Hiking Bug

 

6/22/07-6/23/07 Friday & Saturday

Got a nonstop overnight flight out of Newark to Zurich, arriving 9 am. Got cash from machine in airport and bought train tickets to Poschiavo - Lisa ordered in German and the ticket guy seemed appreciative of this. Evan was amazed at Lisa’s language skills. We took the train to Zurich main station. During our layover for the train to Graubunden, we ran over to the large Coop supermarket to buy food for lunches. We went a bit crazy grabbing things off the shelves because we were rushed for time. Evan was a bit overwhelmed by the store, Lisa was the calm in the storm. In hindsight, six prepackaged “pate,” two salamis, and two sizable chunks of cheese were too much – we carried some of this throughout the Alps. Before we hopped on the train we drank some delicious mocha flavored yoghurt drink.

Train went from Zurich to Chur (pronounced Quor) we ate macaroni salad with the spork washed down with sparkling apple juice and sat next to a friendly Canadian guy and his god-daughter. At Chur we changed for train to St. Moritz. On this second train we sat in a car filled with a yodel team going to St. Moritz to compete in JodelFest 2007. All men, they wore traditional outfits and drank a lot of beer. Quite friendly, our seatmates struck up a conversation, telling us about the competition (they planned to win first class). Periodically the car broke into song – it sounded a lot like Gregorian chanting mixed with country western warbling.

At St. Moritz we had an hour to wait for our next train to Poschiavo, so we took advantage of it to buy a map. The magazine shop at the station had a reasonable selection of maps – we settled on a Kummerly+Frey 1:60,000 scale because it held the entire area we planned to hike (the southern Engiadin). 1:20,000 maps were available, and much nicer, but would have required buying a bunch of them and they were not cheap.

Train to Poschiavo left a bit late (we were getting tired at this point). This train - one of the famous Swiss red trains - winds its way past the glaciers in high alpine country – the views are amazing. The track has amazing switchbacks at a few points. The trip seemed extra long because of frequent stops on side tracks as we waited for oncoming trains to pass. Finally we made it to Poschiavo in late afternoon – the town seemed deserted. Found our hotel (Pensione Fappoli) a bit from the center, ate dinner at an Italian restaurant (regional spinach gnocci, very delish and pizza with hot oil!), and fell asleep by 9 pm.


6/24/07 Sunday: Poschiavo to Sao Seo Hutte (CAS)

Woke up for 8 am fruestuck – disappointingly bread, jam, cheese and coffee (we expected more from a hotel in Poschiavo – we definitely don’t recommend this place). By coincidence the annual bicycle race to Bernina pass was that morning, so we got to see the local teams warming up. They looked very impressive spinning their legs by the hotel for a few kilometers before returning to the center for the start. We couldn’t wait for start at 9:30 am, and started to hike.

Conveniently the trail went right by the back of the hotel. All the trails we followed this trip were extremely well marked with white-red-white paint and yellow signs at trail intersections. The Swiss signage is far superior to what we have seen in the Pyrenees, Austria, Italy, and Slovenia. It is almost impossible to get lost on this trek.

The first day of hiking was really just a warm up. It ascended from 1,000 m to 2,000 m at the Sao Seo hut, still below treeline. The hike out of Poschiavo moves upward along the valley, past farms, houses, forests, and pastures – nothing spectacular yet.

The only disaster happened ten minutes into the hike when Lisa stepped on and smashed her sunglasses. It was a long slog uphill all day. Being Sunday, as we approached Sao Seo we saw many day hikers making their return trips down to the valley (Sfazu). Sao Seo had a large number of people hanging out drinking and eating, but by the time we checked in and unpacked, at around 4 pm, it was empty. We were the only ones staying the night, so we had the whole hut to ourselves! The hut owner was very nice – dinner was excellent, we thought the best of the trip: soup, salad, weiner schnitzel with lemon, and a large bowl of macaroni and sauce. As is often the case with huts, the less hectic ones are usually the better ones. Sao Seo was our favorite this trip.

total distance: 11 km
total elevation: 1160 m
total time: 6 hours (9 am to 3 pm)
highlight: seeing the annual Poschiavo to Bernina Pass bike race.


6/25/07 Monday: Sao Seo Hutte to Ospizio Bernina via Pass da V. Mera

Our original plan was to hike back down to the valley and over the Bernina Pass to somewhere half way to the Boval hutte. On reconsideration, we decided to go into Italy over the Pass da V. Mera, loop around in Italy heading back to Switzerland. We intended to stay at the Rifugio Tridentina at Forcola di Livigno, right on the Swiss border near the Bernina pass. The plan was then to hike to Boval from there the next day. Well, that was the plan in any case.

It was lightly raining in the morning, but we put on our rain gear to be safe, but took it off 15 minutes later. The hike out of Sao Seo was fairly deserted – there was another pension called Camp (with a martini glass marker on its sign!) a kilometer up the road, and after that there was no civilization until you got to a cow farm at the farthest point on the loop in Italy.

The hike up to the Italian border followed the river and right before the steep border was a marshy flat area. We were getting cold so we changed into our warmer clothes. The border was marked by a stone with an “S” on one side and an “I” on the other, no border patrol or abandoned border huts to stop us.

We took pictures and then headed down the Italian side. We were going to stop for lunch and had just taken off our packs when we started hearing bells. We realized the bells were attached to sheep but they seemed to be running right at us. It was like some crazy movie, we stood there a little dumbfounded as the sheep ran over and down the hills to us. They ran right up to us and seemed to want food. There was a black one that was the leader who led the flock after us even as we started to move away from them. Finally further down the mountain we got rid of them and got to eat in peace.

Finishing up the jaunt into Italy, we passed the cow farm and headed uphill on the dirt road alongside the highway toward the Swiss border. We could see the buildings at the top of the Forcola di Livigno pass and aimed for them on the hike back up by the highway. One of the buildings was an under construction hotel, an ominous sign.

We went over to the so-called Rifugio and into the restaurant asking about rooms. Which they scoffingly said they didn’t have any rooms! Evan started to argue with the bartender that it shouldn’t be called “Rifugio” Tridentina if it didn’t offer refuge, but there was apparently a language problem because she didn’t see what the fuss was about. She hadn’t been hiking for the past six hours either. Evan asked if there was a bus back to Switzerland and one of the customers, an Italian border guard, showed us the schedule. There was one bus left for the day, we had some Euros so we decided to wait and if it didn’t show up try to hitch. While waiting we noticed many people buying scotch, cigarettes, or chocolate in their consignment shop, probably cheaper than in Switzerland. The bus showed up on time – we were the only customers - and we were off. As predicted the Swiss border guards had to check our passports further down the pass and the guy looked like a rat with a sadistic smile plastered over his sniveling face.

When we rode the train to Poschiavo two days prior, we stopped at the Ospizio Bernina and saw there was a hotel and restaurant there. The view was nice and it was scenic for a layover.

We asked the bus driver to drop us at Ospizio and then hiked down to the White Lake, a bit off the highway. The albergo at the Ospizio Bernina was smoky and a little run down. The proprietress skinny and miserable looking, smoking seemed to be her passion. But the upstairs was clean and the view was right over to the Cambrena glacier. There was only one other couple who opted to stay in their own room (we stayed in the matrazenlager to save money). We all ate the chef’s special mushroom risotto and sausages for dinner, but it wasn’t cheap (25 CHF).

total distance: 10 km
total elevation: 686 m
total time: 6 hours (9 am to 3 pm)
highlight: howling gale at night off Cambrena glacier and Lago Bianco.


6/26/07 Tuesday: Ospizio Bernina to Boval Hutte (CAS)

Again disappointed by a mediocre breakfast at a Swiss hotel, made worse by the ever present cigarette smoke, we took off around 9 am. Where were the buffet spreads of ham, cheeses, salami, muesli, jams, rolls, croissants? Evan couldn’t understand it – every time he biked through Switzerland in the past he remembered excellent breakfasts. We were picking cheap hotels this trip, but still, at $100 a night they weren’t that cheap.

The hike started by winding around the lake to the north, then traversing the foothills of the mountains comprising the Diavolezza ski resort. The initial target was the town of Morteratsch down the valley. The fairly flat way to Morteratsch is by the highway and boring, but we wanted to get there by lunch.

A more interesting way is to climb up to Diavolezza itself (at 3000 m), but that is listed as a three hour hike. From Diavolezza one had three options: a) hike all the way back down to the to the valley, b) take the cable car back down to the valley, or c) if you were an Extrembergsteigerfuehrer you could hike directly from Diavolezza to the Boval hut over the Morteratsch glacier.

Taking the easiest way but up in the trees we made it Morteratsch before noon. It was little more than a station and a hotel, similar to Ospizio. We took a quick break to then started up the glacial valley towards Boval. Lots of day hikers were out, even though it was Tuesday. There are two trails out of Morteratsch. One goes along the river emanating from the Gletscherzunge. The other goes up to Boval, which at 2,500 m, is way above the glacier. We took the high route and spent the afternoon climbing. We were starving and needed to eat lunch asap, we stopped at the first bench we saw and noticed that someone had recently taken a pee by the side, most probably the Swiss people we had passed a few minutes ago. If we had known better we would have kept hiking for another ½ hour or so to have had a better lunch spot but our stomachs needed to be fed. So we ate in the insecty dark forest. The first half of the path was in the trees so you got no view, then suddenly you get to the glacial “lip.” This was a hill of earth and rock that the glacier pushed up around it. We peeked over the lip and saw the wide expanse of the ice river below us. We still had a distance to go because Boval’s towering height. The weather held up all day with sunshine, getting a bit colder as we ascended.

Near the final approach to the hut is a steep bit with some exposure and wires hammered into the rock for protection. At that point we encountered a herd of Swiss grade school kids coming back from a day hike. There must have been over one hundred kids – they kept streaming by single file on the exposed track. At this point we also saw two glacier parties far below us on the ice. Each was about ten people walking in a line, about the size of ants from our view. Probably they were tied together and making the descent from Diavolezza up and across the glacial valley.

Boval hut doesn’t come into view until the very end of this hike.

We checked in – the only other guests were four Germans who had just arrived from the Tschierva hut where we were going tomorrow. They were draped around the Gaststube, reading, drinking and relaxing. Again it was nice to stay in a hut so empty, the advantage of visiting during the early season (the huts only opened one or two weeks prior).

We read Asterix books and relaxed before dinner. It seems that at the Swiss huts there is only one choice for dinner, the halbpension. The hut keeper was a friendly young Swiss guy and a Nepali who helped out in the kitchen. Dinner was first the soon to be eponymous cream of mushroom Knorr soup, then a salad, then a strange casserole of potatoes, wheat noodles, onions, carrots and cheese. Lisa didn’t like it but Eva had seconds and thirds! This was another advantage of an empty hut – there seems to be more food available! We had our own room (with an even more amazing glacier view than at Ospizio) and fell asleep at 9 pm.

total distance: 14 km
total elevation: 500 m
total time: 7 hours (9 am to 4 pm)
highlight: seeing glacier parties on Morteratsch from way up high.


6/27/07 Wednesday: Boval Hutte to Tschierva Hutte (CAS) via Pontresina

Well the Germans scared us when they told us they started their hike from Tschierva at 6 am the day before. We ate the usual minimal hut breakfast and got started at 7:15 am. We kept seeing and hearing the yellow helicopter bringing over loads of supplies for the huts. Again there are two ways to get to Tschierva, but the direct one is over the glaciers between Piz Morteratsch and Piz Boval and is for experts only. So we needed to retrace our track to Morteratsch. We sped down the hike in record time, getting there at 8:50 am, just five minutes after the train to Pontresina went by. It was only about six flat kilometers from Morteratsch to Pontresina, but we waited for the next train to conserve our energy, which we would need for the ascent to Tschierva. We desperately needed to get to Pontresina, and not bypass it, because we needed cash and food supplies. One thing we learned was that no huts and even hotels take credit cards. After an hour wait, we jumped on the next train and got to Pontresina in 15 min. We walked through town, with its ritzy hotels and apartments, and quickly found a cash machine and Coop. We bought more bread, yogurt drinks, fruit juice, apples, tomatoes, peanut butter, and dates.

From Pontresina there were many trails going in all directions, but there were very clear signs. We were hiking through the woods up the Roseg valley in no time. This was at first fairly flat (just 200 m up from Pontresina to Roseg).

We stopped across from the Roseg hotel to each lunch around 1 pm. From here the climb would start. As we ate lunch some hikers passed by on their way up the trail – really the first trekkers we had seen on the trail since we started. The uphill was gradual until we go to Margun where there is a stone hut. At that point switchbacks take you steeply up to the glacial lip. We hiked a bit along the knife edge of the lip, but it was too exposed for Evan. The glacier side was basically a near vertical drop off of crumbling grey dirt to the ice hundreds of feet below. Although the knife edge had great views, a parallel path a bit lower felt much safer.

Soon we saw Tschierva hut in the distance and the other hikers along the trail to it. The Tschierva hut is distinctive because it had a modern addition which is basically a large wood box attached to it.

This houses modern dorm rooms, bathrooms, and an additional dining room. Our luck ran out at Tschierva because it was full of serious mountain climbers, so there would be no private room or extra food. The hut manager was a serious Swiss woman who immediately called upon a Nepali guy to speak English to us. They both seemed put out because we didn’t have reservations, even though the hut wasn’t full. He reprimanded us telling us that we definitely need to start making reservations because the high season was starting. It might have been because of his dinner preparations, when we got there it seemed like they were starting to make dinner. In any case, they gave us a room that we shared with an older guy (who was asleep there when we moved in). Because of his stress on reservations we asked him to help make reservations for the Coaz hut for the following night. He said something incomprehensible about the cook doing it later.

Tschierva hut is very modern and nice. It is not crowded like traditional huts because of the addition, although they did have about fifty guests that night. As we waited for dinner we hung out in the Gaststube – the sun had disappeared and it started to snow in big wet flakes. Evan was drying his shirt, underwear, and socks outside, so we had to run out and bring them back in. The weather was weird – first sun, then snow, then hail, then rain, then sun. These days it was light until 9:45 pm so we usually fell asleep before it was dark. Dinner was nothing special – Knorr soup, cabbage salad, some kind of meat with scallop type potatoes, and pudding for dessert. After dinner it seemed like the cook was taking money and organizing the guests so we asked her to make a reservation for us at the Coaz hut the next night, in German. Then she said something back like “What do you want me to do for you?” and Lisa was perplexed because she thought she had just told her exactly what we wanted so she repeated her phrase back to her, and she immediately began speaking English. So then we thought it was sorted out and she wrote our name down and said she would call the hut.

After dinner was a spectacular Alpenglow over the peaks and glaciers. We saw it from the modern Gaststube but didn’t run out in time for a picture. A Swiss Rastafarian guy with big manicured dreadlocks smelled like our NYC Indian neighbors.

That night was horrible for Evan, who had to listen to our lager mate’s tubercular snoring and wheezing (due to his downing of many 50cl beers). Lisa was smart and had earplugs (from the Pyrenees!). This guy got up at 2 am with his Halogen headlamp illuminating the entire room, thrashing around getting dressed and packing his gear to climb some mountain. So Evan did get to sleep for four hours that night.

total distance: 16 km
total elevation: 783 m
total time: 8 hours (8 am to 4 pm)
highlight: snow flurries over Tschierva glacier.


6/28/07 Thursday: Tschierva Hutte to Coaz Hutte (CAS)

After having a fitful night of sleep because of Frankenstein snoring and routing around, we got up early to have breakfast. But when we got downstairs all we saw were the leftover dishes from the climbers’ breakfasts. They didn't ask us what time we wanted breakfast the night before so we just decided to get packed and then try again. At about 7:30 am there was food for us and we left about 8 am to go back down the way we came, turning around at the Hotel Roseg.

We attempted to cross the river earlier but realized that it was too deep (up to knees) and fast moving so we just kept going until we reached the bridge. It is probably possible in June but it would have meant either getting our boots wet or trying it barefoot, over the many rocks. Earlier we had seen some wild deer and marmots sunning themselves on the rocks.

After we had crossed over the bridge near the hotel we encountered another couple who we passed on and off. There were some cows that we petted and took pictures of.

For the most part the day was below the treeline alongside the river. It started winding its way up steeply halfway on the lake although the map indicated the ascent would start after the lake's end, at the glacier tongue.

We surmised that global warming had done its bit and melted the glacier, increasing the lake and the map was just old. We started encountering more people towards the top, they probably came by the high route that we would take the next day.

We made it to Coaz - they were very nice but told us that Tschierva didn't call and make a reservation for us as they said they would... Anyway they were not full, didn’t make such a fuss about not having a reservation and took us upstairs to show us the room we would share with a family. The rooms were small and built around a circle so space was pretty limited. They also put storage above the beds (that wasn't good for tall people like Evan who smacked his head open when going to bed later).

Lisa took a nap and Evan sat down in the Gaststube after eating a bowl of Knoedelsuppe and a beer. He struck up a conversation with a friendly retired man from Zurich out to Coaz and back on the train. Dinner was homey but still a variation on the Knorr cream of mushroom soup (this time with a dollop of whipped cream and "weeds"), salad, and meat in sauce with rice with pudding for desert. Our other table mates, a nice older Swiss couple, didn't eat meat so they got cakes of tuna with jalapenos instead.

Evan got a lot to eat since no one at the table was as hungry as he. After dinner we drank a hausgemacht schnapps, made out of swiss herbs and served in a tiny little pot. It was strong but interesting. Then we went outside to catch the alpenglow.

An amazing thing is that the non-flush toilet didn't smell at all (plus it had fantastic views of the glacier in the mens room). The kids and two men in our room were quiet and sleeping was pleasant.


total distance: 12 km
total elevation: 610 m
total time: 6 hours (9 am to 3 pm)
highlight: steep ascent by the Roseg glacier and hausgemacht schnapps


6/29/07 Friday: Coaz Hutte to Silvaplana

We were originally planning to go to Champfer and hike from there. However one section of the trail on our map looked sketchy (the part near Piz Suvretta, marked as if it ascended a cliff), so we went to Silvaplana instead and stayed the night. We planned to take a bus to the Julierpass and have an easy next day. Coaz was a nice hut and the last one in the big peaks and glaciers.

We started going towards the high route that we hadn't done the previous day. This ended up at the hotel Fuorcla Surlej at 2,755 m. This was the last nice view of the glaciers on our trip. Most people then went down on the cable car at Murtel, dropping them at the Surlej cable station at Silvaplana. We caught up with the couple from last night and they said that a nice view was to be had at Corvatsch but we decided it wasn't for us. All the way from Coaz to Fuorcla Surlej our roommates from the previous night kept passing us, mostly the young girl who was like a mountain goat hopping over the trail.

It took a few hours to get down from the top. The trail traversed around Piz Rosatsch with spectacular views of the lakes and Sils i.E. Sigl and Silvaplana. Lots of day hikers came up from St. Mortiz the hill side was covered with alternative routes. There was a particularly nasty boulder field we needed to descend – it was not something you would think of as being a mile from St. Mortiz – it was very rugged. We ate lunch by the path and then descended into the forest. At one point the signage became bad and we just took any path that went down. We were near some old Olympic venues but we didn’t see them. The path eventually became a narrow hairpin trail right down into someone’s backyard (kein durchgang!) on the outskirts of Silvaplana.

The suburb let to a flat field (we guess the “silver plains”) that surrounded Silvaplana and Sils i.E. Sigl. We walked by the side of the road and over to the lake. It was incredibly windy. The lake had several parasailers and windsurfers who we watched for a bit.

The information center was easy to find and they were really helpful (our vote for the best information center of the trip). They printed out a list of hotels with prices and told us how to find them and gave us a bus schedule. Later they helped us make a reservation at the Jenatch hut for the next night. We went to the Hotel Arlas, got a room on the top floor and unwound. Took showers, did the laundry, and relaxed underneath the duvets. Evan went grocery shopping and investigated the town.

We ate gnocchi and pizza at a place down the road.

Lisa ordered what we nicknamed the Diavolezza pizza, basically a pepperoni pizza. She made the mistake of dripping a serious amount of hot olive oil all over it. This precluded her from finishing it, so Evan got to eat more than usual again. We had a good night's rest snuggled down into the fresh duvets.

total distance: 14 km
total elevation: 140 m
total time: 6 hours (9 am to 3 pm)
highlight: the tornado winds off lej da Silvaplauna.


6/30/07 Saturday: Silvaplana to Jenatsch Hutte (CAS)

We got up early for breakfast and agreed it was the best breakfast of the trip. There were croissants, jam, rolls, meats and cheeses and fresh juice, better than the usual fare. The coffee was also excellent. We hightailed it through town to the post office to wait for our bus. To remember how to pronounce Jenatsch, we likened it to bee-yotch.

The bus stop started filling up. We took a picture of a small steinbock statue, not realizing we would see two of them live the next day. By the time our bus arrived, there were about twenty hikers milling around the post office. When the Julierpass bus came everyone ran for the doors to get a seat. The info office had told us that if we had taken the bus later we would have needed a reservation. Every seat was taken on the ride up, which was uneventful, up and up through the trees to the Julierpass. Only three others got out of the bus here. There must be some good hiking spots further down the road.

The day was going to be easy even though we would hike up to our high point of the trip. Julierpass at 2,300 m is way above tree line. Our trail was due north up the Val d’ Agnel. We took it slow and at one point came across an older man who had brought his jodeling horn to practice in a natural rock ampitheater. After that point there were a series of false tops that led one to the other. Near the final climb was a small lake where we snoozed for a bit.

It was windy most of the way and we need to wear our raincoats to keep warm. The final ascent was steep crumbly rock/dirt, kind of a scramble where you made your own hairpin turns. The pass at Fuorcla d'Agnel at 2984 was the highest we had been, but the views were not too interesting. On the north side we could see remnants of old snow fields, but the big glaciers (the Fla da Flix and the Calderas) were out of view. On the way down we had to cross over several snowy parts, which made it exciting kicking steps in the steep snow.
  
We were already warned by the Silvaplana information office that this was the special opening night party of the hut because they had a new hut warden. The festive mood had already started when we got in. There was a traditional band and lots of people drinking, singing, and celebrating. Every lager was full – there must have been eighty people here. We staked out the best bunks on the top away from the door and relaxed in the Gaststube listening to the music.
 
Dinner was special smoked salmon soup, salad, chicken with yellow risotto and pudding. Evan liked it but Lisa didn’t. There were warning signs in the bathrooms that the water wasn’t potable, but someone said that the water from the trough was ok. After pumping water the whole trip this place we didn’t and would suffer the consequences later.

total distance: 7 km
total elevation: 700 m
total time: 5 hours (9 am to 2 pm)
highlight: traversing the “glaciers” under Piz Traunter.


7/01/07 Sunday: Jenatsch Hutte to Es-Cha Hutte (CAS)

This was our epic day, but unlike previous epics in the Pyrenees or New Zealand, this was fully planned out – no real surprises. We knew all along that to get from Jenatsch to Es-Cha was serious, so we scheduled breakfast at 6:30 am. The huette was dead quiet with all the drunken guests sleeping off the previous night’s excesses. We woke at first light and quickly grabbed our stuff, jumped down from our bunk, and shuffled out of the lager. We took all our loose gear and brought it to the empty Gaststube to load into our packs. The hut keeper left our breakfast wrapped up on the table for us. It was nice to have a breakfast all to ourselves, even it was the minimal bread, cheese, jam and instant coffee.

We were strong and fresh from a full week hiking so we knocked off the first third of the distance by around 10 am, completing our descent halfway down the Val Bever. Beween Alp Suvretta and Spinas is a turnoff straight up the peaks that border the north of the valley. We took only the briefest rests on our downhill flight to this point, and now, at the foot of the big climb of the day, we had a drink and some snack. As we rested, two Swiss couples walked by and struck up a conversation. One couple had recently been staying on Long Island so they were intrigued to meet New Yorkers here in their forest. They lived near by and were taking a day hike. We followed them up the start of the climb and it proved to be a nonstop, steep ascent. There weren’t vertical exposures, but it wasn’t protected – you wouldn’t want to step off the trail. This would be our last view of the glaciers. The weather was outstanding – we were in shirtsleeves grinding up the relentless hairpins that were barely etched out of the side of the mountain. Halfway up we spotted two steinbock and took a bunch of photos.

We must have been in good shape because we made it to the top in about an hour. But we only about halfway to Es-cha. We had a rest at the top and shared an apple. Then it was down the descent on the other side, where we glimpsed the road below us that went over the d’Alvra pass to our right. As we descended we noticed that we had misread the map in our planning and had thought that the descent would traverse to the d’Alvra pass. Instead, the trail kept going down, only to have to climb up again to d’Alvra. When we noticed this, we were still high up, so we figured, why don’t we just go off path and traverse around these mountains to get to the pass without climbing up and down? It was around noon and we stopped on the trail to survey the situation as we ate our lunch. There were a lot of cyclists climbing towards d’Alvra below us – one or two every few minutes. Just then we saw a couple of hikers traversing from the direction of the pass which seemed to confirm that our idea was reasonable (although they were much higher than we were, which was to prove critical!).

After a quick lunch, we started off trail. Immediately it was hell. First, there was no ground: the entire side of the mountain was a boulder field. In some places it looked like ground because short bushes sprouted between the boulders, but this was treacherous because you could easily step into a hidden hole. Mostly the boulders had no vegetation and were in a total chaotic state that made hiking nearly impossible. A wrong step would be a twisted ankle. Every other rock was unstable. The best strategy was to hop from one large boulder to the next, since the biggest ones were stable. Our simplistic plan of “traversing” was ridiculous because once inside this massive field, it was clearly not uniform – it there were valleys and hills that needed to be gotten across. Furthermore, it became immediately clear that d’Alvra pass was kilometers away – to keep “hiking” across the field for that long would be impossible. We quickly changed the strategy to: “get off this field and onto the road below as soon as possible.” This was a workable plan. We struggled for an hour nonstop without resting. The heat was intensified in the rock caldera, baking us. Our luck changed near the road where we spotted a bit of solid ground and followed that in a circuitous path to get to the highway.

Now we had to ascent to the pass a few kilometers away. The trail was parallel to the road and the sun was unrelenting. The entire landscape was of smashed rocks, probably from when they built the road. Lisa was on her last legs, saying “I have no energy – I used up all my energy. I can’t hike anymore.” We drank the last of our water and trugged up the path. Eventually we popped out at the café on the pass, completely filled with motorists, cyclists, etc. Lisa filled up our water bottles, we mixed our last portion of Gatorade powder, and off we went to finish the second half of the day.

The trail started through some cow meadows and led to some barns.

 

This area was a prime example of how cattle destroy the environment – the pastures were so deeply rutted that they probably wouldn’t recover in twenty years if left alone. There were some lakes by the trail but they were almost evaporated. This was the one area of our trip where the trail marks sucked. Clearly we knew we need to follow the highway, and we even saw the trail way up ahead to Gualdauna pass. But we didn’t want to walk on the highway so we hoped to follow the trail. The trail was confused by several cow trails going every which way. The few signs we found didn’t clearly indicate where the hiker’s trail was. We quickly gave up trying to follow a “trail” and just set out across the pasture. We cut down to the road and crossed it much earlier than indicated on our map. We then headed out across the pasture on the other side aiming for the trail up the pas, which we could see in the distance. This proved once again that hiking off the trail isn’t easy. Nothing as difficult as a boulder field, but the pasture was uneven with hidden depressions and ruts. We got to a dry riverbed and followed that for awhile and eventually made it to the turnoff.

Here we took another rest – at around 2 pm. We ate some cookies and drank a lot of water. Most weekend hikers were coming down at this point. Getting enough energy, we started up in slow motion. The sun wasn’t so bad now and it was cooler. We slogged up the pass and without stopping started the long circular traversal to the hut, which we could see across to. Several groups of serious looking mountain climbers passed us with their stiff boots and carrying ropes looped around their arms. One group had a pug dog with them who didn’t look fit enough to do any climbing. There was a very cool cairn city on the way: hikers over the years must have contributed their own cairns – there were hundreds of them, some as high as a person. Eventually we made it to the hut and collapsed on the patio.

 

The hut keeper was very nice and showed us to our room. There were four other guests that night, two Swiss glacier climbers and two German hikers. Dinner started with a delicious homemade soup, not Knorr (the best of the trip), then meat in sauce and macaronis. We ate with two Swiss guys who were friendly and chatty. They had climbed over the glacier from the Kesch hut but had started late at 4 pm!

They also liked to hike in the winter with their snowboards which they would ride down in one long run after they had made it to the top. We noticed a cat magazine that featured the hut’s 22 year old cat Muggi, the fresh air and mountain lifestyle confirmed health and longevity!

total distance: 21 km
total elevation: 800 m
total time: 9 hours (7 am to 4 pm)
highlight: going across the boulder field from hell to avoid drop into Crap Alv.


7/02/07 Monday: Es-Cha Hutte to Zuoz

This would be our last day of hiking albeit a very easy one. The weather report was supposed to be rainy so we figured it was a good way to end the trip. We had a leisurely breakfast at 8 am with the German couple who were very friendly. The day before they hiked the long way round from Kesch (avoiding the glacier fields). They were going to Bergun, which has a hot springs.

We put on our rain gear and were off down the hill. It was an easy path, turning into a road later on. Cows had rutted out the hillsides. We made it to Zuoz around 10:30 am and went to the train station to buy tickets for our early trip the next morning.

 

We also noticed a Coop nearby. Then we went to the info office which gave us some options for cheap rooms, we opted for the Walther Zimmers across the street which came without breakfast but only 80 CHF. They weren’t full so they let us in right away. Being able to unwind, drying our clothes and taking showers was nice.

 

Later on we bought some snacks at the Coop and ate dinner downstairs in the pizza restaurant. Smoking Swiss at the next table drove us away and we looked around the town at some of the shops.

total distance: 6 km
total elevation: 0 m
total time: 3 hours (9 am to 12 pm)
highlight: old Zuoz architecture.


7/03/07 Tuesday: Zuoz to Zurich to NYC

5:20 am train made all the connections at Klosters, Landquart, and Zurich Hauptbahnhof. We got to the airport fine. Swiss rail system (SBB) rocks (imagine doing that in the U.S.!). The flight had nicer flight attendants. Chuckled through “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” while Evan finally gave up on “The Astronaut Farmer” and switched over. Got to EWR, luggage came fast, customs was fine, got the train to Penn Station right away as well as the C train. Made it back to apartment in record time and collapsed into bed!

 

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