bonjour Frühjahr
easter long weekend. 4 full days of glorious spring weather. is there anything else to do but walk from lenk to montreaux? what a silly question!
it was, as always, touch and go getting ourselves out of warm bed early on friday morning, but again, as always, once up under the towering bernese oberland peaks, there was no doubt we'd made the right decision. we headed up west from lenk towards the trütlisbergpass, and it was almost hot walking! crazy spring. not to worry though, once above 1600m the snow kicked in. luckily we'd been planning and had our borrowed snowshoes to kick back. still it is remarkably hard work walking in snow, and it got up to 1m deep up towards the pass. exhausting, spectacular, quite perfect.
downhill towards lauenen was also quite fun. weeeee! all the way down. until the snow stopped at least, and then there were lots of pretty spring mountain flowers to keep us company. we popped briefly along the main street, before heading up shortly out of town to a lovely miniplateau overlooking back on our afternoon's pass. we could even see our tracks down from the pass to remind us of the fun! it got a wee bit chilly over night, but nothing too painful nor permanent, and we were all raring to go in the morning.
the best thing about walking in the swiss mountains is the sheer convenience. mountain pass, snowshoeing, then a short 1 hour downhill later we were in gsteig for fresh gipfeli, berliner and cappuccinos. quite ridiculous really. there was a bit too much snow on the next bit of our planned route, so we headed up the valley instead, over the col du pillon, loomed over by the les diableterts massif. quite an evil looking mountain, until we looked more closely and saw the spiderwebs of gondolas and skilifts covering the whole sheer face...
it really is strange to walk from german into french. all of a sudden people stop saying grüezi and start up the bonjours! but being switzerland the convenience of francs, perfect organisation and flawless english remains everywhere.
next morning, next cupofcino. it is tough. more lovely mountains, great weather. almost a bit boring really :) this night we found a superb spot to camp though. head of a valley with all the alps still closed for winter, fields of early spring flowers tentatively poking their heads up through last year's cowpats, and the limestone peaks shielding us and our small valley from the rest of the world.
long through walks are fantastic. we felt quite alien strolling into the early summer montreaux, filled with trendy french icecream lickers, wearing our mountain gear, carrying our snowshoes and smelling of 4 long mountain days. i like it.
it was, as always, touch and go getting ourselves out of warm bed early on friday morning, but again, as always, once up under the towering bernese oberland peaks, there was no doubt we'd made the right decision. we headed up west from lenk towards the trütlisbergpass, and it was almost hot walking! crazy spring. not to worry though, once above 1600m the snow kicked in. luckily we'd been planning and had our borrowed snowshoes to kick back. still it is remarkably hard work walking in snow, and it got up to 1m deep up towards the pass. exhausting, spectacular, quite perfect.
downhill towards lauenen was also quite fun. weeeee! all the way down. until the snow stopped at least, and then there were lots of pretty spring mountain flowers to keep us company. we popped briefly along the main street, before heading up shortly out of town to a lovely miniplateau overlooking back on our afternoon's pass. we could even see our tracks down from the pass to remind us of the fun! it got a wee bit chilly over night, but nothing too painful nor permanent, and we were all raring to go in the morning.
the best thing about walking in the swiss mountains is the sheer convenience. mountain pass, snowshoeing, then a short 1 hour downhill later we were in gsteig for fresh gipfeli, berliner and cappuccinos. quite ridiculous really. there was a bit too much snow on the next bit of our planned route, so we headed up the valley instead, over the col du pillon, loomed over by the les diableterts massif. quite an evil looking mountain, until we looked more closely and saw the spiderwebs of gondolas and skilifts covering the whole sheer face...
it really is strange to walk from german into french. all of a sudden people stop saying grüezi and start up the bonjours! but being switzerland the convenience of francs, perfect organisation and flawless english remains everywhere.
next morning, next cupofcino. it is tough. more lovely mountains, great weather. almost a bit boring really :) this night we found a superb spot to camp though. head of a valley with all the alps still closed for winter, fields of early spring flowers tentatively poking their heads up through last year's cowpats, and the limestone peaks shielding us and our small valley from the rest of the world.
long through walks are fantastic. we felt quite alien strolling into the early summer montreaux, filled with trendy french icecream lickers, wearing our mountain gear, carrying our snowshoes and smelling of 4 long mountain days. i like it.
posted by benjamin at 10:17 pm
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