original plans were beginning to go by the wayside. I wouldn't be able to hike the Schilthorn in these conditions. The other hike I planned might still be possible. So I headed out the door with the idea of hiking to Oberhornsee.
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| Looking up at the top of the Schilthorn on Tuesday. Not gonna hike it in these conditions. |
This turned out to be a really fun hike. Once again I discovered that the Swiss don't like switchbacks. The trail climbed steeply out of the river valley up to Tanzboden. The other thing I discovered, is that Swiss cows, while providing excellent milk for chocolate and cheese, are all plotting something. Just look at this guy.
And this guy.
I don't know what it is. But they are up to something. It might just be obliterating trails. For the most part, even with the snowfall, following the trail was relatively straight forward. However, these cows completely destroyed any semblance of a trail in this area and took me about 20 to 30 minutes to figure out where to go.
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| Looking back at Murren (center left of pic) and Gimmelwald (below Murren in lower left of pic) |
Continuing on, I finally came across some footsteps of another hiker and route finding became very easy. The sun also had begun to peak in and out of the clouds.
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| Reaching Obersteinberg. |
When I reached Obersteinberg, I was a little tired of trudging thru the snow. Based on the signs, Oberhornsee was another hour away. And although the sun was peaking thru the clouds, I wasn't sure I wanted to climb any higher. I took a quick look around Hotel Obersteinberg. Then made the trek back to Gimmelwald, by way of Hotel Tschingelhorn. The sun would come out in full force and began to melt the snow. Most of my way back was clear of snow, but a bit muddy.
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| Hotel Tschingelhorn. The great thing about hiking in Switzerland, even in what seems remote areas, there are these places to stop and have food and drink. |
After about 6 hours hiking I arrived back in Gimmelwald. I would then trek up to Murren to make use of their rec center. By staying in the hostel, I received a free pass to the rec center. So each night I would end up walking up to Murren, using the hot tub at the rec center, then showered there, instead of paying 2 or 3 francs for a 5 min shower at the hostel. It is about 20 minute walk between the villages.
I could have taken this between the villages,
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| Cable car runs from Murren to Gimmelwald. |
But I would have missed out on this,
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| Herding cows thru Murren |
With the sun coming out in the afternoon, I was optimistic I might be able to climb the Schilthorn on Wednesday. But when I woke up on Wednesday morning, I got up to another foggy, cloudy day. I was uncertain what to do, but decided to head out anyway. If it was like Tuesday, the sun might come out and I would be bummed if I missed my chance to climb to the top. But if it stayed cloudy, or weather rolled in, there was a lower loop I could do on the mountain that still would be doable and likely enjoyable. I left the hostel unsure of what the day would bring.
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| Heading out of Gimmelwald on Wednesday Morning. |
The initial hike out of Gimmelwald (4490 ft) drops down into a river valley, to a low point of 4160 ft. As with any trail in this region, you pass by numerous waterfalls. Shortly the trail began to ascend. It quickly broke tree line at which point you can see the Piz Gloria, the hideout of Ernst Blofeld. The drawback to the hike from this direction, is the summit, with the restaurant on top, is visible for the majority of the time. Damn you Blofeld. And it seems so close and yet so far the entire way. It's like running on a beach. But the day was turning out to be great. The clouds had mostly cleared out, the sun came out, and it was comfortable temp. The idea of reaching the summit now seemed reasonable.
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| The top of the Schilthorn and Piz Gloria |
The initial trail leading out of Gimmelwald and into the river valley is a wide single lane dirt road. But as it climbs above treeline, it becomes a single track trail. Route finding is quite easy when there is no snow on the ground as the Swiss readily mark all their trails.
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| Well marked trail, when there is no snow. |
The trail climbs thru cow pastures into a basin. At 6690 feet, in the bowl of the basin is the Rotstock-Hutte.
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| Rotstock-Hutte |
Up until this point I hadn't seen anyone besides a few dozen cows. Stepping inside the hut, I found a half-dozen people sitting around having lunch. I grabbed a quick snack and pondered my next move. The wind had picked up as I reached the hut. I was worried a bit that the weather might be turning nasty and I still had nearly 3000 ft to climb. Not wanting to waste a window of opportunity to reach the summit, I quickly bid farewell to those in the hut and continued on my way.
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| Signs point the way. As if I couldn't tell where I needed to go. |
This is where the hike gets interesting. As stated before, I don't think the Swiss believe in switchbacks. The trail out of the basin up to the ridge, followed what I would guess was just a sheep/cattle trail. It went straight up. On the plus side, I was protected from the winds again and the clouds didn't look threatening.
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| Looking back down into the basin and hut. |
As the picture shows, you gain a lot of vertical quickly. Near the ridge, the route finding became more difficult. The were no cairns. With snow covering more of the ground on the ridge, you couldn't see the painted rocks. I also was working with a poor map. It was one of those freebies that are not drawn to scale, but is more like a ski trail map. It shows the mountains and the trails but not completely. I was approaching the summit from the "backside" and once I reached the ridge, the map didn't show how the trail reached the summit. I had looked for a decent trail map in Lauterbrunnen and Murren the days before, but nothing was all that great. No where near the quality of a Sky Terrain map. So I hadn't bought one. I was slightly worried that might be an issue. But I figured, having hiked a fair amount in the mountains, one generally gets the idea of where the trail should go. So I had to do a bit of bushwhacking (without the bushes), and soon found myself back on trail.
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| With snow, route finding is not so easy. Can't see painted rocks. |
Once on the ridge, around 8800ft, the trail became completely clear. But I was exposed to a vicious wind. I'm guessing consistent 20-30mph with gusts of 40-50. It was bad in sections. So bad I had to brace myself to stay standing. I was tiring quickly. This 45 mins of hiking really began to suck.
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| Winds were rough here, as I am totally exposed to them. |
As I got closer to the top, and into some rocks, I was once again protected from the wind. And the route got fun. Up until this point, this was purely a Class 2 climb. A hard Class 2 because of the vertical gain in spots and due to the wind, but no scrambling whatsoever. Now there was some scrambling. And more snow to deal with. But the Swiss do make things slightly easier with ladders.
Even before the staircase, there were many spots with ropes anchored into the rock to hold onto. Then after the staircase, there was this.
But there also was some scrambling that didn't have any ropes or stairs to use. And there was a bit of exposure, nothing overly ridiculous, but enough to make it exciting.
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| Almost to the top. Anyone home? |
As I neared the top, I began to feel the pull of just taking the cable car back down. I was 5 hours into the hike and with the wind, plus trudging thru snow and the fact I had raced a marathon just 4 days before, I was starting to really drag. Wouldn't a beer at the top be nice? And even though it would be pricey, wouldn't the cable car ride back down be cool? This was my thought process as I approached the summit and was I all I could think about that I didn't realize that I still hadn't seen anyone. Instead, I thought it odd that they hadn't shoveled and cleared the walkways and observation platform around the Piz Gloria. As I was taking pictures it dawned on me, the Piz Gloria was closed and I was the only one on top the mountain.
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| Those footprints. Those are mine. No one else has been up here in a day or two. |
I would imagine this is like climbing Pikes Peak and finding no one on the top. An extremely rare occurrence. As I understood I was all alone on top I had two thoughts, this was really cool, and now I need to hike back down. With it still being very windy and clouds seemingly to be rolling in, I figured I couldn't stay to long on top. But I did take a few minutes to enjoy the solitude and amazing views.
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| Looking back at the ridge I climbed up. |
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| Looking down into the basin I had climbed up. You can barely make out Rotstock-Hutte in the left portion of the basin. |
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| Panaroma taken from the Schilthorn. From left to right is the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau (hidden in the clouds) |
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| Self Portrait to prove I indeed was there. |
Now it was time to tackle the descent. I was planning to descend down the Schilttal basin to Gimmela and then Murren. As this was the north facing slope, there was still a fair amount of snow to trudge thru. I didn't bother trying to find a trail, but just made the best way down the initial descent.
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| This way down. |
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| Making tracks on the descent. |
The snow was about knee deep and actually made the descent easier than trying to go down the trail. Only wish I had an ice ax as it would have been a fun glissade. Shortly I got down the initial steep descent and out of the snow field.
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| Looking back up at the Piz Gloria and the initial descent thru the snowfield. |
Having gotten thru this section, my fear of potential weather issues dissipated and I could enjoy the views on the rest of the descent.
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| Birg is the mid-station point between Murren and Piz Gloira. The Eiger dominates the background. |
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| Small lake below Birg. |
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| The Schilttal valley that I will descend thru to reach Murren. |
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| Hey look, more waterfalls. |
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| At the bottom of the basin, near Schiltalp. Cows are once again plotting something. |
After a long descent thru the basin, I finally saw the first person on the trail. From a distance I just thought it was another hiker, but hadn't seen any tracks up top so didn't know where they came from. As I got closer, I realized he was carrying something. Then I got close enough to get this pic.
Don't see that too often in Colorado. After nearly 7 hours, I finally came into Murren.
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| Murren, a welcome sight for some tired legs. |
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| Cable car!? We don't need no stinkin cable car! |
Stopped in Murren to use the town rec center once again. Took a long soak in hot tub then hot shower, before continuing down to the hostel in Gimmelwald for a well deserved beer and pizza.
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| Dinner with a view. |
In the end it was nearly a 13 mile loop with 6024 feet vertical gain. Total time (with clock stopped for breaks at Rotstock-Hutte, on the top, and Murren) was 7 hours 20 minutes. A great day in the mountains in complete solitude with postcard views.
Thursday was my last day in the Lauterbrunnen valley. Again I woke up to clouds filling the valley. There would be 2 things I had on the agenda for the week that I wouldn't be able to do, but otherwise it was a fantastic few days. Even the snow was fun. I headed out of the hostel one last time, this time to hike back down to Lauterbrunnen, by way of Stechelberg, thus completing one giant loop.
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| My humble abode the past few days. |
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| Waterfalls and Cable Cars. They are everywhere in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. |
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| BASE Jumpers are also everywhere in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. |
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| Unless they go splat, the locals don't seem to even notice them. |
After nearly a week in the valley, it was time to head back to Zurich for the weekend.
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| On the train. |
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| Farewell for now. I think I will be back again. |
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