Highlights:
- Through the Chaltbrunnental to gather Bärlauch (done this before).
- Basler Fasnacht
- A Saturday visit to Thun.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Greg's Parents Visit
A nice week-long visit by Greg's parents.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Snowshoeing in the Diemtigtal, day 2
We start the day in beautiful weather once again and head out along the Senggibach again. From the number of cars in the parking lot and masses of people getting started, it's clear that we won't need to worry about being lonely today. :-)
The path takes us up the edge of the valley, steeply through the woods until things open up in the big bowl of the Alpetli. The cliffs of the Fromattgrat loom above... it's fantastic. At the hut at 1794m we start to deviate from the ski touring route: they are all heading up the ridge to the Mariannehubel, but we stay more to the right to head towards the Scheidegg. We quickly end up breaking our own path through the snow, which is massively fun (though tiring). Along through the valley, climbing gently, plotting our route as we go, until the pass comes into view just head. Down a bit, then up through the pass (how is it that no one has done this yet?) where do a quick photo break (it's windy!) before heading down the steep other side into the Fromatt Tal. Still in fresh snow around the edge of the valley (don't want to get down too far, also definitely don't want to get too close to the other side, which is basically screaming "avalanche!") towards the huts at Fromatt.
After a nice lunch break in the sun, we pass above the Fromatthütte (big group staying there) and reach the huts. Here we pick up the path of ski touring folks who've headed up to, and down from, the Fromattgrat. This leads us past the Rüti, past Möser, and then into the woods and through the Betelriedgrabe to Blankenburg. There the train takes us to Zweisimmen and the trip back to Basel Busy trains? heading out from the Simmental? on a sunny sunday in ski season? No way! ;-)
The path takes us up the edge of the valley, steeply through the woods until things open up in the big bowl of the Alpetli. The cliffs of the Fromattgrat loom above... it's fantastic. At the hut at 1794m we start to deviate from the ski touring route: they are all heading up the ridge to the Mariannehubel, but we stay more to the right to head towards the Scheidegg. We quickly end up breaking our own path through the snow, which is massively fun (though tiring). Along through the valley, climbing gently, plotting our route as we go, until the pass comes into view just head. Down a bit, then up through the pass (how is it that no one has done this yet?) where do a quick photo break (it's windy!) before heading down the steep other side into the Fromatt Tal. Still in fresh snow around the edge of the valley (don't want to get down too far, also definitely don't want to get too close to the other side, which is basically screaming "avalanche!") towards the huts at Fromatt.
After a nice lunch break in the sun, we pass above the Fromatthütte (big group staying there) and reach the huts. Here we pick up the path of ski touring folks who've headed up to, and down from, the Fromattgrat. This leads us past the Rüti, past Möser, and then into the woods and through the Betelriedgrabe to Blankenburg. There the train takes us to Zweisimmen and the trip back to Basel Busy trains? heading out from the Simmental? on a sunny sunday in ski season? No way! ;-)Saturday, March 05, 2011
Snowshoeing in the Diemtigtal, day 1
After a bit of tram->train->train->bus we arrive in Grimmialp at around 10. From there we head along the Seggibach and up into the fantastic bowl of the Grimmital. As you'd expect on a beautiful weather day: there are tons of people out on skis. We climb through the valley and up to the Grimmifurggi where, after a quick lunch break, we decide it makes more sense to head back down than to complete the last 300m to the Rauflihore (Andrea is just recovered from a bout of the flu and isn't at full strength).
Back more or less the way we came to the hotel where we enjoy a cool beverage in the sun before having a quiet evening. Not a huge amount of walking today, and lots and lots of other people about, but it was great to be out walking in the sun.
Back more or less the way we came to the hotel where we enjoy a cool beverage in the sun before having a quiet evening. Not a huge amount of walking today, and lots and lots of other people about, but it was great to be out walking in the sun.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Lindernenhuette -> Sisikon
Got off at a normal time after the usual good SAC hut breakfast. Our goal for the day is the Hagelstock, from which we'll choose a good route down to either Sisikon or some other convenient bus stop.
Of course there's a ton of other folks leaving at the same time, so we follow a couple groups of ski-touring folks out from the hut and head up for a while under blue skies and really nice conditions. It's surprising how many people are heading towards this pretty easy peak when there are some more popular ones (i.e. the Rossstock) in the area. Ah well, they're probably beginners.
After climbing for a while, something starts to seem not quite right. The peak everyone else is heading towards is clearly not the Hagelstock (too high, too sharp), so we start to head off a bit to the left, but that doesn't see right either. A glance at the altimeter shows that we're above 2200m, which is definitely odd since the Hagelstock is only 2181m. Something ain't right.
We head up a bit more to a cliff edge to survey the landscape and try to figure out where the heck we are. Looking at the map and the compass and the altimeter we can't really converge on an explanation that makes sense... frustrating. Since there are a couple of other snowshoers coming down towards us, we ask them the embarassing question: "what's the peak in front of us." the response: "which one are you trying to find?", "the Hagelstock", "you've gone the wrong way, that's the Rossstock." Ah ha! That explains the numbers of people going this way... we've climbed the wrong mountain. Stupid!
We stop to think about how this happened (easy answer: it was early and we were both kind of still caught up in the hectic of the crowds, so when we reached Ober Hüttli we thought we were at Mälchbödeli. Stupid!
Anyway, back down we head to the saddle at Mälchbödeli, then down to the valley at Spilauhütten and along to the lift station at Gitschen. There we've got a nice view back to the Lidernenhütte, which causes Andrea to remember that we forgot to pay before leaving. Doh! it's not our day. Back around the corner to the hut, pay, and then back to the lift station.
From here we head up a bit around the corner and then start our descent into the Riemenstaldner Tal. This involves quite a lot of fun route finding since for much of the way there's no trail to follow, but we make it down to Färnen, then along the slope for a bit to Alplen, down through the woods through X and Y before reaching the path leading from Z to Sisikon.
We get to Sisikon with less than a minute to buy tickets for the S bahn, which we barely manage to make (Greg runs ahead and holds the train while Andrea completes the ticket purchase). Then it's the long ride back to Basel.
Somehow more disorganized than usual today, but a good day of walking nevertheless.
Of course there's a ton of other folks leaving at the same time, so we follow a couple groups of ski-touring folks out from the hut and head up for a while under blue skies and really nice conditions. It's surprising how many people are heading towards this pretty easy peak when there are some more popular ones (i.e. the Rossstock) in the area. Ah well, they're probably beginners.
After climbing for a while, something starts to seem not quite right. The peak everyone else is heading towards is clearly not the Hagelstock (too high, too sharp), so we start to head off a bit to the left, but that doesn't see right either. A glance at the altimeter shows that we're above 2200m, which is definitely odd since the Hagelstock is only 2181m. Something ain't right.
We head up a bit more to a cliff edge to survey the landscape and try to figure out where the heck we are. Looking at the map and the compass and the altimeter we can't really converge on an explanation that makes sense... frustrating. Since there are a couple of other snowshoers coming down towards us, we ask them the embarassing question: "what's the peak in front of us." the response: "which one are you trying to find?", "the Hagelstock", "you've gone the wrong way, that's the Rossstock." Ah ha! That explains the numbers of people going this way... we've climbed the wrong mountain. Stupid!
We stop to think about how this happened (easy answer: it was early and we were both kind of still caught up in the hectic of the crowds, so when we reached Ober Hüttli we thought we were at Mälchbödeli. Stupid!
Anyway, back down we head to the saddle at Mälchbödeli, then down to the valley at Spilauhütten and along to the lift station at Gitschen. There we've got a nice view back to the Lidernenhütte, which causes Andrea to remember that we forgot to pay before leaving. Doh! it's not our day. Back around the corner to the hut, pay, and then back to the lift station.
From here we head up a bit around the corner and then start our descent into the Riemenstaldner Tal. This involves quite a lot of fun route finding since for much of the way there's no trail to follow, but we make it down to Färnen, then along the slope for a bit to Alplen, down through the woods through X and Y before reaching the path leading from Z to Sisikon.
We get to Sisikon with less than a minute to buy tickets for the S bahn, which we barely manage to make (Greg runs ahead and holds the train while Andrea completes the ticket purchase). Then it's the long ride back to Basel.
Somehow more disorganized than usual today, but a good day of walking nevertheless.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Stoos -> Lidernenhuette
Finally a weekend with a good weather forecast where we're both in town!
We start, after a good tram-train-train-bus-funicular trip in Stoos. There are tons of people around, but they're all skiing, so we head out of the masses pretty quickly. A nice walk in the sun, mostly following the contour lines, takes us around towards the Laubgarten. At first we're on the cross-country ski route, then following a nicely stamped-out path. It's blissfully quiet and sunny. :-)
After passing through the Wannentritt we do a quick lunch break and enjoy the views before heading down to the valley floor. A bit along the valley and then the path takes us up the other side, through the woods, then up, up, up to the top of the valley side and along to the Lindernenhuette itself. This is one of those approaches where you hike and hike and wonder when you're going to see the hut and then, all of a sudden, it's there, five minutes away.
The hut is 5 minutes from the top of a gondola in an area with a lot of easy ski tours, and the weather was good, so as soon as we got there we were done with the solitude. :-)
We start, after a good tram-train-train-bus-funicular trip in Stoos. There are tons of people around, but they're all skiing, so we head out of the masses pretty quickly. A nice walk in the sun, mostly following the contour lines, takes us around towards the Laubgarten. At first we're on the cross-country ski route, then following a nicely stamped-out path. It's blissfully quiet and sunny. :-)
After passing through the Wannentritt we do a quick lunch break and enjoy the views before heading down to the valley floor. A bit along the valley and then the path takes us up the other side, through the woods, then up, up, up to the top of the valley side and along to the Lindernenhuette itself. This is one of those approaches where you hike and hike and wonder when you're going to see the hut and then, all of a sudden, it's there, five minutes away.
The hut is 5 minutes from the top of a gondola in an area with a lot of easy ski tours, and the weather was good, so as soon as we got there we were done with the solitude. :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
