Saturday 22nd August: Cold morning, blue skies: 10°C to 20°C.
Kandersteg to Griesalp: 21K: 8.30am to 7.00pm: 10hrs 30 mins, including 30 minutes of cable car
Goodbye Hotel Pension Spycher
Strolling down to the gondola
Morning view of he alps
Alps behind Lake Oeschinensee
Steep climb to the top
Magnificent Lake Oeschinensee
Morning coffee with a cow plop
The alps on a magical day
The track gets steeper
Shrinking glacier near the pass
More Magical alp views
Near the top and nearly eighty!!
Lunch with a view
Highlight of the day was ALL day. From he moment we left Kandesteg the weather was perfect - blue skies and 15ºC, the alps were perfect - snow capped and magnificent, the track was perfect - dry but steep, and there were hundreds of day walkers giving an air of "must be here" to the whole track from Kandesteg to Griesalp. Reaching the top of the Hohturli Pass at 2778m with spectacular alp views was very special.
The morning started at 6am for Ian and I, time to blog and sort out our gear, before breakfast at 8am with the usual fresh hot bread, cheeses and meats and meusli. We plan to be out by 8.30am to ride the cable car up to the first level of the Alps to Lake Oescheninsee, taking off a 500 metre ascent and almost 2hrs. The day will be long enough. We meet Jenny and Graham for breakfast, rush over to the backerei for a fresh loaf of bread, and we're out the door by 8.30am. The start of the gondola is about a 15 minute walk through the town - Kandersteg is the Capital of Mountain hiking in Switzerland and already there are hundreds of people on the streets decked in fashionable hiking gear, either lined up for buses to take them to the head of a hike, or rushing to catch the gondola, or just cruising around town being seen.
It's 9am when we emerge from the gondala and embark on the first leg of the climb up to the Hohturli Pass at 2778m. We're not sure where to go. Our map shows a dozen different routes, but it's easy just to go with the flow and follow the hundreds of day trekkers who seemed to know where they were going up to the pass. It's Saturday, so we guess that's why there's so many day walkers around. It's a steep climb up but within 20 minutes we are rewarded with views to the snow capped alps as a backdrop to the blue Lake Oscheninsee.
After 2hrs, we reach the point where the lower track around the lake meets the high track that we have taken. There's hundreds of day trekkers taking advantage of the perfect weather and enjoying morning coffee at the small cafe attached to the farm with its cows, goats, pigs and an assortment of other animals mingling among the trekkers. Time for our own Jet-Boiled coffee perched on a flat rock. We're soon investigated by a cow who decides to do its plop right next to us. Good one! Coffee with mountain smells!
There's still more than 2hrs to the top and its steep. It's also very busy with streams of trekkers going up and down. The last 200m of height is very steep with never ending sets of log steps. At 2pm Ian and I reach the top, followed by Graham and Jenny 45 minutes later. Talk about lunch with a view on this perfect warm day.
There's not many walkers descending the other side towards Griesalp as most of the day trekkers are descending the same way they came up - back to Kandersteg, after having lunch at the Bluemlisalphutte, a Swiss Alpine Club hut near the top. The track is steep at first with hundreds more log steps, then soon follows a winding track down a moraine. 2hrs later we've descended 900 metres to Bundalp where we boil the billy for another cup of tea. It's already 5pm and there's still another 400 metres drop to negotiate into Griesalp. It's a long way down through the pine forrests, and we can see our hut on the other side of the mountain - which means a down then another up.
It's almost 7pm when we arrive at the busy Naturfreundehaus and we're shown to our tiny rooms with just a double bunk and a small table. Dinner is already being served when we walk into the dining room. Ian is not impressed that the first bowl is cucumber - the more for us. But the tomato and beetroot salad is superb washed down with a cold beer and a nice wine from the Valais area of Switzerland. Spag bog - but home made and really nice - is next, with a pureed sweet to follow. We're all tired after a long day and we can't find any showers (which we later find the next morning hidden down another corridor) so it's a quick splash with cold water before bed.
Here comes Graham
At the Hohturli Pass 2778m
Walk fast past the rock fall!
Time for a cuppa at Bundalp
Cucumber, NOT Ian's favourite