Flumserberg Hike (part 2)

As promised, here are the photos from the hike a couple of weekends ago. Flumserberg is so different in the summer - green, flowers everywhere, warm. :) It was really a pleasure to hike there and I would recommend it 100%. Just take the train to Untertertzen and the Gondola up to the top (Tannenboden, it's about a 15 minute ride).

We went with Jace's work colleagues and their families, and the weather could not have been more perfect... doesn't this just look like a dream? I am really glad they organized the event!

Here is Jace, donning his now slightly used hiking gear, and I got to put my new hiking shoes (purchased in the US) to the test. They were great! Very light and comfy. For once... I had the right shoes! :)

We took the gondola from Tannenboden (where are the ski lifts are) up to Maschgenkamm (another 15 minute gondola ride) and from there walked down the mountain.

By the way, this is exactly my kind of hike:

Scenic.

Rolling hills perfect for replicating The Sound of Music scenes.

And easy, wide tracks that are not stuck into a cliff side. Boy I hate those! Never again.
I love safety. And flatness... yes.

And plenty of photo opps along the way! Not to mention lots of flowers!

We stopped after about 2 hours for a BBQ lunch. There was a grill and firewood all ready for hikers to use and we got quite creative when it came to drinking the wine, considering we all forgot cups. It worked out well in the end!

And then we walked for about another hour and a half down to where we started, Tannenboden. A few skiers might remember this little house near Tannenboden, usually covered to the top with snow!

I would recommend you go for a hike at Flumserberg this summer, before the snow sets in in August... just kidding, maybe Sept. :) It was a great way to enjoy the Swiss outdoors and get some exercise... lord knows I need it - I am still working off this!
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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

Flora of the Alps - Flumserberg Hike (part 1)

We went hiking a little while back at Flumserberg - yes, the very place we did our snowboarding lessons in the winter - and the mountains and day were just beautiful. It was the perfect hiking weather and I really enjoyed myself.

But before I write up the hike, and since I accidentally gave a sneak preview already, I thought I would share some of the flora that we encountered up at 6000 feet. I will preface these photos by saying that I have NO IDEA what they are - although I think one photo is of buttercups - so feel free to comment with the correct horticultural names - either common name or genius / species... we are pretty easy going here at Swisstory. :) Enjoy!

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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

What?! No nude hiking?!

Ok, so Jace and Ingo are curiously not naked here - I begged them to put it all back on for the photo you see. But they better be more careful where they go bare these days because in Appenzell Inner Rhodes, a tiny canton in Switzerland, it is now illegal to hike naked in their Alps.

The residents here voted overwhelmingly to ban nude hiking in their region after one too many German tourists were spotted wearing nothing but boots and socks.

I cannot even imagine what I would do if I had an encounter head on with a couple of naked German hikers... probably offer them my sunscreen (I am all about safe sun play people) and then take a photo to post on the blog. Ok... so I guess I do know what I would do. :)

But I won't be doing that in the Appenzell Inner Rhodes Region it seems - pity.

Thanks to Michelle for finding this article about the nude hiking ban in the Courier Mail!
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Another Swiss Favorite Pastime: Wandern

If recycling is the Swiss' #1 favorite pastime, then Wandern is the #2. Basically, Wandern is the all encompassing German word for hiking, walking, and bumming around in the woods - perhaps the best, and most obvious translation, is wandering. :)

I am not sure if the Swiss go to such lengths as the Germans (my guess is yes), but when I studied abroad in Germany in my teenage years, some of the classes would actually go on Wandertags - full days of just walking aimlessly around the countryside, with no real goal in mind, just the goal of wandering far and wide for 9 hours.

Back then, I don't think even my weight in nutella would have persuaded me to do a Wandertag... but these days the hiking is growing on me (although you wouldn't know it from our last little adventure...) and signs like this intrigue me more and more.

I am really keen actually to walk from Urdorf up to Uetliberg sometime soon. In fact, it isn't that far of a walk from here. Plus the more I see these signs, the more I convince myself I can do it!

Here is a fun site with tons of Wandern suggestions in Switzerland.

Ahh.. Wandern. I love Switzlerland.

Walk from Urdorf to Uetliberg:

Part 2 - Hiking Adventure: Graechen (4.1 hours)

Continued from PART 1....speaking of which, amidst the fear, it was exactly at this point in the hike that strangely my feet became the topic of the day...

Topic of the day, my sport shoes.

Teetering on a rock, seriously contemplating calling the choppers, we came upon a couple, only the second and third life forms we had seen in several hours, and the passing conversation went like this:

Small talk between couple and Kurt... (Note: I could not hear it but I imagine it like this... )

Couple (they are one in this case): Gruetzi miteinander. Isn't it a beautiful day? Keep going! You are about 2/3's of the way there. Perfect conditions.

Kurt: Gruetzi miteinander. Oh great. Yes, I am loving this weather. I hike quite regularly. I have calves of steel.

Couple: You seem to be well prepared and equipped, but... (this is where I come within hearing distance and they stop to stare clearly at me and my shoes) oh, I would not climb this mountain with tennis shoes. Oh goodness. That is not safe. That is 'Lebens gefahrlich' (such a great German phrase that was created to evoke fear, it means life endangering...)! You could break a leg like that.

(This is where Kurt finds out that I speak high German pretty fluently and I can understand enough Swiss German now to have a panic attack in the Alps...)

Me, perhaps on the verge, then again, yes, screaming in German: Um, YEAH!!! I KNOW! THEY LIED TO ME. (I actually think it was more like, "THEY LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIED TO ME!") They said that this would be a CASUAL HIKE... on PAVEMENT. They said it would be O-KAY to wear these shoes. Now.... I am here. What am I supposed to do now?!

Kurt: No I didn't!? I told you to wear hiking shoes. I told them to be prepared!

COUPLE, actually the nice gentleman of the couple, the frau was done with me and my obvious stupidity, recognizing the panic on my face: Oh, the path is not that difficult. It is ok. You will be ok. There is nothing really dangerous on this hike. It is just that you need more supportive shoes. We don't mean to scare you.

Me: Oh, ok. Thanks. It's not much further.

Mann: No... no... But you do have a cell phone right? If you need... help.

Me: Um... yes. Thanks...

Mann: But don't worry. We don't mean to scare you. You are not in danger. Have a nice day.

Regardless of his consolation, this is how I felt:

Angry Jessica.

Surrrrrrrrrrre, I thought... I will be just fine. It is rough terrain but can't be dangerous, right?

But they were right... I had the wrong shoes. I was ill equipped. Luckily for all involved, after that little chat, it did get easier. So much so in fact that even small children and dogs could have traversed the path. Oh wait, that's right, this was the point when some four legged friends and a very fit senior citizen crossed our path making me feel completely inadequate and childish... So I sucked it up for at least 4 minutes and tried to get a grip.

The dogs... don't they look like they are mocking me?

Here they all are... mocking me...

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the children that passed by later, running down the mountain and giggling in fact, but it was a good sign and preview of the good conditions that followed. In fact, the remaining 2 hours of the hike went really well. We finally made it to the easier path and a clearing where an excellent view awaited us. And I sucked it up. I sucked it up big time.

The gorgeous view.

The wide, but steep, but safe path.

Kurt also allowed me to persuade him to take the broad, although steep as hell, ski path up the remainder of the mountain as opposed to the teetering rock slide cliff face.

Here we are on the path next to the rocky cliff face. But it is safe, and my shoes like it.

The weather held out all morning and afternoon, but the further we climbed the thinner and colder the air became. Around this point, all I could do was set small goals for myself to get another 20 steps up the mountain. I told Jace to keep in front of me so that his sweet, strong, hiker bum would provide incentive. ;)

Around the 3 and a half hour point, the ski lift came into sight and I started to sing 'You are so beautiful to me' in my head and 'Could you be, the most beautiful SKI LIFT in the world... can't you see...' Thank goodness I wasn't singing out loud as sound carries up there and I think the mountain goats would have not been impressed.

This is where happy Jessica made her appearance, near the lift. Like this:

Finally, happy Jessica.

And the mountain goats rejoiced! Yeah!

At the top of the mountain, everyone - ok just me - was happy to be alive and well!

And we were all friends again. THE END.

Actually, that wasn't the end... there was still the three hour drive back home..!

Regardless of all the mix ups, I think it was a great day. I can't wait to (buy some proper shoes and) do it again soon (and by 'it' I mean a much smaller and less challenging mountain somewhere within a hour's drive)!

Favorite conversations of the day:

Me to Jace: Hey babe. Do you think that there could be a rock slide while we are up here?
Jace: No, I don't think so. These rocks have probably been here forever.
Me: Yeah, but they had to get down to this point somehow, right?
Jace: Um, well yeah. Good point. (Pace quickens...)

Kurt to group: Breath in deep. Breath very, very deep. It will help to give you POWER.
Me: (after 5 seconds of deep breathing) HACK... COUGH.... HACK...
Jace: Are you ok babe?
Me: Oh yeah, I think I just breathed a very BIG bug, very DEEP.
(Now that gave me power....)

Kurt to the group: I think once we get to the restaurant, we should go to the very top.
Jace: That is another 2 hours, right? I don't know, Kurt.
Kurt: We can do it! You just need to be motivated.
Jessica: Kurt, have you heard the expression 'don't push your luck?'
Kurt: (Silence)
Jessica: That means NO.

In the car on the way home...
Ingo: I was really hungry on the way back down, but there were so many flies around me on the way down, I think they might have sensed my impending death, that I couldn't get my sausage out. They really wanted my sausage.
(He meant his German sausage... er, I mean his wurst... ok, I'll stop now...)

Also in the car:
Ingo: So I was hiking alone for like 2 hours, and I had to pee, but I knew as soon as I got it out there would be like a family coming around the corner and I would be embarassed. But after a long time, I saw no one and so I thought, heck, I will do it now. And just at that moment, a whole family and a couple, and some dogs came. And I was like, ahhhh, and I had to hurry to put it away!!! (Same dogs as above!!!)

I look forward to your comments! And recommendations on EASY hiking adventures near Zurich!

Part 1 - Hiking Adventure: Graechen to Seetalhorn (4.1 hours)

View of Matterhorn from the Seetalhorn in Graechen, Switzerland

I woke up at 5:30 am on Sunday. Yes, on a Sunday. I know.... I know... that alone is nuts, but let me explain how the rest of the day went down and then you'll know that I'm completely nuts.

Wait, scratch that. The day was planned by Jace and his work colleagues. THEY are the crazy ones. I was just along for the ride. Little did I know it would be a 6 hour car ride (there and back), four hours up a mountain, and 23.4 minutes spent asking the universe to spare me a painful death by falling down a rock face. Ok, let me explain.

My hiking man.

Jace loves to hike. Even on our honeymoon we took a little hike, 30 minutes up a wee hill, 20 back, with a couples massage upon our return as incentive enough for me. So living in Switzerland now, I understand that this is the perfect opportunity for Jace to take up hiking more seriously. Hence, we got Jace some hiking gear for his birthday on Saturday and a day of hiking was planned.

Church in Graechen, Switzerland

We drove from Zurich via Bern to Graechen, a beautiful town in central Switzerland, very close to Zermatt actually. At one point, we had to take this train under the mountains via tunnel, because going around was not an option, and we actually DROVE ONTO A TRAIN, an open covered wagon type of train that would take us under the mountain.

In the car, on the train... crazy right?

I have never experienced this before and it was truly cool to be in a car, on a train, in the dark, riding through a tunnel under the Alps for 20 minutes, with no fresh air, with the soothing sounds of snoring as background music... strange that. ;)

All the cars on the "car train" as I called it.
Truly an experience though and I got to do it twice that day!

We were in a bit of a hurry seeing as though the last cable car down the mountain was at 5 pm and we were running behind, so Kurt, the driver and leader on this adventure, made haste, hugging the mountainous curves at what felt like 128 km/hr. I think I did well though considering I only screamed "You are going to KILL US!" just once. . . well, just once while in the car. ;) The mountain might have gotten the best of me at one stage. Allow me to skip ahead.

Graechen to Seetalhorn, our destination...
Yes, 3 hours and 45 minutes to the top... Lord help me.

We started the hike around 10:15 am, and most of us expected a leisurely stroll to the top, something more akin to Uetliberg. So off we went, the hiking brigade, but little did we know that this was going to be a challenging hike for us newbies and that this would be the last time we would see Ingo... don't worry! He is still alive! It was just the last time we saw him on the hike as we got separated early on.

The hiking boys: Kurt, Ingo and Jace

Shortly after this photo was taken, the nice, gentle sloping, broad path quickly changed into a steep beast, and Ingo needed to go at a slightly slower gallop than the leader and seasoned hiker, Kurt, was accustomed to. So with the promise that we would wait somewhere along the route (although we never could get Kurt to slow down! .. sorry Ingo...) we went ahead, up to the Seetalhorn.
The path for the first hour or so was comfortable, smooth, and broad. I really enjoyed it and every step was a pleasure with the gorgeous views unfurling around us through the pine forest.

Another shot of the Matterhorn from Graechen, peeking out between the trees

After the first hour or so, the landscape changed dramatically into boulders and rockslide cliffs. Needless to say, I was not so impressed by this landscape. In fact, I would say I was a bit scared. Like this.

Scared Jessica.

As I tell most people, I am not really afraid of heights so much as I am more so afraid of falling from a great one. There were a couple of moments where the 2 foot wide path next to a seemingly bottomless cliff gave me the shivers, and somehow I fell behind.

The only good thing about falling behind was that I was able to get a few great shots of the cute hikers in the distance... oh, that might just be Jace out there! ;)

Yes, that is Jace!

But shortly after this photo, and around the middle of the hike, the territory changed to ALL rocks. And suddenly I got REALLY scared. Actually, let me show you how I felt.

Jessica REALLY scared.

I was seriously freaking out - although I was doing a very good job of keeping it contained, not only because I was falling behind and had nobody besides my trusty swarm of flies to complain to but also because I could not focus on much more than the two feet in front of me and my own two feet let alone my more flight than fight mentality.

Speaking of which, amidst the fear, it was exactly at this point in the hike that strangely my feet became the topic of the day. Continued tomorrow...



Continued tomorrow...