We hoped that the weather system had cleansed itself of any need to thunderstorm on top of us, and we decided to try and make it Griesalp—this would probably be our longest day of hiking so far, about 7 hours and 30 minutes according to our book, with 1000 meters up AND 1300 meters down. We were leaving the world of friendly ski lifts and funiculars to help ease the descent, and now it was just us and the mountains.

There were benefits to this, we saw, as we set out. It was only drizzling as we left, and the clouds lent the mountains a lot of mystery and atmosphere. The trail was deserted—the whole hike, we saw perhaps 8 or 9 other people. Because of this, the trail felt wilder. It also felt wilder because there weren’t hard-core signs of civilization everywhere (ski lifts, funicular tracks). It was actually pleasant to not have the sun burning down on us as we made the gradual, then incredibly steep, climb up to the Sefinenfurke under overcast skies. Our inn owner the previous night had said, if the weather gets awful, there is a Rotstockhutte for shelter (with dorm rooms and meals too).

The first portion of the hike was relatively flat (yay!), past tons of cows still clanging their bells, and past a little alp that sold some breakfast food, wild herbal tea, and cheese. What we really wanted was some yogurt of energy for our lunch, but they didn’t have any.

We passed the Rotstockhutte, a place didn’t seem particularly friendly as we wandered by—people stared at us as we used the toilets, and there were tons of signs saying “no picnicking” (the Swiss seem possessive of their picnic tables, even if it’s a place in the middle of nowhere!). We had some energy snacks right before the huette at a little creek, and once we could finally see our ascent, the little notch that we would be climbing up to, the hike began to feel epic in a grant way, and we hoped we were ready. As if to make it more dramatic, we could see clouds begin to move in behind us, teasing us with the possibility that the view would be blocked when we reached the pass (or worse, that it would begin raining!). That helped us hurry along as best we could, up and up and up, first a gradual ascent, and then a steep vertical final slope.

Our guidebook wasn’t joking when it said this was the second most difficult hike in the book (the first most difficult would be tomorrow). We had done steady one hour (or longer!) ascents before today, but this ascents seemed particular steep, and the footing on the very last third of the climb was on an incredibly loose dark scree. It brought to mind that final section in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, where Frodo and Sam are walking through what seems like hell- a barren land of rock, and they were thirsty and hungry and tired, but at least they were saving the world! This place was prettier, of course, but I definitely felt a sense of hopelessness when, ¾ of the way up the scree, I just couldn’t go on. Every step I took seemed to cause look rock to slide behind me, I had no sense for how much further I had to go, but just knew that I had been climbing forever and needed a little rest. This was one of the few points in our epic adventure that I felt ready to sit down and slide back down the mountain, but then Harold appeared at the top and said it was just a couple more minutes of climbing. He gave me his hand, helped me over the hard spot, and then….we made it to the stunning Sefinenfurke.

This trip was a trip of the most beautiful lunch spots—we often tried to lunch at the passes when we’d be climbing half the day. What could be better than a view to a wildness to your right, and a view of near wildness to your left—all these craggy valleys, and clouds. The Sefinenfurke has to be one of the most beautiful passes we’ve ever climbed to, and we had the view to ourselves for a while, watching the clouds wisp around us, wondering how in the world we were going to get down, the descent looked so steep. We wandered around a little after lunch, to see even more spectacular views with glaciers in the distance.

The descent was no where near as fun as the ascent (even though the ascent was hard, I still loved it!). Two super hikers ran down before we even started and then disappeared, but am I not one to run down a mountain, so we went down, slowly, on the slippery, uneven, unstable scree –you take a step and slide, no matter what. It took forever and was hard on the knees. The scenery on this side of the mountain seemed less varied too– craggy wilderness, with the occasional sheep mating. I was pretty darn tired, and wanted yogurt, but the little farm at Ober Durrenberg which our guidebook mentioned was closed when we got there.

And we had 1300 meters of this!

After the scree, there was rocky dirt, then twisting roads past cows, down and down and down—it was a delirious descent, perhaps because we hadn’t eaten enough food at lunch? Things improved once we neared Griesalp—we got to walk through some trees, however brief (yay!), and began to see cool houses and signs and folk art. Best of all, we passed by this wonderful farm that made its own cheese and yogurt—I think my favorite cheese, and my favorite yogurt too! We so much needed a break and food, so we wandered around until we found someone we could buy yogurt from. The woman brought out two large bowls on trays, with a bowl of sugar, and we sat on picnic tables and just enjoyed the atmosphere (the family wandering around, doing their farm work(. The woman also had several different kinds of cheeses in her cellar, and we bought the mildest cheese she had (wonderful!). If I haven’t mentioned it already, we learned that mild cheese is the best for carrying it around unrefridgerated in your backpack, unless you like all your clothes smelling like a stinky cheese.

The Hotel-Pension Waldrand at Pochtenalp was one of the few Berghauses we had trouble finding—I don’t think the directions are clear in any of our guidebooks, and the signs confused us too. Perhaps we were just tired…but you may want to ask for directions from someone (or when making reservations). This would be a good area to stay two days in this area, called the Kiental valley, if only because both Berghauses (the Hotel-Pension Waldrand and Berggasthaus and Pension Golderli) here looked wonderful, and this was such a peaceful, beautiful untouristy place with lots of pleasant short trails and rushing water. We actually found the Berggasthaus and Pension Golderli first, which had llamas next-door to it, but after several wrong turns and near collapses, we finally came across our Berghaus for the night.

This was one of my favorite places we stayed at—the owners were so friendly and patient, and we were lead up and up the stairs to our room on the top floor, which was cozy and like a little fairy tale attic of a place. The beds were very very tall and comfortable, and our unscreened window looked out onto pine trees and the tip of mountains and a brook, which we could hear through the night. There was a conference going on, and we were the only private guests there, so we had the whole upstairs to ourselves (like a suite!). Dinner was incredible and vegetarian friendly–the owner’s sister spent 3 hours gathering wild mushrooms which the cook (also the owner) put into the tofu dish—mushrooms and tofu, plus potatoes, plus fennel from their garden that was roasted. Yum! We even got to try an authentic Swiss desert, which was a little crazy sweet for us, but we had seen it in every grocery store and bakery and had been curious about it: it looked like spaghetti shaped noodles with cream on top, but it actually was called vermicell we think: hazelnuts and cream.

Sleeping that night was instant and deep and lovely and quiet. The owner of the place had said that the weather is amazingly unpredictable in the mountains—that we were lucky to have a clear spot to see the views at the mountain pass that day. Tomorrow was supposed to bring more rain and overcast clouds, and it was also supposed to be an even harder day of hiking. Since our guidebooks really stressed that the hike to Kandersteg via the Blumlisalphutte should not be attempted in iffy weather. We were also tired, and Harold’s ankle had begun to bother him. We decided we would take public transportation to Kanderstag, and then hike up to Oeschinensee, where we had reservations. I’m a little sad that we didn’t get a chance to see the views from the Blumliasalphutte at 2837 meters, but I also think it was a good idea to have an easier day and let our bodies rest.