i’m sitting in the saddle spot between mount zindelspitz (to the south) and mount rossalplispitz (to the north). half an hour ago, mrs d, i, and fredi, our friend and outdoor guide from blue dimension got here after a climb up from lake wäggital, up through some frozen and snowed over patches — just my luck really: we hired fredi’s services as an outdoor guide to help me get over, past, beyond, and ultimately safely away from those exposed sections of today’s walk, and i had not really banked on having the additional challenge of iced over slopes… anyhow, just getting to the saddle spot was already quite exciting for me — just a couple of meters to the east of where i’m now sitting is: nothing! to be exact: about 1000m (about 3′200ft for you non-metricals) of nothingness, 1000m of straight down nothingness.

yikes.

the path to zindelspitz is looking ghastly from the point of view of a confessed acrophobic such as myself — that and the 1000m of nothingness right in front of me already had me politely but firmly excuse myself from the expedition to the peak of zindelspitz. so, mrs d and fredi have set off by themselves and i’m waiting for them to return.

having calmed down from my initial panic attack i spend the time trying out my new camera (got the body last monday from digitec and the 28–300mm lense arrived on thursday from adorama): i’m just blown away by the vibration compensation feature which allows me to shoot 300mm at 1/30s!

after about 30min a young walker comes down from zindelspitz. watching him it seems to be so easy, so effortless, just like taking a stroll to the station in the morning. sigh. sometimes i wish i had that same non-concerned-ness about exposed places, sometimes i wish that i, too, could just ignore those gaping abysses of nothingness… eventually he passes me and continues up towards the peak of rossalplispitz — which i’m supposed to scale today as well. following his progress i begin to have second thoughts, and third thoughts, and fourth thoughts. in fact, i can’t stop thinking that i must have been bloody raving mad to have agreed to today’s experiment, ropes or no ropes. i briefly entertain the idea of returning back to the lake right away, the memory of the iced slopes and that bit of having to scramble put a stop to it, though. sigh.

after a while i can hear the voices of mrs d and fredi and then see them navigating the chain-secured part and coming back down to me. yet, before i can even voice my concerns i find myself on the ascend to rossalplispitz! gulp!

…and the first part is kind of ok, i manage to persuade myself that that tiny piece of void to my right is not really important. soon it gets steeper and steeper though and the scenery becomes breathtaking — literally so in my case. panic sets in. luckily we have fredi with us, experienced fredi and he helps me take a break, take a deep breath and calm down again, and we try the last 50m scrambling up to the peak. it would have been nice, could i report that it went all swimmingly, but it didn’t. half-way up i get another panic attack and it takes quite a bit of encouragement, patience and even the encouraging words of a young swiss-french lady overtaking me to get me going up again…

…and i make it! i really make it up to rossalplispitz! it’s an exhilarating experience! the views are fantastic — as is lunch out of the rucksack up here at over 2100m altitude! yes, sure am i concerned about the way down, but i also enjoy being up here and am grateful for fredi’s help and patience (and the encouraging words of that swiss-french lady).

after about half an hour we get our kit together — fredi is very kindly going to secure me on my way down and so i’m being “put on a leash” as i call it. the descent of the scramble bit is every bit as frightful as i imagined it to be, but being secured via the rope i manage to get down to where the path is — and then have to manage the final “piece de resistance”, about 50m of narrow path with the aforementioned 1000m of nothingness to my right… with fredi’s help and securing i do manage it and it becomes much easier after that. phew.

we make our way through rocks, but nothing as scary as what i’ve just put past me. the landscape looks almost alien being slightly covered in snow dust.

at hochfläschen hut we break for a well-deserved coffee — and enjoy the view back (rather impressive and chat with a young couple who had passed us on our way down.

a rather exciting walk. would i do it again? hmm…i guess that yes, but not alone

links:

• pictures
• slideshow

after a nice breakfast at 6 oakfield street where we meet our co-guests as well (two americans, mother & daughter, on a two week tour of the UK), we are off via earls court underground to kew gardens! well, eventually we are off, as we at first board the wrong train but we manage to get that sorted and 20min later emerge at sunny kew gardens station, have a coffee at the starbucks right on the route to kew gardens, and arrive shortly after 10:00 at the victoria gate of the royal botanical gardens, kew

the weather is gorgeous and we are really looking forward to a day at kew: i just love the arboretum and the whole landscape. this year is particularly interesting as kew has just opened the rhizotron and xstrata treetop walk, a 200m walk way some 18m above ground winding its way through the tree tops of some very magnificent old trees!

i’m a bit apprehensive: on one hand i dearly love to get up there and have a walk-about in the tree tops, on the other hand i’m really afraid of heights and exposed places… this is going to interesting…

first things first, we register for the special 12:00 “champion trees of kew” walk — and then are off to have a go at the tree top walk.

the whole structure looks fantastic — and breathtaking. 18m above ground is quite a bit if you are not really a fan of exposed places. the walkway itself is constructed from punched and streched steel sheets, giving you plenty of the exposed stuff, enough to drown yourself in mrs d, true to form, just dances up the stairs and is on her way around the tree tops. me? well, i make it half-way up and then have to call it off and retreat down to safer grounds, where is stand with my head tilted back, longingly looking up, wishing i was made of sterner stuff and not such a wuss when it comes to heights…

…well, after about 10min i had enough of that and decided to give it another go: i must have been the slowest person ever to climb that staircase, resting every so often to get used to the height, until i finally was up on top of the first platform! wow! still scared i made my way round — and it was worth every bit of courage i had to scrape up: being up there in the tree tops was fantastic, the view across london was great and just the fact that i had made it up there was exhilarating! still scared but also enjoying it

the guide walk — champion trees of kew — was really interesting: champion trees are trees that are considered to be prime examples of their species and kew has quite a few of them.

lunch was long and leisurely at the conservatory and we really enjoyed it! most of the afternoon we spent walking through the arboretum, reading (remember the new elisabeth george? ;-), and enjoying our last vacation day in england.

a fantastic day.

it’s 9:45, our taxi which was supposed to have picked us up at 9:30 is still not there, and our train is due to leave bangor station at 10:18, slowly but surely our adrenalin level is reaching new heights. our landlord phones the taxi company once more and returns with the good news that “she’s just seconds away” — which turns out to be literally true. we hurriedly say our goodbyes to our landlord and landlady of marteg bed & breakfast and get into the taxi as quick as possible. the drive to bangor station is a bit a race against time, particularly so when we hit a traffic jam just 0.5km from the station — luckily our taxi driver knows her way around and does a u-turn and weaves her way through a couple of side streets and we make it with a couple of minutes to spare! phew…

the train from bangor is a direct, fast train to london euston and we are travelling first class again today (which, thanks to our britrail flexipasses, comes out cheaper than buying 2nd class tickets in bangor) — complete with free drinks and coffee

the weather has turned wet — as forecast, but we are not really concerned and as we move further south again the rain slowly ceases and it’s sunny and rather warm when we arrive in london euston on the dot at 13:40. we take the underground to earl’s court station and then head south to 6 oakfield street our b&b for the next two nights.

6 oakfield street is a narrow, three floors victorian terrace house in a side street of “little chelsea”. our double bedroom is to the front and on the top floor of the house — nicely done, has a bit of a changing rooms flair to it, “oliver heath’s grey area”, as mrs d so aptly summarizes it we even spot the famous MDF! a bit of a curiosity is the fridge, which i at first mistook to be the b&b variant of a mini-bar but which on closer inspection turned out to be the “overflow” fridge of the family fridge containing vegetables, a cake, and other stuff.¹ but, in total, a very nice room

we unpack and then make our way to the victoria & albert museum, the v&a, which is “close by”. mrs d is interested in the fashion exhibits, i’m looking forward to the photography collection. we also intend to get a little walk through south kensington in sideways to offset the hours of just sitting on the train…

it’s a bit past 16:00 when we arrive at the v&a, leaving us with just about one and a half hour to spend at the museum. mrs d decides to look at the fashion through the centuries exhibit, i make for the photo gallery…

…which turns out to be rather small but also rather interesting, motivating, and inspiring! if you are in the vicinity and have the time, go pay a visit — it’s completely free but worth the effort.

we meet again at 17:00, stroll through the v&a shops (finally pick up that birthday present for my sister-in-law, mrs a) and then go on that mini-walk of south kensington.

before returning to earl’s court we stop for a look around at a nice little independent bookshop. mrs d very kindly points out the latest elizabeth george, careless in red — a grave mistake as it turns out: once i get started on it i just have to keep reading, reading, reading…

dinner is at a local restaurant, balans, at the corner of old brompton road and redcliffe gardens. nice food, charming waiters (according to mrs d ;-).

tomorrow it’s kew gardens and, perhaps, if i dare, the new tree top walk…

all in all: nice train trip. interesting exhibits at v&a. exciting new book. nice dinner

after yesterday’s fantastic day out on mount snowdon we are eager to see more of snowdonia. the recent snowdon special issue of country walking — which we brought with us — has a couple of rather scary walks (scrambles, exposed ridges, and so forth, nothing for me, though mrs d wouldn’t mind doing those…) but also describes a walk around beddgelert which sounds rather interesting. so, the 10:16 S1 sherpa bus sees us again and we ride up to pen-y-pass once more, this time to change to the sherpa bus to beddgelert.

whereas the scenery on our left and right up llanberis pass and for a couple of kilometers past pen-y-pass was rather barren and conveyed an almost alpine feeling¹, it now morphs into a more tree-d one and resembles the country side in the lower parts of the lake district at times. the road to beddgelert winds its way along the valley, passing the llyn gwynant and llyn dinas lakes before reaching a rather nice little hamlet at the confluence of the afon colwyn and the afon glaslyn rivers², beddgelert.

beddgelert is a bit smaller than llanberis but it becomes immediately clear that tourist-wise you are better off in beddgelert: a couple of decent looking restaurants and pubs, tea-rooms and nice surroundings — if we are to return to snowdonia we’d probably “take lodgings” here. after a tea at one of the tea-rooms (a bit too overstuffed with “antique” nick-nacks and riff-raff for our taste, oh, and “prices are not negotiable”) we start our (mini-)walk by walking along the afon colwyn to the confluence point and turn south after crossing over a foot bridge. at first the walk is quite level and “suitable for all ages” and abilities. a sign informs us that the former railway tunnel unfortunately is now longer open as it was becoming too dangerous and to expensive to maintain, and that the footpath now is diverted along the river bed…

…as it turns out that really is not quite true: as we progress towards the “former railway tracks” we quickly realise that those tracks are anything but “former”! before us we are seeing brand new tracks! way cool! and — that tunnel? it’s no longer closed but instead has the new line passing through it again. the railway enthusiast in me is very satisfied to see what once was thought lost being restored.³

once we have crossed the new old tracks we indeed are now following the riverbed. at first wide and more or less flat the path then becomes narrow and at one point circumnavigates a protruding rock where we have to use iron grips anchored in the rock itself to avoid having to introduce ourselves to the lovely river below. after about 30min we reach the pass and turn left into a valley which is at the same time climbing up and narrowing. the path takes us past disused mines and mining equipment. whereas the wind was initially just a breeze, the funnel-like shape of the valley concentrates it and it almost becomes a veritable storm when we reach the highest point, a style taking us across from rather rocky terrain into a moorland of sorts — and fantastic views towards snowdon but also towards the irish sea!

the path soon takes us steeply downhill past a lake and back to and along afon glaslyn in the direction of beddgelert again. about halfway there we pass a sign for the sygyn mine and mrs d suggests we pay a visit. sceptical at first — it does look like one of the typical british tourist traps — i join her…and we go on a walk on the other side of the mountain that we’ve just crossed: the inner side that is.

we enter the mine at the former base level and a long low tunnel (i’m a tad on the tall side for this adventure and am in a constant crouch state) takes us quite a bit into the mountain. this part of the mine had to be dug out again when work started on it in the the 1980s to turn it into a museum mine. finally, after what feels like an eternity, we get to a series of caverns containing rather interesting displays about the working conditions, the geology, and the everyday lives of the ancient miners. also “on display”, so to speak, are underground lakes entertaining hundreds of stalagmites and stalactites!

the path then takes us up a series of stairs (183 in total) through various work areas — the most impressive one explaining about the actual mining process itself, complete with recreating the atmosphere and a “real” underground explosion (at one point we are left in almost complete darkness with just a couple of candles burning: the working conditions of the original miners). very interesting!

we emerge about 100m above the base level and return to the visitor centre to drop off our hard hats⁴ and to have a cup of tea before tackling the last part of our walk to beddgelert.

that last part is almost flat out tarmac road and we soon reach beddgelert where we have a pint of beer each at one of the local pubs before we board our bus back to pen-y-pass and onwards to llanberis.

all in all: breathtaking landscape, exciting riverside path, satisfying rail development, a walk on the other side. would do it again

we get up late today, a rocking 30min later than the days before, and, after breakfast, flip the tourist-bit to the on position and make our way into the city of st davids¹:

• fuelling stop at the local delicatessen (biscuits for the train ride tomorrow, burned sugar likewise)
• three very nice scarves at the fashion shop in new street
• today’s guardian at the post office
• some apples at peter’s the grocer

next, we finally visit st david’s cathedral.

st david’s cathedral is a bit unusual in that it’s the first cathedral that i’ve visited whose floor is not level but instead slowly rises from the main entrance up towards the choir. also, the main pillars are slanted outwards. very interesting. also fascinating are the different styles of ceilings each section of the cathedral has. really impressive — and we do get an almost sub-sonic blast from them — are the bass pipes of the organ: thick as trees and certainly as high.

the cathedral shop has the usual nick-nack and riff-raff on sale, nothing really tempting — and nothing suitable as a birthday present for our in-law, mrs a, meaning we’ll need to keep on looking.

after a nice lunch in the cathedral refactory we sit on the green and spend the afternoon reading

our last dinner in pembrokeshire is a the excellent cwtch restaurant again (nicely completing the symmetry of this week: our first dinner last sunday evening was at cwtch as well) — we managed to get a reservation for 20:30, leaving enough time to pack our bags, watch the latest dr who on tv, and stroll back into town.

not as energetic a day as the rest of the week, but rather pleasant as well!

the last leg of our pembrokeshire coast path walks today: again, we take the 9:10 strumble shuttle,¹ this time from st davids to strumble head — a ride of over an hour! again, it’s the friendly bus driver we already know from the previous days. the rides through all the nooks and crannies of the pembrokeshire coast are always fascinating for me.

the bus picks up lots of walkers today along the route. at abercastle we make a brief stop at the bend in the road, the driver opens the door — and greets the old dachshund we had seen yesterday who’s already been waiting for him: and, yes, he gets a dog biscuit, some parting words, and we are on our way again to strumble head.

contrary to the weather forecast by the met office the weather is just brilliant today — the forecast had us down for some real rain, reality has us up for some serious sunshine — and we enjoy the good weather and the fantastic scenery. the lighthouse is unfortunately not open to the public but looks like a proper lighthouse should look: on a cliff top, all in white, facing the “ferocious” seas, a schooner on the horizon crashing through waves two times it height, seamen holding on for dear life…²

…we hold on to the path and make our way west and then south. this part of the coast path has “alpine” bits and pieces sprinkled over it — some scrambling³ is called for: fun

at pwll dweri (next to the entry to the holiday cottages and just above the youth hostel which seems to be undergoing some renovation) we break for half an hour and enjoy the breathtaking views across the bay and further south.

the path from pwll dweri to tregwynt takes us further up and then past some spectacular cliffs, caves, and little bays. when we reath the pebble beach at tregwynt, it and the sunshine join forces and lull us into a bit of “sun-bathing”⁴…

as the bus from tregwynt woollen mill leaves at 16:44 we finally make our way there to have a look at the shop⁵ and also to have a cup of tea and a piece of cake.⁶

then, at 16:44 our friend the strumble shuttle picks us up again and we are on our fractal bus ride back to st davids.⁷

dinner again at the refactory, followed again by “one for the road” at the grove.

fantastic scenery, great weather: another brilliant day

having “finished” the southern parts of what we wanted to see of the pembrokeshire coast yesterday, we now turn north again and — due to a breakfast at the earliest possible time (8:00 am) — manage to catch the 9:10 bus from st david’s new street “station” to tregwynt woollen mill. the bus, the strumble shuttle is full with walkers and travels all along the coastal path diving from the “main road”¹ down to the various bays and havens, occasionally reversing to avoid oncoming tractors with oversized equipment attached or to let oncoming traffic pass on the side — very interesting way of travelling, and you get to see lots and lots of little villages and country side.

our bus driver clearly knows the territory and every little corner and passing point. he also seems to be rather fond of dogs: every dog coming on board is offered a treat — much to each dog’s suprise: they clearly didn’t expect that but take the treat enthusiastically nevertheless!

also, our bus driver really knows his coast: he drops each of us walkers off at exactly the right spot to start today’s walk! very nice. we start from tregwynt and head south towards porthgain (to have lunch at the shed

the weather is fantastic — yesterday’s breeze has cranked up a couple of notches and we have veritable gusts coming in from the sea, the sun is shining (lots and lots of suncream applied this week), just fantastic!

in abercastle we meet an old dachshund at the harbour, we say “hi”, he looks at us, and we all part our ways.

about 4km away from porthgain we realize that we somehow have overestimated today’s walk: instead of the intended 20km we are just going to clock up 14.5km — hmm. oh, well, more time to enjoy the culinary delights of the shed…

…which we do! mrs d has a very nicely cooked sea bass, i enjoy my lemon sole! we finish with an apple tart tatin and a mocha coffee — excellent, long lunch.

at 17:10 the strumble shuttle comes back and we are on our way back to st davids.

dinner: again at the refactory — good food, decent prices, nice setting, and WLAN

…oh, and mrs d suggests that we “have one for the road” at the grove hotel bar, which we do.²

we pick up where we left off yesterday and take the bus to solva. the coast path picks up on the other side of the harbour and soon starts to climb up again (we are clocking up quite some altitude meters here). the weather is overcast today and we are quite a bit slower today then the two preceding days (just 4.1kph on average as opposed to 5.0 and 5.1 the days before) — must be the “third day syndrome”.

past solva the coast is still spectacular, but not as dramatic as the bits we’ve seen so far (porthgain to solva) — the weather is a mixture of stratocumulus clouds and sunny intervals. luckily it’s not the nimbus variant of the stratocumulos and it’s not raining

at newgale we descend down to the beach — lots of pebble collection possibilities: we end up with quite a few very nice exemplars that end up in our pockets

lunch is at the duke of edinburgh in newgale: a cawl (pronounced caul) for each one of us — the cook must be a bit absent-minded: absolutely no salt in it, lol. between mrs d and me we almost end up emptying the table salt (which is not very strong) into our respective cawls.

the last bit takes us along a bit of cliff walk to naughton haven — where the 1:25k ordnance survey map has a blue pub symbol. there is a pub, the mariner’s inn but when we try to get in at 14:30 we are told by a lady that the pub has already closed — which is a bit funny as she is having a smoke right in front of the sign telling us that the summer opening times are until 14:45. oh, well. a bit rude that — we retreat to the beach and wait for the 15:10 puffin shuttle back to st davids.

dinner tonight is at the refactory at the cathedral: interesting & well-tasting food, it’s counter-service (meaning you pick it up at the counter) but the upstairs seating area has lots of very nice tables with interesting views towards the surrounding cathedral green as well as the main cathedral building itself. oh, and they offer free WLAN!¹

day 2 of our pembrokeshire adventures. having figured out the shuttle bus to whitesands bay we can’t resist and take it again today — instead of turning north, though, we turn south to walk past the isle of ramsay, around st david’s head, and then all the way to picturesque solva — to have a beer there. quite a long way for a beer, but what can i say…

the weather is fantastic still: sun shine, little cumulus clouds, a nice breeze coming in from the sea. the surf has picked up today at whitesands and lots of surfers are giving it a spin. we slowly turn the corner and leave whitesands bay behind us. the isle of ramsay is following in the west for the next two hours or so.

at st justinian’s we watch the giant kodiak inflatables come and go: think rubber inflatable with two 200 bhp motors attached, each boat carrying up to 25 persons. quite a sight — i’d hate to be the one having to inflate one of those, though…

the cliff walk is, for my taste, a bit more exciting than yesterday: a couple of straight drops down to the crashing and burning sea!

eventually we reach solva which has an almost fjord like, stretched harbour. very picturesque. luckily solva is on the main route between haverfordwest and st davids and there is a bus to st davids almost every hour — time enough for a beer back in the beer garden (at the river) of the ship inn.

dinner is back in the bar of the grove hotel in st davids: nice interior, food is good as well.

another fantastic day!

after a really nice breakfast we don our walking kit (brought our alpine walking boots with us) and head into the village of st davids’s. at the tourist information centre (tic) we inquire after the shuttle bus between st david’s and whitesands bay, learn that it departs almost right next to the grocer where we should be able to obtain our apples and bananas for our walk up north today.

the grocer is a nice little shop, called peter’s, with fruits and vegetables. the bus stop is not really called anything aside from bus stop nun street and we wait together with an elderly lady for the 403 (not the 404 as listed in the richard bros timetable) which eventually does arrive and even takes us to whitesands bay.

whitesands bay is, well, a large bay with a white sand beach. it also features an café-cum-outdoor-shop also selling — sun hats, of which i acquire one (at £4.99 not too much of a fashion risk).

all transactions done, we head up north going out west. the coastal path takes us up and down the cliffs and in total we clock up about 618m altitude gain and about 18km in total from whitesands bay to porthgain. the original target of the day had been abbereiddy but we reached that about 1.5 hours before the bus back to st david’s would collect us, so we decided to walk on to porthgain.

the weather was almost picture-book-perfect summer weather, hot, yes, but at the same time there was a cooling breeze coming in from the sea — nice! at porthgain we were aiming for the sloop inn for a well-deserved beer, when we spotted the shed, a sea food café and restaurant recommended to us by our friends mrs and mr w — so it was high tea with freshly caught cod and potato chips at the shed! very nice and excellent food!

the bus ride back was quite nice and took us back past all the places we had visited on our walk to porthgain.

a very nice first walking day!

our good friend and sometimes mountain guide fredi kälin had advertized a snowshoe tour to the gloggeentürmli in the gotthard pass area — the precondition being that the pass itself got opened again and, of course, that we’ll have appropriate weather.

well, the gotthard pass was opened thursday a week ago, now let’s see whether the weather plays along…

happy new year everyone!

we are just back from a fantastic snow shoe trail (making use of the fresh snow while it lasts) — this time one that we created ourselves (and were joined by a colleague from the SAC Zindelspitz, ms N).

we took the postbus to trachslau church, walked up through the village to the shooting range, mounted our snow shoes and then followed the hiking trial just past the shooting range and then left the road to climb up a path to the left that joined the main summer hiking trail up to nüsellstock after about 150m. from then on we pretty much follow the summer hiking trail up nüsellstock — which becomes rather steep on the second half, but, rewards us with wonderful views across deep into the swiss alps!

leaving nüsellstock the trail takes us along the ridge south towards haggenegg in an easy up and down. just before we reach haggenegg we make a detour to the southwest and climb up to mount hochstuckli — even more splendid views far across the alps!

from hochstuckli we descend east via haggenegg down to brunni where we catch the postbus back to einsiedeln. a fantastic tour!

links:

• all the pictures of this tour
• the google earth trail with picture links

just back from a snow shoe hike with a twist: fredi kälin from blue-Dimension had advertised a christmas snow shoe hike from alpthal up to amselspitz and back:

[...] Wir stapfen mit den Schneeschuhen durch leichtes Gelände, über Anhöhen und werden unterwegs wenn es schon zu ämmern begonnen hat, ein Feuer entfachen. Der auf dem Feuer frisch zubereitete Glühwein und etwas Grillgut werden uns sicher wohlig wärmen.[...][^1]

aside from the “hill” being a veritable mountain with a steep climbing piece everything was as advertised and we had a lot of fun! it’s not every christmas that you have a BBQ up at over 4′800 feet on top a snow covered mountain, with all of central switzerland stretching away in the sun set! i’m not going to reveal my secret recipe for burning sausage noir though…

in case you are interested:

• the rest of the photos
• google earth track with photo links

cough, sneeze — i’ve got a cold one of the consequences of that is that i’m not really up for a full day snow shoe hike, even though we have splendid winter weather: lots of snow, it’s cold, and we have full sun shine…

…so, after a lie-in we have breakfast, buy some lights at the local EKZ store and only then start for an afternoon hike from willerzell up to the mountain pub at gueteregg. we enjoy fantastic views across lake sihlsee and the mountains surrounding einsiedeln and have a substantial soup at gueteregg before heading down again.

we do miss the bus by 7min, but luckily make it in 30min across the viaduct to the other side of lake sihlsee and then past the monastery back home.

fantastic afternoon (even though i’m absolutely knackered).

in case you are interested:

• link to our pictures
• google earth track log

with winter being here quite early this year and gorgeous weather this morning (-9.4°C in the morning & a clear sky) we take the 9:35 postbus to the brunni restaurant station, don our gear and set off for furggelenstock: about 600m altitude meters to conquer. there are “lots” of other snow shoe hikers (well about and a couple of ski tourers — the later are struggling to get up the ascent it seems (at least we pass them easily on our snow shoes ;-). the trail is fantastic: we steadily climb up through snow covered trees, openings with more than 50cm of powery snow, pass tree branches carrying large icicles — picture book weather and landscape!

from furggelenstock we continue on to brünnelistock, cross over the piste there (careful timing with the lift required ;-), descend to müsliegg and then up to rotenflue (summit #3 :-), have lunch in the sun (i muck around with one of our avalanche rescue shovels [you just need to test that equipment: much better to operate them with your gloves on then off, for example]), and then follow the piste first down the mountain then up to stäglerenegg where we decide to walk the variant described as “lonely but exciting” in our snow shoe hiking guide: we climb up to schwarzenstock (following a trail of a previous snow shoe hiker) and then continue onwards down to brunni by following the ridge: no trail this time, we create our own. it is lonely, and it is exciting: the first part is quite nice but then we are faced by some rather steep slopes, some of which we just slide down, some, however, we have to find a path around — in the end we arrive exhausted but happy at brunni again…

…and manage to catch the 16:05 postbus back to einsiedeln by running down the piste at brunni

• view all our photos from this tour
• view fullscreen slide show
• google earth track with picture links

…of the alpthal.

it’s perhaps a little known fact that if you plummet from a mountain face that you (or rather your body as you, hopefully, will not be aware to the outcome) arrive naked at the next (and, may i say, probably last) point of contact: the sheer wind force will tear off anything you are wearing, rucksack, fleece, pants, the works. thus, this morning i take an extra long shower and make sure my underwear is in good order — my wife of 20 years has decided that we assault the matterhorn of the alpthal, the grosser mythen.

the weather is rather nice, cloudy with the occassional sun burst and we take the 10:35 post bus from einsiedeln station to the very end of the alpthal, to brunni cable car station. the grosser mythen rises imposing above us, or rather me, as mrs d is not that impressed (”we’ve had steeper stuff in valais” — yeah, well…

the first bit from brunni up to holzegg is quite easy actually (no, we didn’t take the cable car, we did walk), just a nice hike up to the head end of the cable car line. it’s past holzegg that the fun really starts. my vertigo was roaring to kick in, i was determined to make it to the top, mrs d was revving her engines and roaring to sprint up the mountain. we decide that mrs d should just make a go for it and i’d take it slowly, concentrating on the path itself.

where the route starts climbing up the flank we find a sign: dogs to be taken on a leash, kids to be roped on, hiking shoes mandatory, only for skilled hikers when wet — the path itself though is rather well-maintained and easy to walk, it’s just the sheer drop of hundreds of meters that’s feeding my vertigo. criss-crossing the mountain side the path winds up and up. grosser mythen is very popular mountain and we are certainly not alone (so much for the solitude of the swiss alps ;-): frequently i have to “pull over” to let fellow walkers or walkers coming down pass.

half way up a couple with a black shepherd dog is coming down the path. the dog seems to like the altitude and exposed nature of the path as much as i do — it’s always staying close to the rock… “sensible dog”, i think and continue. most of the way is really not that bad, by concentrating on the path and trying to mask out the “void” i manage to get up. the last 500m though present a challenge: a path with nothing really on both sides connects one part of the mountain to the other and then winds up an increasingly narrow ridge which eventually widens to accommodate the summit hut-cum-pub…

…i do manage that bit and finally reach the top of grosser mythen! pheeew. quite a walk for me. my vertigo tried to have a field day, but luckily didn’t succeed the view from up top is breathtaking: a fantastic 360° panorama across the swiss alps!

after a soup and a beer we start the descend. mrs d, as always, has no problems with vertigo, i slowly shuffle my way past the nasty bits. once the ridge stuff has passed, i’m fine and manage to maintain a good speed down to holzegg. on the way down i pass a german walker with walking sticks mounted horizontally on his backpack and repeatedly stabbing his fellow walker; then a group of apparently ultra-conservative christian women in really long skirts pass up, one of them commenting of the “dangers of walking sticks” which is a bit funny, as the long skirts are probably more of a danger to themselves than any of the walking sticks.

from holzegg we walk via zwischuet mythen (in-between mythen) back to brunni and take the post bus back to einsiedeln.

an adventurous but nevertheless very nice walk!

interested in the walk? here is the googleearth KMZ file