Leukerbad to Kandersteg (2/2)

Today starts (fairly late, the hotel didn't start breakfast until 7:45) under a cloudless blue sky. We head out of town the same way we came in yesterday and then start heading up, up the trail to the Gemmi pass. This is a nicely maintained and surprisingly popular route. It also gets morning sun, which was a bit surprising. Fortunately it's not super hot yet and there is occasional shade from trees. Up, up we go, passing hikers, getting passed by one trail runner, until we get to the pass itself. Into the madness towards the gondola station to enjoy the views (oh the views!), and then we say goodbye to the Walliser mountains and turn towards the Berner Oberland. Down the trail through the crowd, a very very nice flowy bit of running along the lake, on the improvised trail around the end of the lake (the water is super high and the normal trail is under water), our first food break with views back towards the lake, and then onwards. Pretty shortly thereafter we opt to stop for coffee and tea (and to refill our water bottles) at the Hotel Schwarenbach before starting up, up on the trail to the Schwarzgraetli (we've were here more than 10 years ago). 

We're mostly alone on this piece of trail, but at the ridge we start seeing people again. After enjoying the views down to the Innere Ueschene and then continue along the trail towards Engstligenalp. Nice bit of trail under a big cliff. At a crossing point we run into a Swiss guy coming the other way who says something about a cave that neither of us understands, but that sounds interesting, so we decide to continue along to see what that looks like. Here the marked path is between the snow and the cliff. The snow gets higher and higher and the space gets narrower and narrower, but there are still markings, so we keep going. There's a bit of scrambling and some squeezing and then we hit a dead end (well, not a dead end, we probably could do some scrambling and continue, but it would be really tricky to come back), so we turn around and head back to a spot G had noticed where the snow wall was low enough to scramble over and there's a use trail. This shortly joins the marked trail, which we continue to follow, contouring under the snow field this time, across a bit more snow and then then up a bit to a trail junction (from here it's obvious that there was no good way out if we had continued between the snow and the cliff), where we turn and start heading down into the valley. This is steep at first, but steadily more and more runnable as we continue. Once things flatten out we stop to fill a water bottle (with the filters), continue a bit farther, do another food break, and then finish the last stretch down, down to Kandersteg.

Track:

Stats: 23.7km, 5:57, 1490m up, 1690m down

Crans-Montana to Leukerbad (1/2)

 We finally got a weekend with two good weather forecasts, so we decided to try something new: a multi-day trail run. The route for this first day is from Flowtrails fuer Geniesser. 

We get an early start from Basel and do train, train, funicular to get to Crans Montana. We start running in a cloud, so it's nice and cool as we head up and out of town.

The route mainly follows a stream/suone (the Bisse de Tsittoret) and is a nice mix of open and forest. We would have fantastic views of the Walliser 4000ers if it weren't for the clouds, but the running/hiking is still really good. We stop and do our first food break at Le Relais de Columbire after about an hour of running (those sandwiches aren't getting any better in the trail-running pack!) Continuing on, we start to encounter more people who are out enjoying the nice day, including a fair number of trail runners who, of course, pass us. We're generally among the fastest hikers, but we are also the slowest runners. ;-)

Onwards and around the corner at the Cave du Sex. We miss a planned diversion to follow the suone into the valley and instead follow the main trail and do a bit of extra up and down (ah well...). Onward and upward, along the nice trail. Another food break at Nueschelet, past the hut at Varneralp (our high point for the day), and then down, down and around the corner. Leukerbad is now in view. Instead of continuing along the marked path for Leukerbad, we continue with the recommendation from the book and stay up high for a bit longer, climbing a bit more and following a clear, but unmarked path that leads to the back of the valley. This bit would probably be pretty good running if it were dry, but it required some care after all the rain we've had in the past weeks. At the end we come out onto the trail that leads up to the Gemmi pass (that's for tomorrow) and follow that down into town.

In town we grab snacks and protein drinks at the Migros, check into our hotel, brief nap, a very relaxing visit to the spa, dinner at a pizzeria (lucky to get a table... town is quite busy!), then some stretching and bed.

This was a really good day. It would have been super nice to actually have the amazing views, but the running was still good and the peeks we got of the peaks were fun. 

More running to come tomorrow.

Track:

Stats: 24km, 4:50, 1140m up, 1220m down

Maschgenkamm to Mels

The forecast for Saturday called for eastern Switzerland to be rain-free the longest, so we planned a run near Sargans. The idea is to do something fun where it's ok if it starts raining at 2 or 3.

We take the gondolas up to Maschgenkamm and start running under lovely blue skies along the trail to the Spitzmeilenühtte (been a while since we were here!). This ends up being a really nice and flowy trail that's runnable most of the way... super enjoyable. We stop at the hut and have coffee/tea and cake, top off our water bottles, and then continue. From the hut we climb gradually up to the Schönegg ridge and then contour around to the Schönbüelfurggel. This could also be nicely flowy, but there are still a bunch of snow patches that kind of require walking. More traversing around to the Fansfurggla, where we take another short food break. A bit more climbing and then along the ridge, some of it even runnable, down to the Siezfurggla. 

The trail here takes us across a good sized, and rather steep snow field (which is a bit nervewracking with trail shoes and no poles), and then further along, mostly maintaining the same height, to the Madchopf. It's still early in the year for this stretch, which hasn't been out from under the snow for long, so there are parts where finding/staying on the trail isn't super easy. More walking than planned. A bit below the Madfurggl on the other side we stop for a quick food break before starting the long descent. A look at the weather radar causes us to cut this a bit short and finish our sandwiches while walking. From this point on it's more or less entirely downhill for 2000m of vertical. The descent route is mostly runnable (we picked well!) except for a stretch above Vermol where the farmers have brought the cows up along the hiking path in the rain. One final food break after getting out of the cow chaos and then we're down in Mels. Here we only have to wait 10 minutes for the bus, so we opt for that instead of continuing a few more km along the road to Sargans.

This was a really nice run (though the descent at the end was long!), and we managed to do it without getting rained on. Good planning! ;-)

Track:

Stats: 31.9km, ~900m up, ~2400m down, 5:57