Switzerland, Episode 2 - Backpacking over Sefinenfurgge and Hohturli Passes, over Gamchigletscher, and Oeschinensee

Hello! So I'm sorry to say, but I'm going to have to split my trip up into at least 3 episodes. There is just too much to write and show! The bolded sections below are what this post covers.

Day 1: Flew into Geneva, train to Bern then Interlaken then Grindelwald. Explored Grindelwald and camped.

Day 2: Day Hike to Oberer Grindelwaldgletscher (Upper Grindelwald Glacier) and around the Grindelwald First area. Train to Lauterbrunnen, bus to Strechelberg and camped.

Day 3: Gondola to Gimmelwald, Backpacked over Sefinenfurgge Pass and Hohturli Pass, camped at Oeschinensee (see is a word for lake or body of water apparently).

Day 4: Finished backpacking to Kandersteg, train to Visp and then Zermatt, Gondola to the Matterhorn, train back to Visp and then Lausanne, train to Geneva. Stayed in hostel.

Day 5: Geneva, fly back to London.

For those of you that haven't seen them, I have 4 videos from this trip that all take place during day 3 and highlight the sights that I saw during my backpacking adventure. To view the videos, click here: http://www.youtube.com/bribergey

You can also view pics from this post here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbergey/SwitzerlandEpisode2

So my previous post left you when I was hiking through the small mountain village of Grimmelwald on the morning of day 3. The first part of day 3 was absolutely beautiful. Most of the peaks had clouds around them, but they broke free enough to provide excellent views of Jungfrau, the Eiger, and many others. This day was by far the highlight of my entire trip and I am still blown away by everything I saw over the hike. Unfortunatley, I pushed myself way too hard. In what took me basically 10 hours in one day, should have been done in two days. I think I forgot that I had read that and figured I could get it all done.

The climb from Grimmelwald to the first pass was amazing. There was a hut situated about 2/3rds the way up that sat in an amazing alpine valley overlooking all the nearby peaks. The climb from there was even more amazing. Most of the pics that show any type of sunshine or broken clouds came from this section of the trail. The summit to the pass was quite steep and vigorous, but I was pretty excited and determined to reach my first Alp pass and pushed on. The closer I got to the pass, the cloudier it got and by the time I reached the top I was pretty much in the cloud. I snapped a couple pics of Buzz and I and kept moving since it got pretty chilly. The trail split at the pass and my trail actually kept climing a few hundred more yards.

The entire next section of the trail is basically a blur, mostly because I was in the clouds the entire time. The landscape was very rugged. It was entirely made of rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. There were still some rather large snow patches, some of which the trail crossed. One of these, seen in the pics, was quite steep and pretty dangerous. If I had slipped I would have slid several hundred feet down the patch. At one point the trail had a metal ladder bolted into a cliff since there was no other way down. I finally made my way down far enough to have the clouds above me with at least a view of what was below.

I eventually made my way down to Gamchigletscher. It was quite exciting because I saw on the map that it looked like the trail actually crossed the glacier, so I was anxious to see what it would be like. Sure enough, there was a massive glacier that cut through the high canyon and the trail crossed the canyon. The glacier, which was clearly melting off, started high above in the peaks that were covered in clouds. The trail crossed along the bottom and the toe of the glacier, which is the very end where you can see the meltoff running down the canyon into the valleys below. Although the majority of the trail crossed large beds of rock and debris the melting glacier has carried and left, I was still very close to sections of deep, blue pools and areas where the snow/glacier still existed. At the bottom, or the toe, of the glacier, water fled from numerous tunnels and cracks within the glacier itself into deep narrow gorges down into the lower valleys. It was quite a site to see and crossing the two bridges over the very deep narrow gorges was pretty scary!

After crossing the glacier, the trail then made it's way up and down a few times on it's way to the 2nd pass, Hohturli Pass. This is the highest pass along the High Alpine Trail in the Swiss Alps and frankly I was too tired to do it. But once I started I had no choice. The clouds again quickly surrounded me and I slowly made my way straight up a very steep mountainside. I was so exhausted and had absolutely no views and I honestly don't remember a lot about the ascent. By this time I had developed a rather considerable blister on my left heel. There were a lot of rocks and near the top there were many steps leading up the extremely steep mountainside along with many cables and chains bolted into the cliffsides to help hikers on their way up. I finally reached the summit at 7pm, took a few pics and a video, and started my way down.

My plan had been to camp near the top of the other side of the summit, but there was really no good place to do so. I ended up hiking 2 more hours all the way down to Oeschinensee, a lake that is accessed by a chairlift or hiking trails above the village of Kandersteg. It was a beautiful lake and I was so happy when I finally arrived. Numerous waterfalls tumbled down the mountains that surrounded the lake and the lake itself was a pristine blue/green color. I set up my tent in what I think was a day-use area site far too small for my tent, cooked 2 dinners and ate them both, and went to sleep.

The next morning I felt much better, but the blister on my heel suggested that instead of hiking down 2 hours down to Kandersteg, I should try and take the 15 minute chairlift ride. Unfortunatley I was 1 swiss franc short of the fee, but when I tried to explain that to the German operator he let me go anyway. I think he just charged me the child price. After arriving in town I had just enough time to take a few pics of the village, visit a couple outdoor stores, and get some fruit and orange juice at a grocery store before catching the train. Since I had the whole day left, I decided to head over the mountains and go visit Zermatt and the Matterhorn which I had wanted to do when planning my trip but thought I wouldn't have enough time. The train stopped in the town of Visp on the way and I spent an hour walking around the town and visiting some shops. I then boarded the next train and made my way up to the automobile-free resort town of Zermatt.

To be continued...