A splendid long hike to the Rotstockhütte yesterday, a grand dinner and perhaps a little sore last night, and today we're ready for something that just emphasizes the "scenic" part of the equation. So what better than the "Mountain View Trail" (yes, that's in English), 11 August 2008.
You
may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a
good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught
up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
That's our Pension Sonnenberg below. Yesterday we passed the Pension Suppenalp on the far side and gamboled up the far ridge -- today we're going this way instead, over the little Allmendhubel ridge and then . . . wherever the trail may take us!
On the Allmendhubel ridge (1934m), this is the path that goes up to the Birg and on to the Schilthorn summit. Quite a few years ago Marlowe's mom Jane shortroped me up this way, from Mürren (1645m) to the Schilthorn (2970m) in about 3 hours, then down off the far ridge and circling in past the Rotstockhütte back to Mürren in another two and a half, but I was more spry in those days. We all were.
Today perhaps we'll just snap some excellent "Mountain Views" and walk out the more or less level path northwards.
Snap One: The Eiger and Eiger Glacier. I don't even have to get off my bench for this!
The Big Three: (from left) Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau.
There's our "Mountain View" path -- let's get started.
That's a glance back at the Allmendhubel funiculaire station. Probably. Well, maybe. It doesn't look like a funiculaire station from here, but that's where it ought to be.
Kleine Scheidegg on the far side, with the Eiger above it. "As we speak", there are long lines of older Japanese tourists filing in and out of the rail-station restaurants at Kleine Scheidegg, clutching one another's coattails with very anxious mien. I got caught in the tidal-flow once and ended up on the other side of Kleine Scheidegg.
Our path out across the balcony alpage above Mürren, with the skilift up from Winteregg demoting our view from "magnifique" to "almost magnifique".
The view over our shoulder, of course, remains magnifique anyway.
A little farm along the way, probably called "Oberberg" like most of them, with the village of Wengen on the far side of the Lauterbrunnen valley.
Kristin on the "Mountain View" path, 11 August 2008, in plein forme.
The bêtes are relaxing in the meadows above Mürren, and so are we.
Kristin shaking off the stragglers again. That ridge on the far side (2227m at the left end of it) is called Männlichen, overlooking the village of Grindelwald down the far side.
A lovely glance back at the way we've come so far.
And another of the same -- the Mountain View Trail is an excellent, rewarding, easy walk for a few hours, not terribly overcrowded and, of course, better-than-average views across the way.
Like this view, for example.
But now we're just above the Grütschalp rail station, about 500m straight down. "Geronimo!"
Rural architecture as we plummet down to Grütschalp rail station.
Kristin's sodded off on the train from Grütschalp back to Mürren, and try as we might to lumber awkwardly alongside the rail car, we're losing ground.
Just moments after Kristin's passage by here more comfortably, we're pausing to snap a few pix of the Winteregg rail station and skilift up the mountain we've just walked down from.
The Eiger Nordwand. Again.
We're ambling through beautiful Mürren to see if Kristin's still around.
No Kristin buying helpful snacks in the Coop grocery. We'll dash up the hill and try to beat her to the hotel.
Dashing became plodding. Plodding became claudicating, all bent over and staring at the ground. Claudicating became innovating -- at this point, I was experimenting with a method of lying down and trying to roll up the hill rather than walk up it.
The end is in sight. No, it's not, but the part not-too-far-from-the-end is in sight.
A brutal uphill at the end of the day, but at least, whilst pausing for breath, the mountain views are as advertised.
The Pension Sonnenberg, and Kristin snugly inside with The New Yorker and a big bowl of soup. We're off home tomorrow, with catastrophic weather predicted.
From our window. The Swiss flag (rather tattered) flying proudly, with another one just below it.
Ah, it's the flag of the California Republic. Of course.
The next day, funky weather as we start down for home.
Nuns don't need to worry about dangerous weather predictions in the mountains.
Goodbye, Blumental.
In the Lauterbrunnen valley, at Stechelberg, we're ready to head for home via the Zweisimmen valley and over the Jaunpass for old times' sake, in what became a truly torrential orage on the motorway. A great Long Weekend. The next one is at Rosenlaui.
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 6 September 2008, revised 30 May 2013.
