Hohgant Integrale

One of our long-standing "we should do that" items was to build an overnight into one of our hikes. Further push for this was added by greg reading the microadventures book, so we picked up a pair of bivvy bags last week and set out on Sunday to do a long hike followed by a bivvy and then a short walk to catch the first bus on Monday (the weather on Saturday was forecast to be crap, thus the odd timing).

We took the bus to Kemmeriboden (nice bus ride!) and then started hiking up the valley. The route follows the road (now mostly closed) for the first bit and then turns up the hill. At Hübeli we leave the marked route to take an unmarked (but quite clear) path up, up, up through the woods. We're taking it pretty slow today since we've got all day and the packs are a bit heavier than normal. We manage to miss the fork that would have led us up to the Birchegütsch and remain in the woods under the ridge for a bit longer than planned. The weather is lovely and the views of the Brienzergrat withe the Berner Oberland peeking out above it are great. Snack break with nice views in a clearing just under the Chemmeribodeflue. At some point along the way we come across a nice spring where we can cool down a bit and fill up the water bottles (there's a picture of this, so we should be able to find it on the map).

Just past the Brünneligrind we head up to the ridge itself at p1809. Now it's a lovely bit of ridge hiking, with a bit of light scrambling mixed in, following a trail that's generally clear, until we get to the step up to the Furggegütsch. This has a bit more light climbing, fairly exposed, and generally more ridge fun, until we get up to the peak itself. Here we see the first two other hikers of the day. We have a food break and enjoy the views before continuing on, following the other two hikers who are yodeling as they walk (which is very, very cool) down a bit to traverse under the ridge and then to a crossing. There's another spring near the crossing, so we fill the bottles again before continuing.

There's a trail that leads up to the Hohgant from here, but that is currently crossing a steep snowfield, and scrambling is more fun anyway, so we head steeply up to the saddle to the foot of the first of the three Bären. A bit more scrambling/light climbing gets us to the top of the first one and then it's more of the same (though a bit easier) to get across the other two and onto an easy ridge that leads us up to the broad, flat top of the Hohgant.

Here we're in a cloud, so there's not much to see and even figuring out exactly where we want to go isn't completely trivial (the downside of the broad, flat ridge!). With help of the phone we find our way to the path and continue, eventually coming out of the cloud. Around the Aff and then easily along the ridge to the Hohgant West (not named on the map, p2069). Now further on to p2062 and then we start our descent. Past through a field at around p2032 with great views that would be an excellent (though very open, and no water except melting snow) bivac location - two women are already there hanging out and waiting to pitch their tent. Onwards and downwards we go, down a step via some fun ladders in a couloir, and then up to the Trogehorn. Here we take an energy bar break and enjoy the views one last time before starting our way down, down down the end of the ridge. Above Arni, which is where plan to sleep, we hit a nice stream and fill our water bottles before descending the last bit to Arni.

The blue lines on the map here are not lying: this area is pretty swampy. There's some flat dry space around the hut, but unfortunately the sheep are up (they must have *just* been brought up), so that's out. We find a mostly flat and mostly dry spot under some trees that would likely work as a bivac location and go ahead and make and eat dinner (the beef stroganoff isn't too bad, particularly after adding chipotle powder to it!). During the dinner prep Andrea spots another possible spot a bit lower (at around p1475 on the map). Since we aren't super enthusiastic about where we are, we put on the packs and go check that out. This turns out not to be great, but from the trail leading there we have a good view into the valley and can see that the alp at the end of the valley (p1344) looks empty and has no cows around it. Bonus! Down we go, following the forest road until we get to the alp which is, happily, not yet occupied. There's a flat, mostly dry, spot with nice soft grass behind the hut where we set up our bivvy bags. A bit of a wash in the trough, some repacking to make sure everything is protected from the dew, and then we go to bed and fall asleep to the sound of the cowbells from down the valley.

We're both sleep surprisingly well (though are awake enough to appreciate how good the stars are!) and are up early. Greg needs the headlamp when starting at 4:30, but by 5:00 it's light enough to pack that away. We enjoy a couple cups of coffee/tea while getting everything packed to the sound of the cowbells. There's plenty of dew all over everything, but we stayed dry in the bivvy bags. As planned we are underway, with big smiles on our faces, by 5:30. The walk down the valley in the morning light is great and we are at the bus stop in Innereriz for the 6:30 bus with a few minutes to spare. The bus takes us to Thun, where we grab some breakfast and then get the train that takes us back to Basel. It's fun to be on a train full of commuters after having woken up under an open sky to the sound of cowbells. :-)

Note to our future selves: 2l of water is plenty for an evening + coffee and tea the next morning.

Track (missing the last bit of day 1, the obvious straight line connects the spot we had dinner to the spot below where we camped that my watch found the GPS):
Stats (day 1): 9:32, 16.9km, 1950m up, 1350m down
Stats (day 2): 0:57, 3.7km, 0m up, 288m down