A last hike

We geared up for a final hike. Can't believe that the time went so quickly! Our legs were feeling pretty tired after some of the hikes we had done this week, plus it's been VERY hot! So we decided on an easy day for our last one. We walked down to the train station and took the train up to Wengen....here is a look down to our valley in the distance

 

Once in Wengen we walked to the cable car station for the ride up to Männlichen. You arrive on top of a ridge with amazing views to each side. Here is a selfie.....we climbed over the top of that ridge in the far background a few days ago

 

The Panoramic Trail that leads from this spot to Kleine Scheidegg is amazing. It's slightly downhill and takes about an hour and a half. You walk straight towards the North Face of the Eiger the whole way. Here are some pics along the way

 

 

 

Jo took a Zen moment on the way

 

Then she tried out for a part time job

 

She can work, while I just hang out and take in the scenery

 

Looking into the distance at the Jungfraujoch

 

And zoomed in....a train takes you through the inside of the mountains and up there to the highest train station in Europe

 

 

A last look at the North Face of the Eiger....the smaller peak with the flat top on the lower right hand side is the Rotstock.....we climbed that one twice :-)

 

A memorial as we approached the end of the trail....there are similar memorials to climbers all around this area. Not surprising given the history of this mountain, but still sobering

 

After arriving in Kleine Schiedegg we continued back down to Wengen....Jo stopped for a nap on the way

 

Then when we got to Wengen and we checked the temperature, we knew we deserved a reward

 

Tomorrow we drive to Geneva to return the car then spend the night before flying out the next day. It's been an action packed trip. Paris feels like forever ago, yet the time has gone so quickly.

We are looking forward to getting home, but can't wait to come back!

 

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Up to the Eiger

After another fabulous breakfast we mulled over options for the day. We didn't really want to do anything too hard, but we rarely stick with our original way of thinking it seems.

We geared up and hopped on the train to Grindewald. When we got there we shopped at the new Co-op for food and drink. Last time we were here it was under construction and it's a great upgrade from the previous location.

Once fully provisioned we hit the trail. We had decided to hike up to Alpiglen and then do the Eiger Trail which runs along then foot of the North Face of the Eiger. We had done that trail before, but not starting from the valley floor. And the last time we did it, the trail was covered in snow. Today it was over 30 degrees.

Here is the view from our starting point down in the valley

 

It got vertical right away and that picture doesn't really show the perspective properly. Here is a view looking back down from part way up as we were approaching Alpiglen....that town in the distance is where we started

 

We stopped in Alpiglen and ate some of our food and then started up the Eiger Trail. I say up because most people take a train to the top and walk down. But as I've said before, we're not most people. The last time we did this trail in the snow we only saw 3 other people. Today we must have seen 300 or more, but less than a dozen were going in our direction.

The North Face of the Eiger is a legendary mountain for those who have a passion for mountaineering. It is not the highest of mountains, but in the early days of alpine exploration this face created more stories than any other. It was even the location of an older Clint Eastwood movie called the Eiger Sanction. There is a DVD copy in the TV lounge at our hotel and its played almost round the clock.

The stories of the Eiger are what first brought me to this place 15 years ago. The natural beauty, the views and the total sense of calmness are what has brought me back 6 times now. There is not a more peaceful place on earth!

So back to the trail....we started our ascent of the Eiger Trail. I really love to capture these vanishing point photos when I can.

 

After a number of steep switch backs the trail meets up with the bottom of the North Face. There are snow and ice fields on the mountain year round, but there is always run off and there are a number of waterfalls along the trail that have carved deep into the rock.

 

 

 

A little further along the trail we stopped to look back to where we had started earlier in the day

 

Another waterfall along the way

 

 

Looking almost straight up the infamous North Face. You can't really get a sense of the height, but you can tell how the face is concave which makes it a challenge to climb.

 

Climbing higher we took a few pics looking back down across the face, with the trail and the line of ants in the foreground. All of the scree on that slope was once part of the mountain and you do have to pay attention for falling rock.

 

We crossed over the trail that leads up to Rotstock Via Ferrata, which we have climbed twice previously. We may try to do it again this trip, depending on the weather forecast. It's a technical climb that goes to the summit of the Rotstock and you don't want to get caught up there in rain or snow.

Then we reached the top of the trail at the Eigergletscher station. This is the point where the famous Jungfrau railways enters the side of the Eiger and winds its way up to the Junfraujoch. The ride up, and the view at the summit is amazing....we did it last visit so if you go back through some older posts you can see it :-)

Then we started to descend to Kleine Schiedegg which is well known in mountaineering circles. A few pics of the mountains on our way down

 

 

 

Cow hanging out in the high alpine

 

And a last look at the Eiger

 

We had gained about a mile in elevation since starting and we were feeling pretty tired so we had no shame in buying train tickets for the one hour ride back down to our valley.

As soon as we got down we ate then headed back to our hotel to shower and relax. Another awesome day in the mountains. Wish you could all be here to experience this!

 

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A rest day

Well the day after an epic day you need to take it a little easy. Not to mention the forecast called for some rain in the afternoon. So we hopped in the car and drove out of our little valley to visit Brienz. It's a nice little town on the far end of Lac Brienz.

We were greeted by this guy

 

Where's Waldo?

 

Then while standing on the waterfront walkway that runs the entire length of town we were approached by a swan and a cygnet

 

They followed us for some time

 

Until they arrived at their home

 

The walkway is decorated with nice flower arrangements

 

And we couldn't resist a bit of goophing off on our rest day

 

 

 

Wouldn't this be a nice house and garden to have backing onto the lake?

 

We walked by the beach area

 

And the town church

 

Then we headed back to our favourite valley and to our hotel. While enjoying a coffee in the sitting area the storm hit. It poured rain, and we heard the thunder echoing up and down the valley.....just as we had hoped would happen while we were here, but not in the middle of a long hike.

Then it was off to the laundromat to take care of some stinky hiking clothes.....sorry no pics of that excitement. Our timing was perfect because the rain had just stopped and now there was that wonderful smell all through the valley. They've had a very hot and dry summer here so the rain is needed. During our recent hikes we noticed that some of the 72 waterfalls in the valley are either running very slowly, or not at all.

Then it was off for another wonderful Swiss meal, then back to our patio to sip on some wine and watch darkness descend on our little oasis. You might be able to make out the spotlight which is just coming on to light Staubbach Falls

 

Will tomorrow be an easy day......stay tuned to see. Nighty night!

 

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Epic Birthday

I can't think of a more perfect place to wake up in on your birthday. After another yummy breakfast we sat out on our patio and sipped on a coffee....this is the view

 

Jo catching up on emails as the sun spreads over the walls of the valley

 

Before starting our hike we decided to see if we could get some karma points. We had found a camera on the side of a trail the day before, it had several hundred photos on it, but very few clues about where the owners were. There were a few recent pics of them camping....

 

 

We had searched the local campground the night before with no success....a bit of Googling identified another campground about half an hour away in the same valley. I had emailed the owners and sent them the pics to see if they were still there, but hadn't received a reply.

Still a bit tired from our hike the day before we had decided on having an easy day. So we finished our coffees, put on our sandals and headed for a walk down the valley.

As we walked into the campground the clues all started lining up. My worst fear was that we would find the spot and they would be gone. As we approached I first saw a blue tailgate, then a blue tent, and fortunately, they were there finishing breakfast. I had the camera we had found in my pocket and was holding my camera in one hand.

As we approached Jo made the motion of a camera and asked if they had lost one.....a quick peak at their license plate told me that they were German so they probably didn't understand what she was trying to say. Then his eyes lit up for a moment and he looked at the camera case in my hand. Realizing it wasn't theirs his face turned sad again. Then when I reached into my pocket and pulled out their camera a huge smile came across his face. His wife/girlfriend saw it at the same time and she started jumping up and down. They didn't speak much English and we don't speak much German, but we managed to explain how we had found it and had been trying to find them since the day before.

They were so happy as the camera had vacations pics on it from a trip to Ireland, as well as all their pics from their current trip. She couldn't stop jumping up and down and told us how sad they were when they realized they had lost it. She offered us coffee, or to take us out to dinner, but we declined and said we just felt good about returning it. I asked them if I could take a picture of them with the tent and the camera for our memories....then we went on our way feeling good all the way back to our hotel

 

On the way back we ran into a Swiss traffic jam

 

Then we geared up and prepared to head out for an easy day on the trails. Our first encounter was a rather large escargot

 

We headed out to explore a new to us trail through the forest, with some great vistas along the way. This is looking down and across to the town of Wengen, which sits on a shelf above our valley.

 

We started to climb, getting into the sub-alpine

 

 

Then we came to an intersection of trails. We looked at the signs, pulled out our map and decided to scrap our plans for an easy day in exchange for a hike we had talked about a few years ago. We decided to go up and over the top. We climbed for a long time.....

 

 

Stopping to snack in the shade when we could find it

 

Then the trail started to get steeper and we continued up

 

 

We came across some huts where the cows were in the high alps

 

 

This sign means mountain trail

 

We left the sub-alpine and entered full alpine zone. If you look just right of centre in this picture you can see a little notch, that is where we were headed. The picture doesn't give a sense of how steep it was!

 

Working our way up the scree slope

 

Eventually we reached that notch, it's called Bietenlücke, and it is just below the summit of the Bietenhorn. It's a knife edge ridge and the view from there was amazing! And yes, we were above the snow line.

 

A look back down to the huts we had passed some time before, and the valley that we hiked up is off to the right

 

Then we had to make our way down the steep screw slope on the other side. It was very sketchy, but Jo was a real trooper. On our way down we were lucky enough to spot some Steinbocks (Chamonix) climbing very high on the rocks.

After hiking down for a while we came across a very high sheep pasture

 

We stopped for a look back at the ridge we had crossed

 

After descending some more we reached the top of the local ski runs and continued down.....it was very steep, but we were treated to some great views on the way down. That is the North Face of the Eiger on the left, and the Monch on the right.

 

 

 

Some of the locals we ran into along the way

 

Eventually we arrived in Murren....it's another village which sits on a shelf above our valley on the opposite side from Wengen. We made it to the train/cable car station with about 8 minutes to spare before the last ride of the day. If we had of missed it then it would have meant a few hours more hiking to get down to the valley, and we were feeling spent.

As soon as we got to the valley floor and exited the cable car station we crossed the road to the first place we spotted with food. We each had a tasty salad, a beer and we shared a huge pizza that was amazing. It was almost 10:00 by the time we got back to the hotel. We were greeted by Angie, the fantastic manager, who joked that they had the St. Bernard rescue dogs on standby.

She asked us to hold on for a moment as they had something for me. She returned with this lovely Swiss cake, a very nice card and a bottle of champagne. Then, when we dragged ourselves up to our room, there was another bottle of wine waiting for us. What a perfect ending to a very long day....that was going to be an easy one.

 

I really don't know how or if I will be able to top this one.

 

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