Hiking in Switzerland makes you sing

I took a journey this past weekend to Switzerland for some time in the Alps.  I met up with all of the LGOs late on Friday night before heading out.  It was late because I tried to get to Basel without a GPS device.  This should have been no problem.  I am led to believe that people used to travel without maps and I have heard it hinted that people even went places that had not been mapped.

Still looking for that Northwest passage?  Give Global Warming a chance.  According to all of the hippies I know, the whole planet will be flooded making lots of new trade routes.  Sounds like a good thing for trade if you ask me.

Anywho, back to my story of getting lost.  So in Germany (and this is not the first time this has happened, just the worst) they like to close roads without putting up signs.  So I got off of A5 going south (notice I did not say A5S, Germany does not do the logical and label their roads by direction) to get onto A6 going south.  Should have been easy except that it was not until after I had gotten onto the A6 exit and past the point of no return that the indicated that A6 south was closed and I could only go North.  Oh well, time to pull over and look at the trusty map.

Problem with the map is it did not show me that the next place to turn south was actually through a BASF plant (large chemical plant).  It was cool but frustrating.  this highway ran right through a plant and all of the exits were labeled by the BASF location that they led to and there were houses and city building mixed throughout this road.  This little excursion led me astray for quite a while until i got past the BASF plant and through Manheim.   I would say I lost about an hour.

Then when I got to Basel i took a wrong turn which cost me about 45 minutes since this wrong turn led me into a tunnel that dumped me in France.  After turning around, getting back into Switzerland, back to the turn I missed, and then lost in the back roads I called the Basel LGOs.  They got me pointed in the right direction and I arrived only 2 hours late.  After some chit chat it was time for bed because we had an early morning train.

Since Cal is a much more experienced hiker than I am and he knows Switzerland, I asked him to plan an overnight trip but something far less challenging than the 26 mile Presidential Range trip with over 2,500 m of elevation gain that we did with some other LGOs last year.  Cal selected a trip over Surenenpass with about 20 km of hiking and 1,600 m of elevation gain.

Cal, Angela, and I took a train to a small town called Altdorf and from there we walked up to Brusti, over Surenpass, and down to Engelburg.  Overall, it was a very pleasant weekend and the views were absolutely spectacular.  I had never been to the Alps before and it was well worth the trip.  I've included some pictures and comments about some of the highlights of the trip.

Altdorf, 462 m, to Brusti, 1,520 m (up 1,100 m and down 0 m)

• We start the day bright and early on the train and get a glimps of what is to come

• Top left: Look how lean the cows are, no room for fat when you have to climb the Alps everyday


• Bottom left: The path wound through people's yards and were well maintained


• Bottom right: Uphill is tough!

The hotel at Brusti, 1,520 m

• Top left: We passed a small cable car close to the hotel


• Middle left: Notice the lack of guardrails on the platform


• Bottom left: They made us take our boots off but provided us with slippers


• Right: As you can tell by the picture of our hotel on top of the mountain, we were "roughin" it

• The view from the non-hotel side of Brusti back down on Altdorf

• The hotel also came with a children's playground and since we're in college we count as kids

• Top left: We started dinner outside to enjoy the sunset


• Top right: Must have water before Coke


• Bottom middle and right: Dinner and Swiss friends (their English is better than my German, they were 4 and 6)

Up to the Surenenpass, 2,291 m (path from Brusti to Engelberg up 820 m to 1,350 m)

• Don't let the cold weather cloths fool you, they came off within 20 minutes of uphill walking


• Bottom left: Our first glimps of the pass (the low point in the middle)

• Top left: We came across a small waterfall


• Top right: A sheet of ice, so naturally I skated down it


• Bottom middle: Looks like a little hole in the ice right?


• Bottom right: Until you see that it is a cave big enough for the snow monster on Hoth (Star Wars nerd reference!)

• Not quite a panoramic from the pass, but the best I could do without a tripod

Down to the lift, 1,850 m

• Top left: Cal fords the river


• Bottom middle: People were actually biking this stuff!

• Left: A legitimate waterfall


• Right: Just wait until the snow is melting, then you'll need the bridge

Taking the lift down, 1,084 m

• This lift was incredible!  Quite scary when you past the last support and are heading straight down.  It was so long and steep it was hard to capture the details on the camera so MS Paint was brought in to help.

• Same pictures without MS Paint