The Mountains Were Calling - Swiss Alps Road Trip

I had a few different places in mind for my annual summer Euro trip but decided to go back to the Swiss Alps to hike some glaciers before they are gone forever. I booked cheap flights to Geneva and planned out a 10-day itinerary in the Bernese Alps. 

After a very hectic couple of weeks at home, I made arrangements with Brian's mom to drop me off at the airport - the only problem is that I told her I was leaving on Thursday when I was actually leaving on Wednesday. I arrived at her house on Wednesday morning but she wasn't home and after calling Brian, I realized my mistake. I finally arrived at the airport and got comfy in the lounge when I got updates from Delta that my flight was delayed. It kept getting pushed out, eventually overlapping my layover and was going to result in an arrival into Geneva 10 hours later than I'd originally planned. I was able to rebook to a new flight with an extra layover in Paris, but I'd arrive at 5 pm instead of 8 pm and since I had a 2 hour drive when I arrived, I opted to go that route. 

My flights went decently...I actually slept more on the longer flight than I've ever managed before, and I was even in a middle seat! I got my rental car and hit the road to Rueggisberg where my room was for the night. I was in quite a rush to get there before the cutoff time for check-in (and after getting 7? speeding tickets last time I drove in Switzerland, I was super cautious of my speed) so I wasn't able to stop and explore much and I wanted to because the area was so beautiful. 

I got checked in and took a cold shower (it was in the mid-90s and the room did not have air conditioning or a fan so it was sooo stuffy) and tried to get some sleep. A thunderstorm rolled in and I woke up for good at about 3 am, but the host had left breakfast for me (orange juice and meat and cheese and yogurt and fruit and tomatoes and croissants and hard-boiled eggs) in the dining area and I was able to make myself coffee so I just hung out until the sun came up and then headed into Gantrisch Nature Reserve for some hiking. 

I couldn't find much information on the area, so I just found a trail that looked interesting on Google Earth, pinned the nearest parking lot, and figured it out as I went. I ended up hiking up Wasserscheide, over to Leiterepass, and back in a big loop. There was hardly anybody on the trail and it was just beautiful. This was also the only hike I did over the course of the entire trip that wasn't to a glacier. 

The prettiest bull I've ever seen

After my hike, I drove around the area, taking in the sights, and then made my way south a bit to Frutigen which was my base for the next adventure and the one I was most excited for. 

I checked into my hotel and then made my way to the local Coop to see what I could find for dinner. Even though I do travel a lot and it may look like I'm just spending money left and right on everything, I'm actually super frugal and have a budget in place for everything and I stick to it so I don't go into debt or overextend myself. When I travel solo, I really try to pinch my pennies and then when Brian joins me, I splurge a little bit because we're creating memories, you know? I knew how expensive food and everything else is in Switzerland so I'd planned on just getting food at grocery and convenience stores and it saved me a fortune. I don't think I ate at a single mountain hut or restaurant while I was there...opting for hearty breakfasts at my hotel and then snacks later on. I found a taryaki bowl, tiramisu, and drinks for $13 and ate on the balcony looking out over the mountains surrounding Frutigen. 

Saturday was the big day. I took the first gondola up to Oeschinen Lake and started out with the short hike to the lake itself and then up and over to the panoramic trail in a giant loop. I took about 100,000 photos so I made a separate post just for this hike. I'll include a few of my favorite shots here of course and then you can refer to the next post for the details. 

Eventually, I made it back to the gondola and drove to my base for the next couple of days on Lake Brienz. This was the first hotel that had air conditioning and after hiking 12 miles in 93 degree humid sunshine, I took a cool shower and just relaxed in the room air for a couple of hours before getting a takeout Hawaiian pizza and eating it on the patio overlooking the lake. 

Sunday, I went into Grindelwald and took a gondola up to a trailhead I'd found of Google Earth. It was another climb and another hot day but it was so beautiful. The trail is across from a tiny remnant of a glacier that dropped all the way down into the village in 1865. I've attached a photo of it in it's heyday followed by photos of my hike. 

As I was hiking along, I heard a hundred little bells ringing on the mountainside and saw a shepherd guiding his sheep down to lower pastures and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen a single working dog in the Alps...no sheep dogs or cattle dogs or Pyrenees. It seems like it would be so easy for them to go up into these steep mountainous areas and bring the livestock down relatively efficiently vs a 75 year old man with bad knees, but there must be a reason for it. 

Can you spot the little mountain hut on the edge of the cliff there?

The only Ibex I saw on my trip :(

After my hike, I explored Grindelwald a bit, grabbed another pizza and tiramisu from a local pizzeria and made my way back to the hotel for the night.

Monday, I went to Lauterbrunnen, took the gondola and a train up to Murren and then walked to Gimmelwald and back. 

After spending some time in Murren an Gimmelwald and grabbing lunch from the Coop, I went back into Lauterbrunnen for some photos because the light was better. 

I drove the length of the valley to get away from the crowds and see what I could find. It's crazy to me that we walked all the way to Trummelbach Falls several years ago after Brian had broken his leg because it was a long way. 

My next hotel was in Innertkirchen which is just about an hour from Lake Brienz but is at the beginning of a couple of big mountain passes that I was excited to drive. I still had a few hours of daylight and nice weather before a rainstorm was supposed to roll in, so I decided to drive Susten Pass while I had the chance.

Not far into my drive, I came to cable car station and decided I'd take it and see where it went. It was unmanned, so it just had a little gate that opened when you swipe your card and then it takes off up the mountain.  

I hiked back to my car and continued along the pass. I began climbing up in elevation and got into the switchbacks that I was most excited for. 

From the top of the pass, I though I could see a road leading off into a glacial valley but wasn't sure if it was private property. I ultimately decided to go down and check it out and saw a campervan parked right at the entrance of the road so I went around, excited to see where it led. It turns out that it was a private toll road and that I was supposed to purchase a pass for it at a little kiosk that the camper van was blocking, so I'm anticipating a ticket in the mail here shortly. 

At the end of the road was a parking lot and a trail leading up into a valley that looked interesting, so of course, I hopped out and started hiking. At this point, it was about 7 pm but I was rushing as fast as I could because I didn't know how far the trail went and I still had to drive all the way back over the pass to Innertkirchen. 

Once the sun went down, I drove back to Innertkirchen for the night. The hotel had a restaurnat in it but it was so expensive and I wasn't about to spent $40 for a burger, so I just snacked on some jerky and dried apricots, took a long shower, and hit the sack. 

The next day did NOT end up storming as was forecasted, and the one activity that I'd planned for the day was taking the Gelmerbahn up to an alpine lake, but tickets were totally sold out so I shifted to Plan B. I'd found a lake and glacier on Google Earth off of the Grimsel Pass that I wasn't sure if I could actually get to, but I decided to give it a whirl anyway. The private toll road (this one I actually paid for because I knew from the day before to look for a kiosk) up to the lake only opened for 10 minutes on the hour each hour, so I parked in front of the little traffic light and waited until I could pass and drove up to where I began my hike. From there, it was a pretty easy hike up to the glacier.

I climbed up and (what I thought was) around the ice and onto the scree and a few steps later post-holed right through about 2 feet of slush...I was ON the glacier and it was NOT stable at all. I flattened out and pulled myself back to what I assumed was solid ground and then hiked up a bit farther until I lost sight of the trail and then hiked back to the parking lot. 

I got back to the car and realized that I had about 20 km til I'd run out of gas. I scoured Google Maps for a gas station nearby but it didn't have anything marked. Luckily, the rest of the Grimsel Pass was downhill so I basically coasted into the next village and managed to find a gas station and a little grocery store where I was able to procure some lunch/dinner. 

I still had a while until sunset and an ominous forecast, so I decided to go ahead and check the Furka Pass (including the Rhone glacier and the Belvedere hotel) off of my list. 

The main entrance to see the glacier was just a sad circus and it was honestly really depressing and I had no interest in paying to go see it and I just felt like it was a mockery or was disrespectful or something...it's hard to describe but I just didn't want any part of the spectacle. 

You couldn't see the glacier from the pass but the road continued up and around so I thought maybe I'd drive up another curve and see if I could find a trail or something from the backside to get up over the mountain without all of the people around. I got to the top of the pass, looked online, and found a trail right at the Belvedere hotel that went up and over the mountain so I went back to see if I could find it. Not 10 minutes later, I was looking at the famous Rhone glacier in all of it's glory.

This glacier is the source of the Rhone River and Lake Geneva and is almost gone. Here's a photo of it stretching all the way down into the valley before the Susten Pass was there. 

It's heartbreaking because all of the glaciers that I hiked to were significantly smaller than they show on Google Earth which just goes to show how quickly they're receding. I just sat for a long time and felt really sad before hiking back and driving down to my hotel in Munster for the night. 

It happened to be right next to a Coop so I got a salad and snacks and ate in my room and watched Formula 1.

The next morning, the rain finally came so I took my sweet time getting out of bed, getting ready, and having breakfast and then ventured to my next destination - the Aletsch glacier. I took a series of gondolas up to an overlook where you could see the largest glacier in the alps in it's entirety and then hiked around for a bit. The crazy thing is that it rained all up until I got to the gondola station and then cleared up for the couple of hours that I was there and hiking and then as soon as I got back down to my car, it began to rain again. I couldn't have timed it better!

After exploring a bit, I continued on to Crans-Montana, checked into my room for the night, and took a long hot bath with the rain pouring down outside. 

The following morning was another rainy, foggy, misty day and I didn't have much planned so I found an interesting looking road that ended deep in a canyon with a lake so I decided to check it out. Along the way, I came upon a British couple that was hitch-hiking and picked them up and we explored the road together without any idea what we would find. Eventually, we came to the lake and a little parking area and we went our separate ways. 

I hiked up over the ridge to a glacier and then down to the river where rocks and chunks of ice were crashing down in the rain.

I decided not to get too close because if there's anything scarier than hiking right next to a glacier on a hot sunny day, it's hiking next to one in the rain. On my way back to the main road, I stopped in the little village of Grimentz and it was just darling. It reminded me a lot of the old part of Zermatt (which wasn't far away) but without any of the crowds. Each structure had bushels of geraniums pouring out of window boxes and there were little wooden figurines and water mills and bakeries and cheese shops and it was just the cutest little Swiss village ever.

Afterward, I drove back to Geneva, got my rental car ready to be returned, and hit the sack. The next day, I got up pretty early and got a notification that my flight was delayed by several hours again and there was some major drama back home so Brian was on his way back to Arizona as well. Luckily, there was a different flight that left earlier and had an extra connection but landed at the same time as the original flight was supposed to land and bypassed JFK entirely, which was appealing as there was a hurricane in that area that was causing all sorts of delays. I returned without incident, got my car, and stayed with Brian's mom before coming back home on Saturday. 

Brian is now officially home from Alaska for good and we have both of the kids living with us full-time, so I'm not sure when our next trip will be, but I'll be sure to keep up with posts as adventures come :)