Wednesday 20th August: Morning misty and cold, Afternoon Sunny and cold 1°C to 12°C. Mostly 8°C all day.
Europahut to Grachen:19.6K: 8.15am to 5.00pm: 8hrs 45 mins
Leaving the Europa Hut at 1 deg C
Disappearing into the mist
Don't swing on suspension bridge
The hut dog has followed us
Someone has to stand on the ledge
Weisshorn peeps through the mist
Coffee break with magical backdrop
8km of boulders to cross
Still a magnificent view
Not much room in the boulder field
Follow the red and wite signs
Move quickly across boulder field
Hang on to rope, don't look down
At last we're out of the boulders
Hotel Desiree view from room
A long hard day crossing a minefield of boulders. Hilary Sharp, author of the book Tour de Monte Rosa got it wrong. It was supposed to be 14k but Ian's GPS registered 19.6k. Never the less, the scenery was spectacular - that's if we had a chance to look up and enjoy instead of looking down at every step whilst crossing 7km of rock fall.
We're both awake from about 3am - still a good 6 hrs sleep but jet lag awakes us early. It's hard to get up early and rattle around when there's 4 other hikers still sound asleep in the same room. By 6am we're up and down waiting for breakfast. There's mist on the mountains with glimpses of the Weisshorn appearing spasmodically through the mist. At least it's not raining. Breakfast is a bit spartan but ok. Meusli, sliced meat and cheese and bread. But the coffee is hot and really smooth.
We wait for a while but it becomes obvious that the mist is not lifting anytime soon and it's not getting any warmer. So we don raincoats, beanies, gloves and roll out the door. It's 1 deg C. There's several people going our way so that's good. It's not long before we come to a suspension bridge across a rock fall area. 4 persons maximum but it swings wildly with just one person on it. An hour and a half out from teh hut, the black Belgian dog, Karim, from the hut looms out of the mist. His owner Olga, an assistant at the hut, is going for her morning walk. She tells us the dog has even been up to the Dom Hut, 700 metres further up than the Europa Hut, with ladders and narrow ledges to negotiate.
The boulder fields go on for ever - 8k. We begin to understand why some experts have suggested that the Europaweg, the recently built path from Grachen to Zermatt, was an engineering impossibility. There's many signs that say "Cross the danger areas of rock fall quickly" - but that's a bit like saying go faster when you're running out of petrol. The only purpose it serves is that you know the outcome, good or bad, sooner. We find a small space to have our morning coffee. It's still only 6 deg C and I'm still rugged up in rain jacket, beanie and 2 pair of gloves.
It's almost 2pm when we emerge from the boulders to a patch of grass high above Grachen and sit down to have lunch tucked away behind a large rock out of the wind, in the sun. There's several other people we recognise from the Europa Hut, who have trekked these boulders to find the same patch of grass. The sign says it's another 2hrs 30 mins to Grachen. It's all downhill. This is not good. Going uphill is strenuous but easy on the body. Going downhill is not at all strenuous but extremely hard on the knees (from the jarring steps down), toes ( from sliding forwards in your shoes) and arms (from bracing yourself with trekking poles). And so it down we went. We could see the village in the valley but it never seemed to get any closer.
Finally we're at the bottom and follow the road to Grachen. It's starting to drizzle but we stop for a quick billy of tea - it's been hard yakka climbing boulders and trudging downhill. On again. Then to add insult to injury we take a wrong turn which adds 1km to an already long day and when we arrive in the village, the Hotel Desiree is nowhere to be seen. A local gives us directions and we are welcomed by the host and given our key to a wonderful room - king size bed, huge bedroom with a magnificent view across to the Alps. And better still, the hotel is right next door to the local CoOp - the equivalent to our own IGA.
We dump our bags and head straight to the Co Op, and buy enough food for a salad dinner, with a wine and beer, and lunch tomorrow. The Hotel Desiree is nice, but there's 6 varieties of spaghetti on the dinner menu.
Time for a quick blog then out comes the picnic dinner. We do some homework for tomorrow - checking out the location of our hotel in Saas Almagell and discover to our dismay that the Berghotel Furggstalden is actually up on the mountain above Saas Almagell. We need to do some lateral thinking to work out how to get there. A chairlift?? Will keep you posted tomorrow on what happens.