Not climbing the Ruessiflue

 Our plan for the day was to climb the Rüssiflue on the Pilatus massif, we ended up doing a hike instead because it was just too hot.

We get a early start, 6:00 train from Basel, and started hiking up from Alpnachdorf at around 7:30. It's already pretty warm and the humidity is quite high. We head through town (reversing our descent from the Tomlishorn tour) and start heading up, up. We take advantage of the fountain at the farmhouse near Winterhalten to cool off a bit and continue up. After a bit G realizes that he's way too warm, so he starts to slow down. Another cooling off break at the stream in the gorge, the more slow climbing. G really isn't having much fun. After getting to the end of the Rüssiflue we take a break by the stream and eat something. Here we decide to skip the ridge (G just isn't up to it) and do a hike instead.

After the break we head up a bit more, past Fräkmunt and then following the trail under the Widderfeld towards Schybach. Another short break above the parking lot at Blätz (this is where we came down on the Tomlishorn trip) and then further along towards Schwand. Down further and another break at a fountain with a bench in the shade to eat a bit and cool down some more. Down, down, and around to p884 where we opt to head through the gorge instead of going down across fields. An interminable bit through the woods (and up a bit!) to the gorge - it's actually probably a nice hike, but G just isn't enjoying himself at all - across on a bridge, and then traversing through the woods until we again end up at the farmhouse near Winterhalten. Another cooling fountain break and then it's repeating the way up.

Back in town we stop at our hotel, have showers to cool down, take a nap, and then have a nice dinner.

We both (G in particular) definitely need to do some more heat acclimatization work! Oh, and the Rüssiflue really does look spectacular need to get back to that too.

Track:

Stats: 8:40, ~22km, ~1500m up and down