missyd
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Today was the day ... hot sunny and I'm full of energy! My car drove me nicely to Grindelwald again! I planned a nice mountain hike I did the last time when I was a kid! Up with a gondola and then an ascent of 1.5h to a nice mountain restaurant.
^^ Thats the Eiger from the east side! It was still fresh outside. I had to put on a jacket. But only for a few minutes. Shorts and a backless tshirt where too much to wear in this heat!!!
I arrived with some problems at the retaurant. The ascent which was much more steeper as I thought drained all my energy out of my body. I ate a soup and had a nice cup of tea. The panoramic view is just fantastic!!!! Stayed ther an hour to regain my strength. I was happy that my knees did not hurt at all .... hmmm more about hte knee later!
^^ Thats the mountain restaurant (Baeregg) bear corner in english. The owner uses a helicopter to transport most of the goods used in the kitchen. But fresh products like bread, salad etc. have to be transported by themselves by foot. The helicopter does not take passengers.
So I started the second part of the ascent up to and around a corner of this valley which was filled by some glaciers when I was a kid. Today maybe 30% of the volume of the glaciers have melted away ... very sad sight! The path was very narrow, very steep and with my vertigo not really the place I wanted to be. The pictures here show the VERY WIDE paths!!!
^^ yes! There is a flock of sheep there ... it was way too hot for them .... poor souls laying in the shade.
OK ... I hiked up 100m and another 100m up and another 100m up and the path getting norrower and steeper and my vertigo started to control my body! But I wanted to see "around the corner" going down again ... I tought it would be difficult but I brushed any negative thoughts aside.... finally I came "around the corner" of the valley. Beautiful views and I stayed ther for some time. Ascent to this place was 1h. Now I had to hike back .... down this small treacherous paths and in my left knee my ACLs where sreaming of pain!!!! My gosh ... I am getting old!!! I hiked very slow and I never put much weight on my left knee when it was bend. Difficult to do but managable. The steepest part I went down backwards .... not because my knee hurts but for safety reasons .... one missed step could mean a fall of several hundreds of meters down onto the glacier (or whats left of it). Finally I reached the mountain restaurant again. Even the steep ascent wasn't too tiring anymore?! I was sweating like a pig and so I rested another hour there. Ate a nice salad and had a bottle mineral water and 2 coffees.
^^ 30 years ago the right part of the visible rocks where covered by glaciers! Its still a fantastic place but not the same for me.
^^ Here you can see how much gravel lays on the glacier! And the gravel heats up melting the glacier even faster ... I can tell you it is terrible!!!
The weather changed a lot in this hour I was there .... dark clouds had arrived and I could hear some thunder ..... decided to hike back down to the gondola as slow as I could maybe my knee wouldn't hurt that much .... wrong ... I am used to pains but when you have a feeling like somebody is cutting your knee apart with a string around it ..... at least this time the right one was ok. I happy for that because most of the weight was on the right one.
^^ part of the hiking path. For people with vertigo .... no do not go there!
It started to rain .... just a little bit .... it did not cool you down in any way .... the weather was burning hot in mountains. Ok never mind the rain as long as it stops asap! I never realized that most of the path went downwards very steep. During the ascent I tought it was rather flat ..... anyway .... me knee hurt a lot but I managed to reach the gondola. But before I drove home I had a nice big ice-cream ... bottle of mineral water and a coffee!
I really liked this hike in the mountains ... even if the ACLs in my left knee let me down again. I will go hiking again. But I will plan my hikes much better. If possible only ascents and any descents will be made by gondola or train or maybe a rescue helicopter (just joking).
If you want to see more of my pics .... my Facebook picture album is open for anybody! Hope you enjoy it!!!
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69916&id=1271336511&l=b42f208629
^^ Thats the Eiger from the east side! It was still fresh outside. I had to put on a jacket. But only for a few minutes. Shorts and a backless tshirt where too much to wear in this heat!!!
I arrived with some problems at the retaurant. The ascent which was much more steeper as I thought drained all my energy out of my body. I ate a soup and had a nice cup of tea. The panoramic view is just fantastic!!!! Stayed ther an hour to regain my strength. I was happy that my knees did not hurt at all .... hmmm more about hte knee later!
^^ Thats the mountain restaurant (Baeregg) bear corner in english. The owner uses a helicopter to transport most of the goods used in the kitchen. But fresh products like bread, salad etc. have to be transported by themselves by foot. The helicopter does not take passengers.
So I started the second part of the ascent up to and around a corner of this valley which was filled by some glaciers when I was a kid. Today maybe 30% of the volume of the glaciers have melted away ... very sad sight! The path was very narrow, very steep and with my vertigo not really the place I wanted to be. The pictures here show the VERY WIDE paths!!!
^^ yes! There is a flock of sheep there ... it was way too hot for them .... poor souls laying in the shade.
OK ... I hiked up 100m and another 100m up and another 100m up and the path getting norrower and steeper and my vertigo started to control my body! But I wanted to see "around the corner" going down again ... I tought it would be difficult but I brushed any negative thoughts aside.... finally I came "around the corner" of the valley. Beautiful views and I stayed ther for some time. Ascent to this place was 1h. Now I had to hike back .... down this small treacherous paths and in my left knee my ACLs where sreaming of pain!!!! My gosh ... I am getting old!!! I hiked very slow and I never put much weight on my left knee when it was bend. Difficult to do but managable. The steepest part I went down backwards .... not because my knee hurts but for safety reasons .... one missed step could mean a fall of several hundreds of meters down onto the glacier (or whats left of it). Finally I reached the mountain restaurant again. Even the steep ascent wasn't too tiring anymore?! I was sweating like a pig and so I rested another hour there. Ate a nice salad and had a bottle mineral water and 2 coffees.
^^ 30 years ago the right part of the visible rocks where covered by glaciers! Its still a fantastic place but not the same for me.
^^ Here you can see how much gravel lays on the glacier! And the gravel heats up melting the glacier even faster ... I can tell you it is terrible!!!
The weather changed a lot in this hour I was there .... dark clouds had arrived and I could hear some thunder ..... decided to hike back down to the gondola as slow as I could maybe my knee wouldn't hurt that much .... wrong ... I am used to pains but when you have a feeling like somebody is cutting your knee apart with a string around it ..... at least this time the right one was ok. I happy for that because most of the weight was on the right one.
^^ part of the hiking path. For people with vertigo .... no do not go there!
It started to rain .... just a little bit .... it did not cool you down in any way .... the weather was burning hot in mountains. Ok never mind the rain as long as it stops asap! I never realized that most of the path went downwards very steep. During the ascent I tought it was rather flat ..... anyway .... me knee hurt a lot but I managed to reach the gondola. But before I drove home I had a nice big ice-cream ... bottle of mineral water and a coffee!
I really liked this hike in the mountains ... even if the ACLs in my left knee let me down again. I will go hiking again. But I will plan my hikes much better. If possible only ascents and any descents will be made by gondola or train or maybe a rescue helicopter (just joking).
If you want to see more of my pics .... my Facebook picture album is open for anybody! Hope you enjoy it!!!
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69916&id=1271336511&l=b42f208629
