20th September 2010

Today was a biggie!! Especially for me. 15km and nearly 6 hours was ok, but climbing over the mountain at our highest point on today's hike was not. Not when I am not good with heights. But it is an amazing feeling when you achieve something that is really difficult for you.

We drove to another valley near yesterday's hike, to a village called Lenk. We took the Leiterli mountain lift to a height of 1943m for the hike to Stubleni at 2109m, to Tungelpass at 2084m and then the mountain crossing at 2381m near the Iffighorn mountain, to Iffigsee and then to Iffigenalp at 1584m for the bus back to Lenk. What a great hike!! Great views and the challenge of the mountain crossing. Just wish they had a cable car down because it was a long walk down to Iffigenalp to catch the bus. I don't like the trails that go steeply down. My knees are too old for that.

An early morning start

Looking back on the trail.

Ray on the trail to the mountain crossing

 Ray on the trail

Ray waiting to see my reaction to the trail

And this was not the tricky bit. There was no way I was going to get my camera out to take any photos. My palms were so sweaty I would have dropped it. We came to a large boulder that was too high and too smooth for me to get over. I tried grabbing pieces of rock to the side of the boulder but they kept breaking away in my hand. So they weren't going to get me up and over.There was the tiniest of track around the boulder, no wider that a shoe width right on the edge of the cliff, but there was no way I could have walked there. So it was up and over or turn around and go back the way we had come. There was a fixed wire rope above the boulder but I was too short to reach it. So Ray had to hold onto the rope and pull me up. That sure had my heart rate up a tad!! Much of the crossing was on a steep, narrow, rocky trail like this.

Safely over the crossing and on our way down.

First glimpse of Iffigsee.

The trail down to Iffigenalp and the bus back to Lenk. What an exhilarating day!!!

19th September 2010

Today the weather was just perfect and we chose a great hike that was mid-level but with beautiful views the whole way. Views to the valley and the surrounding mountains. We drove to a small town called Zweisimmen and then caught a train for the 10 minute ride to Schonried, the base station for the Rellerli cable car. We started at Rellerli and hiked to Plani, Vorderi Schneit, to Bire and then Sparenmoos where we caught the bus back to Zweisimmen. The trail was a well-trodden track and was rated easy.

18th September 2010

Yesterday the weather was forecast to be overcast with showers so we decided to go to Thun (pronounced Toon) for some shopping. A nice lazy day away from the hiking trails.

Today we had to make up for yesterday's lazy day, and even though the weather was still overcast, we headed back to Lauterbrunnen to find a challenging trail. And what a challenge it was. Mostly through cow dung and muddy trail due to the overnight showers and trying to keep up an average time for the hike while tramping almost ankle deep in mud. The cows had been using the hiking trail and with it being wet, they had completely chopped it up. Well, the whole trail wasn't like this.

We caught the mountain lift from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp, and started our hike towards Marchegg, a vantage point high up above the valley. Before we got to Marchegg, we headed back down a small side valley to Sauslager  on our way to Suls. The first part was through rough forest track then over a rocky narrow mountain path, steadily climbing the whole way. The messy trail started on the climb out of the Sauslager Valley on the way to Suls. There was so much mud that it was caked on the soles of our boots and we had no grip. Just inches of mud. Not good when trying to climb up rocky trails that are already slippery because of the rain. We kept looking for small water trickles so that we could stand in the water and wash some of it off. But it was back on with our first step.Thank God we had hiking poles!! The path was not clearly marked and we were worried that we were a bit lost. But, we just kept going until we came to one of the yellow trail markers that give hikers' directions and times to various destinations. After 4 hours, we ended up at Sulwald, the top station for another mountain lift down to Isenfluh, ready to take the bus back to Lauterbrunnen. Despite the hard going on the muddy trail, I thoroughly enjoyed the day and would like to do it again when the mountain is not in cloud as it was today. We caught glimpses of some great views down into the Lauterbrunnen valley.

Muddy trousers and we have only been going 30 minutes. Haven't even hit the bad stuff yet.

View down into the Sauslager Valley

Nearing the Suls Valley

16th September 2010

The weather was forecast to be overcast today so it is off to one of the valleys near our apartment for a valley hike. We caught a small private bus from Kandersteg to Selden which is a collection of 2 restaurants and 2 houses. You have no idea how much they cater to the hikers. This valley is only about 10km long, has half a dozen houses at most, but has 4 restaurants that operate mainly in the summer.

The bus ride up to Selden was pretty amazing. The road was gravel, one lane only, and twisted and turned up the valley on a road that had been tunneled out of the rock mountain. On sections of the road, the rock wall of the mountain overhung the road and on other sections went through small tunnels. The road was not made for a bus and I have no idea how the driver got it around some of the corners, but we arrived safely. The road has a one-way time system. Between e.g. 12 -6 on the hour clock is for ups and from 6-12 is for downs.

We hiked a bit further up the valley to look at a glacier near Heimrich, then back to Selden for the hike down, following the Kander River the whole way, past Kander Falls and through the Kander Gorge. The hike was roughly 14km long and took us 4 hours. The only disappointing thing for the day was that the weather was perfect and we would have been better doing a high altitude hike instead. But we had a great day with some outstanding scenery.

Near Heimrich and Kanderfirn.

The glacier in the far top left

Path to Heimrich

Trail back to Selden and Kandersteg

 

The roadway can be seen on the left of the photo as it goes through a short tunnel.

Church in Kandersteg with the snow-capped mountains in the background.

Good to see we are helping out local business and the economy.

I think he wants to move over here to continue helping the economy.