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| Trini and me |
Last year I was supposed to do a three day hike with my good Swiss friend Trini. Sadly she tore her ACL (2/3 of it) and meniscus playing in the teacher vs. student soccer game during the last week of school. She was lucky enough to recover with Physical Therapy and no surgery! Since her knee was healthy we decided to schedule the trip for this summer. It happened to be right before her and her husband left this area of Switzerland (very sad for us, her and her husband are very good friends of ours). Trini invited a few other friends for this years hike, none of us knew one another, but we all thankfully had a really nice time together. Although it was almost all Swiss German!! I think my head was more tired than my legs!!
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| Fog/drizzle on the first day at the Rotstockhütte |
Our trip took us from Mürren to the Rotstockhütte (night one) to Blumisalphütte (night two) to the Oeschinensee. The first day was supposed to be longer and spending the night in the Gspalthornhütte but the weather forecast was questionable and it isn't wise to be up at 2800m in storms!! The weather forecast was actually not too favourable for the whole weekend, but thankfully the other two days we had wonderful weather. The Rotstockhütte was quite small, but us five ladies had our own little room, and the spaghetti and meatballs were amazing (also the coffee cream dessert)!
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| Rotstockhütte the next morning |
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| The big mountains. Pretty sure you see Eiger and Mönch in this one. |
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| Our little hut. |
Since the first day we shortened, the second day ended up being a long one. We hiked for about 8 hours and the last 2 km had about 800m of elevation gain up to the Blumisalphütte. The views from this hut were spectacular, so it was well worth the effort. The dinner here was also very tasty: broccoli cream soup, mixed salad, roast beef and spatzli, and a vanilla cream dessert ended with a traditional swiss coffee schnapps (you have to once or twice while you live in Switzerland). In this hut we were just in a dorm room with about 20 people... it was actully ok until someone closed the window in the middle of the night. I have never been so hot while trying to sleep!
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| We headed up this green field to a pass. |
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| On our way... and so Sunny!! |
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| Looking down into Kiental and our Swiss mountain markers |
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| The flowers, so many of them! |
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| A glacier, sadly which have been melting away. It is quite crazy to see it in person. |
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| A little bridge of Glacier melt. |
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| Heading up the steep section to Blumlisalphütte |
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| Blumlisalphütte |
The last day we hiked down to Oeschinensee, via the unmarked and a bit exposed Fründschnur route. Not recommended for those with a fear of heights, there was a cable to hold onto the whole way and some even used a climbing harness and clips. Once we made it down to the lake, which is almost too beautiful for words with the rock walls of the mountains surrounding it, we decided to go for a swim in the teal blue COLD mountain water. It was SO refreshing. Finally before catching the gondola, train, train, and car ride home we had ice cream and Panache beer (half lemonade half beer) which was also very refreshing! I would recommend this breathtaking 3 day hike to everyone. If you don't take the optional Fründschur route it is all a normal red white (not alpine) hiking trail which is physically challenging but not scary.
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| Ready to go... day 3 |
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| Around and bend and there was the gorgeous Oeschinensee. |
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| The start of the narrow exposed section. |
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| Water splitting the rocks. |
I am hoping to get out on at least a 2 day hike next summer (hopefully with John as a part of our 10 year anniversary) as it is such a great experience to sleep in the Swiss Alpine Club huts and to hike through the Alps. Who wants to come join us on a hike :-).
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