Today we did Schynige Platte. Up early (but not too early), a quick breakfast, pack, and we dropped our bags off with the front desk before catching the bus to the Wilderswil train station. Today, we were taking a cog railway up to the top of <Loucherhorn>. What starts off as a traditional trainride very quickly veers almost directly uphill, to a degree (badum-tish) that feels quite unnatural. It's not fast, but a slow train is far quicker than a fast hike. You start off rising over the town, before passing into the alpine meadows where sheep and cows graze. You look out over Interlaken and the lakes (and cows) from ever increasing heights, even looking down at Harder Kulm across the valley... and then, you go through a tunnel. The tunnel itself isn't too long, and apart from some slightly worrying strain gauges mounted to the walls, rather uneventful. But once you come out the other side of the tunnel you are suddenly in the Alps. Windswept snow-covered peaks, plunging coniferous slopes... those few hundred meters feel like teleportation to another world.
And the train's still not done. We kept climbing until we eventually arrived at a snow-covered platform, where the sudden return to plumb feels off-balance. There we poured out of the train with the rush of fellow tourists, found a clear patch of pavement to regroup, checked the maps, and figured out what we're going to do up here.
Adam, Dani, and Sage took the train before us, with plans on doing the 6 mile loop-trail at the top. That was never an option for the rest of us. I was advocating for the 3 mile loop (red) , while my mother was looking at the 1.5 (pink). We figured we'd get started and see how we felt when we got to the split half a mile in. Immediately we headed straight up an icy slope. It had snowed overnight, at least at this elevation (approx 6000 feet), and we felt every inch of snow and every meter of elevation. Progress devolved into a waddle of small steps, creeping up the slope to the first overview and the start of the real trails.
The first overview was a giant empty picture-frame (aka insta-trap), and had stunning views of Jungfraue, Monch, and Eiger (The Young Woman, the Monk, and the Ogre). Where Harder Kulm felt like a mountain over the town, this feels like a mountain among the peaks of the world. The hike up was rough, but we figured we'd try out the rest of the short loop, since it should be flat from here. And it started out flat! Very snowy, but flat enough that it didn't much matter. There were some good views, but then the trail started to veer downward, and my parents noped out. My mom is often over-cautious, but it was icy trails with steep drops and no railings, so I judged them silently but didn't try to dissuade them. I told them I'd finish the pink and meet them back at base, they doubled back, and I set off alone into the alps. Ok I wasn't actually alone, there were a handful of people on the trail. But it sounds much more stoic and sexy to pretend this was a lone venture into the great unknown.
It started off pretty easy. Flat or downward trails, normal hiking without worrying about foot placement, stunning views... Great times. But what goes down must come back up, and it was brutal. Between the altitude, the slush, the occasional knee-high stairs... I was thankful my parents made the choice they did. I almost wished I made the choice they did. It was harder work than the rough uphill to the first overview, and it was non-stop for several hundred feet of elevation. Among those of us left on the trail, there was no speaking - everyone conserved their breath. A brief level section was a nice respite, but the trail veered back uphill again to sap the rest of our strength. I'd already shed my coat and my jacket, rolled up my sleeves... now I was regretting wearing longjohns and considering sitting in the snow to tear off my pants.
But I didn't, and eventually I made it to the peak <Geiss Summit>, and there I sat on my coat over a snowy bench, caught my breath, and finally remembered to take in the amazing views. My eyes had been locked to my next few steps, and suddenly I saw the lakes spread out almost a mile <google says 4917'> beneath me. Once I recovered, I looked at my options. I could take the shorter trail back as we'd originally planned, or I could set off on the 3 mile red loop. Well.... it's all down hill from here, right? Of course not, but I only need the flimsiest of excuses to make dumb choices. I sent a text to my family (Switzerland is wild, you can be on top of mountains and still have perfect 5G) and set off down the ridge trail.
It was great. The trail followed the ridge, so I had thousand-foot dropoffs to the lakes on my left, and alpine peaks across a snow-field on my right. The trail itself was a melty muddy slush that made me grateful for boots and for my years of practice river-hiking which had perfected my rock-hopping skills. I made it across the ridge, and then faced a choice. I could continue out, or turn back. Thinking that continuing out was blue (6 miles), I turned in and set off across the bowl. This trail was empty, and I really was alone. The first half was cruising, all easy trails and slowly down-hill, and I was making up time. Then second half was slowly uphill, and I felt the altitude again, but not quite as bad. Now I began running into hikers, who would say hello or thankyou in any of a half-dozen languages as I stepped off the trail to let them pass.
I returned to second insta-trap a few hundred meters from where we started, and made my way back to the train station through a maze of nature trails ("This would be edelweiss, if it weren't buried under snow"). There I met up with my parents! We compared notes, checked the train schedule, and while we were talking Adam/Dani/Sage showed up, having just finished the whole circle, complete with some sketchy ladder climbing (with a baby strapped to his back). Enough time for a snack and a diaper change, and onto the next train down. Great timing all around.
We rode back down to the station (note: Sitting with your back down-hill is way more comfortable, regardless the direction of travel), Sage flirted with random grandmothers and admired the moos, and we enjoyed a job well done. Back at the train station, we checked the time-tables and found we had 45 minutes before the train to Mürren. So the womenfolk camped out at the station, and then menfolk set about reclaiming our luggage. It was a 15 minute walk, or a 10 minute wait for the bus, so we set off uphill. The hike wasn't that bad, but my ankles are definitely feeling the miles I did this morning. Luggage recovered, we settled in for the train ride... 20 minutes later we stopped at some random town <Lauterbrunnen>, bailed off the train shouldering our way through the crowd, and jumped into a cable-car. The car filled right as we reached it, but that meant we were the first in line for the next car, and got to pick our spot! The cable-car was massive, probably 60 people, with a platform beneath for a half-dozen pallets loaded via forklift. At the other end, we got off the cablecar and immediately into our fourth train of the day, which took us to Mürren.
Another hike up a long uphill (dragging bags), a long driveway uphill (carrying bags), and a long staircase (I packed far too much in these bags), and we were finally in our airBNB! As painful as it was to get here, it is amazingly well located, and the views are stunning. Once or twice so far I've mistaken the window for a poster of the alps. We had the windows wide-open as we blew off body heat and I had a few glasses of tea until I didn't hate everyone anymore, Adam and Dani went shopping for dinner, and my parents entertained the baby who has passed beyond tired to manic.
Dinner was wine and pizza, and afterwards we took a lap of the town, checking out the waterfalls across the valley, the head of the Via Ferrata (the sketchy trail you have to clip-in to hike), hit the coop for cookies and napkins, and then hiked back uphill to the house again.
TLDR: Great day, but I'm sore. We're talking about taking an easy day tomorrow, and hopefully we do. But knowing us, we're probably still gonna do some r̶e̶t̶a̶r̶d̶e̶d overambitious hike, but at least we won't have our bags with us this time.
 |
| Actual book we found in the airBNB |
No comments:
Post a Comment