Altdorf 28th Aug

Friday 28th August: Hot with clear skies all day: 19°C to 30ºC.

Engelberg to Altdorf: 17K: 9.00am to 6.00pm: 7hrs - Bus (30min) Cable Car (30min) Walk (15k, 5hrs), Cable Car (30min) Walk (2k, 20min)

Familiel and Jurgengherberge (Youth Hostel) Engelberg

Another STUNNING Day! But very hot and dehydrating - we were thankful for all the icy cold mountain streams. A mixture of buses, cable cars, 15k walk, more cable cars and a 2k walk into Altdorf. The walk over the Surenen Pass at 2291m through alpine meadows surrounded by snowcapped alpis was the highlight, closely followed by a DIY Cable car from Brusti 1000m down to Attinghausen!!

The day started with a scant breakfast at the youth hostel, one slice of bread, one slice of cheese, 1/4 of orange, and the signs says don't take any sandwiches with you for lunch! Ok, we wouldn't want to anyway, the breads stale. I've checked out the bus which leaves from around the corner pre-breakfast, so it's just a 100 metre stroll to catch the freeby bus to the Furenalp Base cable car station. Graham arrives half dressed and we can all tell he's wearing Icebreaker jocks!

The temperature's already 19ºC as we queue to buy combi tickets for the up-section to Furenalp, and also the down-section from Brusti to Attinghausen. It's a beautiful day, and getting warmer by the minute as we arrive at the 600 m up at the mountain station Furenalp along with 30 other walkers, ready to start the day's hike. Within a short time, it's 25ºC as we stroll through alpine meadows amid snow capped alps on a picture perfect warm day.

Graham doing a Pat Rafter (showing brand of jocks) at bus stop

Cable Car to Furenalp

At the top - Furenalp 1850m

Schematic of walk from Furenalp to Surenen Pass

It's already 25ºC when we set off for the Pass

Surenen Pass in background

Jenny and Graham with stunning alps in background

Coffee break at Blackenalp church

It's a steep climb to the pass

View from top is just stunning!

Lunch at Surenen Pass with dozens of other day trekkers

On top of the world

Scratching for clean snow to put in bottle for cheese and butter

Jenny has a slip - do it again Jenny so we can get a better photo

More photos on top of the world

A real tap with icy cold water

Looking back at the Surenen Pass

We're already looking to fill our water bottles from the cold streams, checking to see there's no cows up steam. If it's warm and flowing overground near moo poo, forget it. Cold water bubbling out over stones from the underground is ok. At 11am, time for a coffee break near the Blackenalp church, a 4 square metre white stone building. It's a well graded climb to the top of the Surenen Pass as 2291m, and it's still very warm but there's no shade to have lunch so we find a ledge with a cool breeze. Our bread's hot - that's the only good thing about lunch - that and the view, because the rest of lunch is runny butter, melted cheese, mushy tomatoes, limpy lettuce with hot water from our water bottles. The Surenen pass is busy with day trekkers coming from all directions.

The alps are just as stunning on the other side and we can see the Klausenpass way off in the distance. We'll be going over that tomorrow. There's a friendly Swiss gentleman who lends me his binoculars and I can even see the Klausenpass Hotel where we'll be staying tomorrow night. It's just a little white speck way off on the other side of the valley. After a steep initial descent, the track runs through some lingering ice, and I scratch up enough to fill a bottle to turn try to turn our liquid butter back to solid. There's little knolls from where you can see the whole of the alps strung out in front - makes for some great photographs.

The day gets hotter, nudging 30ºC - I have a small portable Coghlan's thermometer that has been very reliable. Late in the afternoon, there's a stand pipe with a tap delivering icy cold water - a welcome relief as we head towards Brusti where there's supposed to be a cable car down into Attinghausen, 1000m below. Soon there's a a forrested area providing welcome relief from the heat and a it's time for a slump on the benche seats in a picnic area in a small clearing with another cold water tap with water from deep underground.

Another 30 minutes and we're at the Brusti Cable car station. But it's deserted and there's no signs in English. We wait and wait until Ian decides to pick up what seems to be an emergency phone and someone on the other end tells us the cable car will leave at 4.45pm - 20 minutes away. More waiting and we're not sure what to do. Times ticking and we decide to get into the cable car and hope for the best - a small sip of hot vodka and orange replenishes our nervous energy. At exactly 4.45pm, the cable car launches itself and starts it's descent 1000 metres down into the steep valley below. It's a welcome relief when we hit the bottom, and we're directed to swap to another gondola that completes the descent into Attinghausen where we're supposed to catch a bus. Graham jumps on the first bus that arrives, then finds it's going miles in the wrong direction. A quick consult with Ian's GPS and my mud maps of the hotel, and we decide to walk the last 2k into the centre of Altdorf, arriving at the Hotel Zum Schwarzen Lowen at 6pm.

We're given the two worst rooms in the place, overlooking a busy road on a Friday night - and it's stifling hot with the windows shut. Ian and I trot up the road for the usual salmon cheese, bread, beers and wine - a Swiss Syrah, arriving back to drink 4 cold beers that barely touch the sides after a long hot day. A quick shower and then dinner in Jenny and Graham's room. Time to study the route for tomorrow - it's 23k with a 1400m ascent and the days will be getting hotter. A google search finds us the Brugg to Biel cable car that runs every half hour to 1500m up the steep velley, where we can do a 15k walk along the Schachental Hohenweg, a high balcony walk high up, that takes us directly to the KlausenPass Hotel.

Bedtime, and it's a choice between sleeping in a hot room with the windows closed of a noisy room with the windows open. It's so hot our washing dried in just an hour hanging in the room. We opted for the open windows until 1am when it's a touch cooler and we can shut out the continuous noise of the Friday night traffic and revellers.