The Great Alpine Trek -- Grindelwald to Wengen

 The trek starts today! All the preparations of the past few weeks have culminated in today. It's time for the rubber to meet the road, put the pedal to the metal, and other cliches. Now we will see if I have what it takes to do this trek. I am hopeful, but not without a certain amount of trepidation because the hike will be very challenging.

Like it says on the bottle, it's time to rock and roll!

 

 

When I awoke this morning I looked out my balcony and was treated to this stunning view!

Breathtaking view of the Eiger!

 

The clouds had cleared completely and I was staring at the Eiger in all its glory.  Just magnificent!

Today is off to a good start.

Track for cog wheel train with center cog rail

 

First we started by taking a cog wheel train (one of several on this trip) part way up the hill. Then we started the trek in earnest.

Can you spot the windows?

Not only did we pass by the Eiger, we nearly got close enough to touch it! Once you get close the Eiger you can see the windows they installed in it. Initially, the windows were just holes they cut in the side of the mountain, so that they could dump out the debris from the train tunnel they were building through the mountain. Later they made them into glass-paned windows so that the train passengers could get a view from inside the tunnel.

Here are the windows!

 

 

 

Close-up of Eiger windows

What most of today's trail was like. Amazing, huh?

The hike ended with another cog wheel train ride into the town of Wengen.

Grindelwald, North Face of the Eiger

Alpine glow gives the Eiger a pretty reddish hue

A very old telephone

Arrived at the Hotel Belvedere in Grindelwald to meet up with my guide. This is where the hike will start tomorrow. Although there were clouds blocking the view when I first got there, the back of the hotel (and the balcony of my room) is staring right into the face the famous Eiger mountain. The Hotel Belvedere is a very old hotel, dating back to around 1905, and is the oldest (I think) family run hotel in Switzerland. The Hotel is filled with 100-year old artifacts, like this old phone that was actually used in the hotel:

 

The ski village of Grindelwald

 

 

Grindelwald is a ski village in what's known as the Bernese Oberland region. It lies embedded in a welcoming and green hollow, surrounded by a commanding mountainscape with the Eiger north face and the Wetterhorn. 

 

 

 

The Eiger mountain is in there somewhere hiding behind the clouds.

Single Malt Scotch Detour

I searched for bars in Luzern and was surprised to find there was a whisky bar in town, and it was highly rated. The map showed it was not far but it was up a long steep hill. It was called the Louis Bar and the picture of Louis Armstrong inside gives the origin of the name. The bar is actually part of the Hotel Montana, the top hotel in Luzern.

Their Scotch selection was extensive! They had many rare whiskies including the 30 year Balvenie and many others. They are also an "Ambassador" for Ardbeg which I guess means they are some sort of favored vendor for Ardbeg scotch and they had some very rare bottles of Ardbeg that I had never seen before.

 

I had the 21 year Port Wood Balvenie for the first time, which was excellent!

 

 

"I Saw a Very Bright Dragon with Flapping Wings ..."

There are two ways to get to the top of Mount Pilatus: take the gondola, or take the cog wheel train. I did both -- I took the gondola on the way up and the cog wheel train on the way down. Mount Pilatus rises nearly 7000 ft just outside of Luzern and provides an imposing backdrop for the town.

 

 Cog wheel trains

The cog wheel train on Mount Pilatus is not only the steepest in Switzerland, but the steepest in the whole world!  Regular railway trains are limited to shallow inclines because otherwise the wheels would slip and he train would slide down the hill and possibly derail, which would be catastrophic. Heavy freight trains are limited to a 1.5% grade. Fast passenger trains can handle up to a maximum of a 5% grade. For steeper grade you have to use a different type of train. That's where cog wheel trains come in. They use additional cog wheels to ride on a corresponding toothed rail in the center of the track.

This method allows trains to climb tracks as steep as 25%. But Mount Pilatus is even steeper than that, approaching a 50% grade in places! For this, they had to use a different horizontal cog system, and the car itself is stepped, so that each row of seats is on a different level.

Dragons

Like many mountains in Europe, this one is associated with a medieval legend of dragons (see below). They are continuing to milk the legend even today; with a zipline called the "Dragon Glide" and even the logo for the mountain is a dragon.

Dragon logo of Mount Pilatus

The full eyewitness account of the dragon:

In 1619 as I was contemplating the serene sky by night, I saw a very bright dragon with flapping wings go from a cave in a great rock in the mount called Pilatus toward another cave, known as Flue, on the opposite side of the lake. Its wings were agitated with much celerity; its body was long as well as its tail and neck. Its head was that of a serpent with teeth, and when it was flying, sparks were coming out of it like the embers thrown by an incandescent iron when struck by smiths on an anvil. At first, I thought it was a meteor, but after observing more closely, (I saw) it was truly a dragon from the recognizable motion of the members. This I write to you, your reverence, in case you should doubt that dragons truly exist in nature.

-- Athanasius Kircher, Mundus subterraneus, quo universae denique naturae divitiae (Amsterdam 1664-1668).

Luzern -- World's Prettiest Town?

Today I arrived in Luzern (English spelling: "Lucerne"), one of the prettiest towns I have ever seen. But this is not unusual for here -- Switzerland is full of towns like this! This is what makes Switzerland one of the world's most beautiful countries.

Luzern is of course a modern city but it has some architecture dating back to the European Renaissance of the 14th and 15th centuries. It's got pristine lakes, magnificent mountain vistas of the snow capped Alps, and lush greenery everywhere. It's a small town, but it's still got Michelin starred restaurants, and is very clean.

 

The most famous thing in Luzern is probably the covered wooden Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), built in the 1300s. There are paintings dating back to that period all along the inside of the bridge.

 

What Is Switzerland Famous For?

What is Switzerland known for? Lots of things! Off the top of my head I came up with several:

• Chocolate 

Switzerland is famous for their chocolate, among the very best in the world!  One of the best Swiss chocolate brands, Lindt, has been making excellent chocolate since 1845. Here's a list of the top 10 chocolates in Switzerland.

 

• Cheese
  

Everyone has heard of Swiss cheese. It's the one with holes in it.

 

 

 
 
 
 

• Timepieces

For over 500 years Swiss clockmakers and watchmakers have been known for making the best and most accurate timepieces, with their exquisite precision craftsmanship and philosophy of continuous refinement.  They are also credited with perfecting the cuckoo clock, where a little bird comes out of the clock every hour and makes a "cuckoo" sound.

• Swiss army knives
  
  
  
   
  The Swiss army is famous for their practical knives, made by the Victorinox company, which have every utility tool imaginable.
  
  
  

  

  No trip to Switzerland is complete without a visit to a Victorinox store

    

  
  

  
  

  
  

•  Banking

For hundreds of years, Swiss banks have been the preferred place for the wealthy to keep their money safe, due to Switzerland's strict secrecy laws and high of professionalism.

•  Einstein

Einstein was born in Germany but Switzerland was where he got his first real job after school at the Swiss Patent Office, and was where he lived during his most creative years of scientific discovery. I visited his house in Bern on a previous trip to Switzerland.

 

 

• Heidi

Who hasn't seen or read the children's classic Heidi, about the little orphan girl who lives with her grandfather?  It takes place in the Swiss mountains.

By the way, I have seen many movie versions of Heidi, but the best one is still the 1937 version with Shirley Temple.

• CERN

CERN is a world class scientific institution home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.  I was able to see the inside of the LHC on a previous trip to Switzerland because a friend of mine works at CERN.

And these are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head; I'm sure there are many more!

Living Spherically

I love nonstop flights! It took exactly 11 hours to reach Switzerland. Long flight, but since there were no stops it felt easy. A couple meals, a couple movies, 8 hours of sleep -- and I arrived in Zurich fully rested and not feeling tired at all.

Typical streets in Zurich

 

In one of the in-flight movies, one character relates a quote supposedly from Frederico Fellini, the Italian director: "You should live life spherically -- in all directions."

Imagine yourself at the center of a large sphere. Do you take a single path and reach a single point on the outside of the sphere?  Or do you try several different paths and experience several different points on the sphere?

Could be fake but still a cool quote, and and is a philosophy I have tried to follow in my own life. For example, this trip!

 

 

 

 

2022 Swiss Alps Luxury Hike

I've done a lot of hiking before, but this is the first time I'm doing a luxury hike. This means instead of camping in tents, it's an inn-to-inn hike. You stay in fancy 4-star hotels (some with Michelin starred restaurants), and they shuttle your baggage from hotel to hotel. All you need to carry is a small day pack. Of course this luxury comes at a steep price, but you gotta splurge once in a while, right?  Right!

I got the idea from a couple of good friends who were contemplating a similar trip and we initially were considering doing the trip together. They ultimately decided not to do it, but the idea appealed to me so much that I went ahead with it on my own!

However, being a luxury hike does not mean it's an easy hike. It will be strenuous, very strenuous. A typical day is 8+ hours of hiking and a few thousand feet of elevation gain in the high mountains. The route I chose is from the Eiger to the Matterhorn, two of the most iconic mountains in the Swiss Alps.

 

The Eiger (13,015 ft) is considered one of the most challenging and dangerous mountains to climb. I've wanted to see this mountain since I saw the movie Eiger Sanction starring Clint Eastwood.

The Matterhorn (14,692 ft) is of course probably the most famous mountain in the Alps, with its steep faces and distinctive shape. This is where my trek will end.

Matterhorn ride at Disneyland

I am doing this hike solo, but I did hire a private guide who will be with me the whole way.  Hoping for clear weather (it rains a lot up there) so that I can take some good photos of the breathtaking scenery!

R.I.P. Scarface

I first heard of him three years ago in Yellowstone Park. A ranger was supposed to be giving us a general orientation to the park, but spent most of the time talking about a particular grizzly bear which had captured his attention -- a 600 lb male grizzly named "Scarface". Scarface had a penchant for getting into trouble -- nearly every type of trouble that a bear can get into. He was known as one of the most active and aggressive bears in the park, making him also one of the most photographed bears in the park. Put on a documentary about Grizzlies in Yellowstone; most likely it will include footage of Scarface. He got into numerous fights with other bears over females, over rights to a kill, maybe over bear politics. One of these battles caused a serious injury in which he lost half an ear and a deep gash across his face – giving him his name. As a result he was instantly identifiable.

Recently he had crossed the line, which park officials define as "too close contact with humans". He was found rummaging through some trash dumpsters. This earned him a tranquilizer dart and a radio collar. After that they knew where he was at all times. So he was also one of the most studied bears in the park.

The ranger told about a bear kill (not Scarface's) he was observing. He noticed a tiny brown dot in the far distance. The little brown dot got bigger and bigger but he couldn't make it out until he pulled out his binoculars. It was Scarface! Somehow, from over a mile away Scarface had detected the kill and was making a beeline for it. The ranger found this remarkable as Scarface was *upwind* of the kill. Of course when Scarface arrived he took over the kill and chased the other bear away.

It was clear from the way he told these stories that he had developed a sort of admiration, even affection for Scarface. Later that same day I encountered Scarface myself, in person! He was just standing on top of another kill, protecting it. I snapped this picture of him:

The legendary "Scarface" (This picture was later used by a tour company to promote tours of Yellowstone)

There was something unique about him, and he captured my imagination too. He had personality, he had character. I never forgot him. This year I had returned to Yellowstone in the winter, on a wolf tracking expedition. The topic of Scarface came up and I inquired about his status. Scarface was 25 at the time, a fairly old age for a grizzly. His health was declining, but should have had a few more years to live.

Today, I learned that Scarface had been shot by an unknown person. Grizzlies are protected under federal law, so most likely this was an illegal act (the only exception is self-defense which is unlikely because it was not reported).

Goodbye, Scarface. You touched many lives including mine and my heart is heavy, especially at the manner of your passing :(