Hundsee Bivvy

We have an excellent weather forecast, so we opt for hiking from the Kiental to the Lauterbrunnental (this has been on our list for a while) with a bivvy along the way.

An early start on Saturday to do the train-train-bus to Griesalp (unsurprisingly there are loads of people out and about on this sunny August Saturday!). Then up, up, following the road to Obere Dürreberg. It's quite hot, so we're happy to find a shady place beside the stream for a nice food break (funny scene below us as some cows also cool off in the stream) and to pump a bit more water. Then it's up, up, steeply up, through the Hundsflüe on a good blue-white trail. It really is oppressively warm, and the packs are not light, so we take another break and short nap-with-a-view at around p2420 before continuing up, up  to Telli. Through the rock wasteland and past the first small lake, then on to the larger lake (p2677, there's already a group here who will obviously be staying the night). One possible plan here was to head up the ridge to the Hundshore, but neither of us is particularly enthusiastic about that, so we continue on to the saddle. Here we opt to improvise and take a more direct route down rather than staying on the blue-white path towards the Schilthorn and then down (we'll be heading up that tomorrow). The first bit of this is mostly ok, then it's a bit hairy near the first set of cliffs, then ok again as we head down, down, to rejoin the trail at Hundshubel. The next order of business is to find a place to bivvy, so we head up to the ridge above the (mostly dry) Hundsee and follow that towards the Horen until we find a nice location. Ditch the packs, pump some water from the Sefibach, then spend a lazy afternoon enjoying the amazing views and watching other groups show up and find places to camp (of course we aren't alone: the weather is great, the views are great, and there is a relatively short approach from the Schilthorn). The group on the other side of the lake, who have chosen to camp in an area easily accessed by cows, are a running source of entertainment. After a nice dinner we walk up to the Horen to enjoy some amazing sunset colors on the Jungfrau, Mönch, and Eiger.

Sunday morning we're awake early enough to enjoy the great sunrise and packed up and underway shortly before 8. Back to the Hundshubel, then following the nice trail up, up, to the pass at p2684, where we do a short food break. From there along the ridge to the saddle at p2798, and then steeply down into the Soustal. If there wasn't someting of a use trail, this is a descent we probably wouldn't have done; the first bit is pretty hairy and a lot of it is quite steep and on fairly loose terrain. With the use trail it's not too horrible. Down, down we go into the lovely valley, which we then follow more or less to the end. We do a lunch break and then, later, a bathing break along the way. At the end of the valley we take the trail through the woods which leads us to the gondola at Grütschalp which starts us on the long (crowded) trip home.

Track:

Stats:

• Saturday: 5:50, 12km, 1460m up, 540m down.
• Sunday: 6:07, 15km, 600m up, 1430m down

Becs de Bosson Bivvy

 text and track to come

Klosters to Chur

Great forecast for this weekend, with a chance of showers on Sunday afternoon but otherwise clear, so we opt for a trip with the bivvy bags. 

We take the early train to Klosters Platz, get the gondola up to the Gotschnagrat, and then start out along the red-white path under a lovely blue sky. Up and over the Casanna we go, down to the Parsennfurgga, past the lovely (and popular!) Grüensee, and along the very nice path (lots of wood walkways) through the moor landscape towards the Strassberger Fürggli. Along the way there we stop for a food break and enjoy the nice weather and views.

From the pass we continue along the ridge along a path which is newly marked, not on the map, and not frequently followed. This leads us under and around p.2430, then we kind of lose it and end up traversing a big patch of stinging nettle (yay) before redoing the ridge and heading to the Mattjisch Horn. Here another food break to enjoy the fantastic views and then we continue along to the Arflinafurgga and then to the Faninpass. We’re expecting to have improvise again here, but it turns out that there are old trail markers along the way we’re planning to go; easy progress! Onward along the ridge we go.

It’s time to start thinking about water, so we head off the ridge below the Dängelstöck with the idea of traversing to the Guotiger Brunnen spring indicated on the map. Fortunately, there’s a trough with a pipe we can access at the start of the spring just below Furgglis and we can get water there. After drinking our fill and pumping a couple of liters, we head back up to the ridge and continue past the Dängelstöck. Onwards along the ridge we encounter a herd of horses (very unusual) and take another break to appreciate the views before heading up and across the Ratoser Stein (which we’ve been calling "Ratloser Stein" all day). Down the other side and now we can see the Hochwang, which is our current planned stopping point. Up, up the last bit to the peak, some scouting around to find a good place to sleep, and we ditch the gear. 

The next step is collecting water; we take Andrea’s empty backpack and the bottles back down, down to the beginning of the valley under the ridge and find a good pool to pump from where the path crosses a stream. 6 liters of pumping later and we carry the water back up to our campsite. After getting a bit of setup done we head up to the peak to make dinner.  Surprisingly, a couple shows up as we're making dinner; they've come up just for the sunset. It’s a bit windy but the views are fantastic and we enjoy dinner with views and then a bit of a post-dinner stroll around the peak before heading to bed and appreciating the (mostly) full moon rising and moving in and out of the clouds.

Clouds move in overnight and it's pretty clear when we wake up that the planned continuation of the ridge wouldn't be a great idea. By the time we're done with breakfast we are basically in a cloud and it's starting to lightly rain. On with the rain gear and down we go. Down past where we pumped water, down, down into the valley towards Triemel. Along the way the rain stops... yay. At Triemel we opt to stay up reasonably high and traverse on the path to Bargun, then it's down, down to Castiel. Here we do a food break at a nicely situated picnic table above down, then continue along the road (unfortunately) to Calfreisen. Next it's up a bit more, around, and then down, down to Maladers. From there it's easy and efficient down to Chur, where we arrive with time to grab a beverage before getting the direct train back to Basel.

Day two wasn't what we planned, but it was a nice day of hiking. We'll have to go back and do the planned route for day 2... it looked pretty good! :-)

Track:

Stats:

• Day 1: 8:20, 22.2km, 1330m up, 1100m down
• Day 2: 5:00, 19.3km, 130m up, 2000m down

Hiking around the Capanna Cristallina

The forecast calls for rain and thunderstorms on Saturday night, but we want to camp, so we take  our new tent with us and head off to Tessin.

The usual early start from Basel and the train through to Airolo. Bus to the gondola and then the gondola up (with tons of bikes) to save ourselves the first 600-800m of climb. Good to do given the humidity and coming heat.

From the top of the gondola we follow the path for a bit and then head off along one of the service roads for the ski area. Up up and back and forth for a bit until we hit the old marked path leading towards the cliff. Now more steeply up, taking a food break along the way, until getting to the wall itself, a short bit of not-so-nice crossing of a gravelly slab, and then we are on a pretty easy to follow and occasionally marked trail that follows a weak spot in the wall to the top. Nice!

Up on the ridge we enjoy the views and then decide to follow the "trail” down, down the other side towards a herd of cows. Past the cows, another food break, and then onwards to a blue-white path which takes us towards the dam. This heads up a bit and then contours easily along the valley side.  A short break at Lago del Forna to appreciate the loveliness and then onward to Lago di Val Sabbia where we pump a bit of water and scope out potential camp sites. Continuing seems more promising, so on we go.  Down towards Lago del Naret (there is a road up to this and it is pretty busy), along the edge, and then up to Lago del Corbo. Here there are two tents right next to the path, but we continue to the end of the lake and start looking for spots above it. Plenty of good tent sites here! After some scouting we take a promising one and get the  tent set up. The rest of the afternoon is spent enjoying the sun and views, pumping water, etc. By this point the weather forecast has changed and there’s no more rain in the forecast. yay!

After a good dinner we walk up to the next lake and do a bit of sunset-color appreciation and tidying up before going to bed. The plan had been to leave the tent fly rolled up, but given the amount of dew that immediately starts condensing after the sun goes behind the mountains we decide against that… next time!

On Sunday we get take advantage of the early sun (planned for!) and are underway shortly before 8:30 even after a leisurely morning. We rejoin the red-white path and follow it up a bit onto the ridge and then towards the Lago Negro.  Nice trail followed by a particularly nice stretch of talus hopping (what a great surprise!) and then we are at the pass and enjoying the views down to the lake and across to the Basodino. Along and down the nice path above the lake and then a food and planning break with views.

After the break, we’ve decided for the blue-white path along and behind the Lago del Cavagnöö, onwards and upwards towards the Cap. Cristallina. When we get to the pass above the Lago Sfundau and see the hut sitting above it, we decide for a change of plans. Up, up to the hut we go, have a nice lunch at the hut, and then continue down the other side of the pass. On the other  trip to this region we went straight down to Ossasco, but this time after the walk down through the lovely valley we turn off to the right and traverse the valley side until we arrive back at the gondola station.

Gear note: this was the first trip with our new tent, a Sea to Summit Telos TR 2.

Track:

Stats:

• Day 1: 6:41, 14.1km, ~1300m up, ~600m down
• Day 2: 7:24, 21.2km, ~800m up, ~1400m down

Gross Furkahorn SE Ridge

Day 1: Long train-train-bus ride to Furkapass/Hotel Furkablick in the afternoon, lots of tents and campers directly at the road, short hike along the red-white path to the bridge across the Sidelenbach, search for the very best bivvy spot, short strolls and hanging out, great start into the weekend

Day 2: lots of people passing by in the dark, approach to the start of the Gross Furkahorn SE Ridge climbing route across the moraine and bit of uncomfortable ice (no picks, why?) of the sad Sidelengletscher, short wait, lets go, great rock, fun climbing, not many bolts, not always straightforward route finding, long, at times rather exposed, lots of people coming up towards the end, some chaos, yay, done!, quick Abseil and descent, short walk back to "our" spot, great day!

Day 3: Plan to climb at the Wandfussplatten, sunny approach, g not feeling to well, change of plan, explore end of Sidelengletscher and hike up to the Sidelenhut, admire many other climbing options, hike back down, pack up, catch bus, miss connection in Andermatt, hellish train ride back (loud, full, hot, mask,..)

bivvy at Sidelenbach

on the SE Ridge of the Gross Furkahorn

Gross Furkahorn, Sidelenhorn, Galenstock

at the Sidelenhütte

Track(s):

Hike and bivvy above Erstfeld

Day 1: Oberschwandi - Schwarz Grat - Bälmeten - Plattistiege - Burg

blue-white to the Bälmeten, view down to Urner See

evening on the Burg

Day 2: Burg - Sittliser - Hoch Fulen - Seewli - Chilcherberg

goat attack in the morning

view towards Wisse Platten

Track:

Stats:

• Day 1: 7:20h, 13.4km, 2110m up, 980m down
• Day 2: 7:30h, 15.2km, 800m up, 1880m down

Corona Triangle

Thanks to the ongoing COVID19 situation, we couldn't do our normal climbing in Locarno thing for the Easter weekend, so Andrea came up with a lovely three day hike with two bivvys.

Day one we followed the border with France (now closed), taking Andrea's super efficient route through Basel and up onto the hill above Allschwil, through Biel-Benken to Flüh (most recently done on our full moon hike), nice break on the bench on the ridge there, and then into territory we haven't done before. 

Up onto the ridge north of Mariastein, continuing along the border, again picking up a piece of the trail from the full moon hike between Rodersdorf and Burg - another nice break on the bench above Metzerlen we stopped at on that trip, through  Burg and back up onto the ridge with nice views into Alsace, continuing on a really nice stretch along the drop off, a longer lunch and rest break just past Remelspitz with its little tower, onwards always following the border to the Roti Flue and then descending, past the cave (not as cool as we had hoped) to meet the Lützel at Klösterli.

A bit of a strategy discussion here since we're a bit earlier than we thought we'd be, but we opt to pump some water here and have an early dinner in a nice field beside the Lützel. After a more than decent meal of pulled pork and rice (surprisingly good!) we continue along the trail towards Kleinlützel, picking up a bit of greg's running route from Delemont to Basel. In Kleinlützel we look for a fountain to get water for the evening and next morning, end up finding one that's not officially drinking water, then dumping that out when we later discover another one near the graveyard. Up, up
the hill to the pass towards Liesberg, then off to the right until we find a nice spot for our bivvy.

Hang out for a bit enjoying the views until the sun goes down, then set up the bivvy bags and retire for the night. It's nice a quiet, but the mostly full moon is like a spotlight, so there aren't really any stars.

Day two we are awake at around 6. After leisurely hot beverages and müsli (fine rolled oats with powdered milk, ground almonds, raisins, and minced dried mango) we pack up and leave by 7:40. Down, down we go, through Liesberg Dorf to Liesberg Station in the dark and cold valley, inefficient zig-zag across the river and then up through the woods, across some lovely fields to Oberwiler, where we fill a water bottle at the spring, then down out of town.

We do a quick food break just sitting on the path before losing the sun, then continue to the valley bottom, across the stream, and start back up the other side. Steeply up to the Mätteberg, past the nice viewpoint at the end (people already there) until we find a good spot to sit, have a warm beverages break (Z'nuni!) and enjoy the views. Onwards along the ridge to the end, some discussion about what/how to do the traverse of the Baflue (unfortunately the hikr admins have shut down access to trip reports, so though we know that there's a T4 route along the ridge, we can't read any descriptions of it), and then we start up along the obvious trail. This steepens and becomes like a pretty typical climbing traverse (less-used paths leaving along the way, there's probably climbing on the Baflue), but it leads us easily to a saddle on the ridge. Clear traces leads us up along the ridge a bit until we get to a point where it's not clear whether we should continue along the ridge (clear traces there) or head around the rocks to the left (also clear traces there). We opt to try the "straight ahead" approach and scramble to a high-point (always making sure that whatever we can do is down-scrambleable). The way forward from here doesn't look good, so we scramble back to the fork and take the route around the rock.

This is steep and covered in plenty of leaves, but easy enough. Eventually we end up back on the ridge, cross to the other side, through a little tunnel, and then a break on the other side. Note to ourselves: once things normalize it might be worth investigating whether or not there's a good traverse across the top of that bit of ridge, it's not super long, but looks like it could be fun. Onward along the ridge, and then down, down to the edge of Büsserach before starting up towards the Burgruine Neu Thierstein and then steeply up onto the ridge. This is a really nice (and popular!) trail along the long ridge.

Nice break with views along the way (it's hot!), and then down into Meltingen. Here we pump some water at the fountain (sign there that it's not drinking water), cool our hands and faces, and then head gently up out of town, around Zullwil, and then onwards towards the Burgruine Gilgenberg (we walked past this years ago). Instead of taking a path up to the Portiflue and the ridge there, we continue further up the valley (greg has had enough sun for the moment) until we get to a couple picnic tables at Chalberweidli. Here we do our dinner break (reindeer stew, which isn't much in the way of texture, but tasted quite nice), including a nice foot wash in the stream. Then up through the gorge with the Ibachfälle (really, really nice trail!) and onwards through the forest to Nunningenberg (way too many cars here!), contouring through the fields, and then up to the saddle with the road down to Nunningen. We check out the potential bivvy spot a bit further along from here and decide it's good. Some time enjoying the last of the sun and views (including the Hirnichopf and another ridge or two from our hike a couple weekends ago) from the bench down on the road. When the sun goes down we set up the bivvy bags and retire to watch the stars come out. Fun here to spot a cluster of Starlink satellites passing overhead.

Day three we are again awake around 6 and underway by 7:30 after hot beverages and müsli. We head back to the saddle and then follow the trail down to Nunningen. Here some quick shopping to get food for the day and then we head up out of town.

We've got a distance to cover today in order to get home, so the focus is more on efficiency (while staying on nice paths!) than doing ridges or heading over peaks like we would normally do. Past the horse farm at Dietel, then down through the woods and further along to Seewen (we really start to see cherry trees on this stretch) before heading up again towards Hochwald. We take the (unmarked but very popular) path through the woods that follows the edge, have a break along the way, head down a bit, and then re-climb to the lovely open Gempen plateau. Onward through the sun, skirting town, and then we descend to Stollenhäuser. Here the combination of the views, the cherry trees, and the dandelions in the fields is just out of control, so we have a nice break to appreciate them (this has changed so much from a few weeks ago).

Then onwards and downwards... it's the final push! Past Schönmatt and then along the familiar route down into Münchenstein.

We pick up a bit more water and cool our hands at the fountain where greg always grabs water on long runs, then through the upper bits of town (hot! sunny!) and up onto the hill of the Bruderholz. One last quick break in the shade, then along across the Bruderholz, past St Margarethen, into Basel, past the Schützenmattpark, a bit of weaving around to find a shop that's open and selling beer, and then finally home....

Overall track
Stats:

• Day 1: 33.4 km, 8:45 (+1:20 paused), 1370m up, 970m down
• Day 2: 28.1 km, 9:30 (+1:10 paused), 1490m up, 1250m down
• Day 3: 33.8 km, 8:40, 790m up, 1470m down

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