A hike along the 'Romantikweg'

Dwight Peck's personal website

Winter 2017-2018

In the dreadful, and hopefully only, Year of Trump

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.

A brief sojourn at Rosenlaui, and hike along the 'Romantikweg'

Alison and Mark's visit, 3-6 October 2017

We've spent our first night at the Hotel Rosenlaui (1328m), and are up early but not too early, 4 October, to catch the postal bus up the hill -- pausing here at the Chalet-Hotel Schwarzwaldalp ["Black Forest Pastures", 1456m] for a nine minute layover, probably to let the downhill bus synchronize our meeting halfway up.

A little alpine cheese palace

Flags of the Swiss Confederation and the Canton of Berne, and (on the left) presumably of a local entity.

Arriving at the pass at Grosse Scheidegg (1962m), to begin today's walk -- along the touristically named (since we were last here) the 'Romantikweg'

The Berghotel Grosse Scheidegg (a photo from our 2008 visit)

Our bus continues down to Grindelwald . . . as will we tomorrow.

In the distance, the Eiger east side, with the less snowy Nordwand on the right

The road back down towards Schwarzwaldalp, and our hiking path before us

A look at Grindelwald Grund (the lower part of town), and the pass at Kleine Scheidegg in the sunny distance

The Mittellegi ridge on the east side of the Eiger, with the Mönch behind

Mark and Alison along the Grosse Scheidegg ridge, with good views

Off to the left of our ridge, that's the path that leads to the top of the First skilift and the Bachalpsee hovering above Grindelwald. We're bound down the other side of the ridge off to the right.

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"We'd rather eat grass than trash. Thanks." Passing a little hut on the ridge at 2006m.

Our path lies before us.

The farm of Scheidegg-Oberläger (1950m)

Crossing the mighty Spycherbach

Lenticular clouds

Passing through Scheidegg-Oberläger

We persevere.

On our last walk along this path, in 2008, we took the path slanting upwards to the right in this photo, over the ridge to the hidden lake the Hornseeli in the rain and down into the next hidden valley, the Alp Breitenboden, a vastly longer route as it turned out.

Crossing the mighty Geissbach

A parting of the ways -- the Hornseeli/Breitenbodenalp path up the hill, the 'Romantikweg' eventually back to Schwarzwaldalp straight out to the east.

A look back at Grosse Scheidegg with the Wetterhorn looming behind it

The Eiger, with two farms of Spycherboden and Scheidegg Oberläger

Finally off the farm road and onto a proper path (photo by Alison)

We have but to follow our trusty guide.

Mark's colorful pack

Lots of pretty red . . . let's call it 'heather'

A very muddy path requires frequent workarounds

Avoiding the muddy path

We seem to spend more time taking photographs than walking, which is fine.

According to the Switzerland Mobility topographical map, this whole slope is called 'Uf em Horen'. For what that's worth.

Contemplating the fairly majestic scenery

The red-and-white trail markings indicate 'wear good shoes', more or less -- a mountain path (whereas a yellow splash suggests a more genteel promenade)

We're about to turn the corner, at Gibelplatti (1936m), and begin descending into the next valley along the way.

The little bowl of Pfanni -- on our last amble in the area we were above the waterfalls and over the horizon on the right, but today (thankfully) we're headed down to that road 200m below us.

A criss-crossy, switchbacky path down through the vegetation

Down the Gibelplatti!

A view of Rosenlaui below -- the little waterfall just right of centre is the Gletscherschlucht.

This downhill is taking forever -- but we're probably more than halfway down.

The waterfall left of centre is the Pfannibach -- the common thread throughout here is that 'bach' indicates a stream or creek.

Here's a view near the top of the waterfall on the right on a foggy day in 2008:

Fewer scenic views that day

But back in the present -- we're still descending.

Leveling out towards the bottom -- the Wellhorn is in the background.

The Pfanni farm

And the Pfannibach waterfall

A discussion of our next moves (photo by Alison)

Down the farm road towards Schwarzwaldalp -- our track down from the Gibelplatti is just visible up on the right.

Local scenery -- glaciers between the Wellhorn (left) and the Wetterhorn

A glance back up the Pfanni

A somewhat laborious slog down the road

Nearly back to Schwarzwaldalp

A old chalet at Schwarzwaldalp, dated 1637 on the front of it.

Another 2km down along the Rychenbach creek to the berghotel Rosenlaui

Emerging at the carpark at the Gletscherschlucht

And ready for dinner.

Tomorrow: Kleine Scheidegg

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