Next stop on our Swiss climbing road trip: Göschenenalp, and route climbing on the Kompressorwand wall. Göschenenalp was one of our most favorite places on the trip. Grit and Manu shared with us that the tiny town of Göschenen has a population of about 20 people and is one of the only high alps mountain towns that is continuously inhabited year-round, meaning in winter, the town is cut off from civilization due to snow. One morning Grit and I hiked up the hill on a trail through the woods from the campground to the town in search of much needed showers. The “town” consists of a church, a restaurant and lodge, a few homes, and what looked to be a dormitory-style apartment structure / hut, of which contained a coin-operated shower in which I took the shortest shower of my life. The town relies heavily on summer tourism (which is now making me ponder why I didn’t just go ahead and use 10 Swiss francs for a long leisurely shower instead of 3?), and so the restaurant with locally grown and prepared food is quite the hot-spot for tourists. The blueberries for the blueberry tiramisu and blueberry ice cream are picked fresh from the mountainside. And I would assume so is the oregano, as I found myself sitting in an entire hillside of it while snapping photos of the kids climbing the routes.
Ivan on Hössi Route, 5c+ and Rosa on Kurts Regentanz, 5c+
Rio on Hössi Route, 5c+
Paul on Relax, 6a. Yes, this is a bolted crack. We’re not in Yosemite anymore people.
Ivan likes to count things when on a trip. Usually it’s vehicles, like Escape Vans, Teslas or Cyber Trucks. Occasionally it’s more intensive subject matter, like steps on a hike (not even kidding). On this trip to Switzerland he found his thing to count right away: Glaciers!
This day hike to Steinsee Lake below the Steingletscher (stone glacier) contained one of 16 glacier sightings along the trip. 16!!
Like any good climber fully dedicated to his or her sport in all aspects, we started off our climbing road trip with a healthy dose of drinking and partying with Grit and Manu’s neighbors late into the night before we left. Needless to say we got off to a late start the next day. But no worries! Switzerland is packed with all kinds of climbing options within just a couple hours drive (or less!) and the sun doesn’t go down in summer until almost 10pm. Win win. And our climbing performance wasn’t too shabby either. 😁
Sustenpass
Grit warming up on an unnamed 5b
Me ticking off an unnamed 6b+
Paul topping out Steinbeisser, 6b
Manu attempting Dynamo, 7a
Paul sending a variation of Dynamo, 7b
Best buddies with a striking resemblance to one another
On account of the bad weather delay but still wanting to squeeze the spirit out of Plan A, we opted to cram three days of hut hiking into two. This meant no second night of hut sleeping, but a whopper of a second day hiking.
After waking in the Bluemlisalp Hutte to the delight of actually having slept through the night despite being on a top bunk bed that slept 9 other people (yes, you read that right: one mattress, 10 people. Same below on the bottom bunk. Stay in your lane sleepers!), I made my way down to the all-gender bathroom to relieve myself, brushed my teeth and splashed some ice cold water on my face, icy cold being the only option. Back upstairs the dining room was serving a traditional Swiss breakfast of yogurt and muesli, bread, jam and stinky cheese, with plenty of coffee. We ate up, exchanged our hut-provided crocs for our still-wet shoes down in the “drying room,” filled our bottles with a choice of either water or herbal tea, strapped on the crampons and embarked upon our decent.
Our route for the day would take us down into a lush green valley, up a long rocky moraine to the toe of an active glacier, with more glaciers hanging precariously above and the trail marked with warning signs to move fast, then up the other side of the moraine and valley to a saddle with an epic view of the Eiger, and then down, down and further down to the very bottom of the next valley over, the Lauterbrunnen Valley, the hotspot for anyone that knows anything about BASE jumping. Ah, and did I forget to mention that our route would include ladder climbing, nervy cable clutching, and a rest stop at a mountain farm that serves the best vanilla milkshakes in the universe? And also a train ride home that we would sprint up stairs to catch (after 9,000 feet of downhill hiking!) to thankfully find a little girl holding the door for us and the bar car to our immediate left after stepping aboard?
Dang was the spirit of Plan A squeezed good! And my thighs agreed, thanking me plenty over the following few days. 9,000 feet! Ouch! 😬
Open the map and pick out a multi-day through-hike. Pack a small backpack with only the essentials, a few warm layers, some water, day snacks, and tons of sunscreen. Take a train and maybe also a bus and perhaps a cable car to the trailhead. Start hiking uphill, straight uphill, like literally up a mountain….or three. Pass some glaciers. Pass farm animals in places that one wouldn’t think farm animals could be. Pass or be passed by fit and smiling people. Take care not to step off trail and slide and tumble to your death. Debate on whether or not it’s finally time to pull the crampons out. Re-apply the sunscreen, again. And eventually reach the day’s destination: a hut that feeds and sleeps dozens of people, and serves beer in hefty glass Swiss mugs.
Hut hiking is quite the experience to say the least!
The Prealps region refers to the smaller mountains and hills at the foot of the High Alps. Due to significant snow in the forecast, we needed a Plan B to launching out on a backpacking trip in the High Alps. Grit and Manu decided to take us on one of their favorite ridge traverses around the Gantrisch Mountain area near their home. Snow in the High Alps though means rain in the Prealps. But we are prepared, all the way down to the rain pants. Yes, rain pants! I thankfully took Grit and Manu’s advice while packing and bought us each a pair on a very dry and hot 110 degree day back in Tucson. The rain did indeed eventually come just as we were making our way to the cheese house, followed by a furious but short bout of snow. Yes, a cheese house! A little hut stocked with cheese made from the milk of the cows, goats and sheep grazing happily and living the good life along the trails is not at all unusual here, we learn. Leave your Swiss Francs and take a block. Delightful!
In my jet-lag fog, this is the only sentence that registers in my brain as our friends share with us the fun plan they have lined up for our first day in Switzerland.
“…what the locals do on a hot day, fast current, just stay away from bridge pillars and the edge, tourists die every year, exit before the power plant turbines, SO FUN…”
Wait, we’re doing what exactly?!
According to Google AI (which I opted to read now, as I write this, not before myself and my family jumped in) ‘Swimming in the Aare River in Bern, Switzerland is a popular recreational activity, especially in summer, but it’s important to be aware of the river’s current and potential hazards. While the water is generally clean and safe for swimming, it’s crucial to be an experienced swimmer and to take necessary precautions.’
We arrive in Bern by train and head straight to the river, passing by a perfectly harmless and inviting outdoor public pool. As soon as the river comes into view we Americans all gasp audibly. The river is really moving. “Holy shit!” Paul blurts out. We watch people whiz by. I see ‘exit’ signs, warning swimmers on how many meters they have left before they need to exit. I watch an old lady reach out to a railing and hoist herself out of the current, clearly a local that’s done this before.
The swiftness of the blue-green glacier-fed river is memorizing, and irresistible. Silas and Paul decide to take a short test run with Manu and his son Rio. They jump in, sail past us a few hundred feet, and then paddle hard to an exit canal. “AWESOME! It’s not that hard! C’mon, you gotta try it!!!” Ivan and I agree that this looks way too fun to pass up. Let’s do this!
With the exception of little Rosa, we all walk up river for a nice long swim. We find a lesser-threatening launch off point. We wade in a couple feet until we can feel the current wanting to take us off our feet, then jump in, paddling hard to get away from the rocky edge. And…we’re cruising! Fast!! Awesome is right! We glide under a bridge, steering clear of the pillars and potential jumpers. We bob along past spectators and other swimmers taking a break on the bank. We attempt to swim up-river against the current just to see how hard it really is (impossible). And before we know it the joyride is over. I see the final exit sign and get positioned next to Ivan, making sure he’s seeing it too. We approach the exit canal, paddle a few hard strokes through the current to get into it and then grab the first ladder, letting the current pull us sideways, giggling our heads off.
Confirmed. The locals really like know how to have a good time on a hot day!
Greetings from Switzerland! We are a six days into our two week stay here, having wild adventures with our wild Swiss-German friends. The most challenging part of this trip so far is not the jet-lag or the language barrier or the confusing train system, it’s deciding which wild adventure to do next. Shall we swim the river again with a current so swift that a bridge pillar could be deadly and an exit is required before you get chopped up by power plant turbines? Or venture out on a ridge traverse with a threatening snowstorm in the Pre-Alps? Or how about spending another night in a Swiss Alp backcountry hut, eating, sleeping and using the bathroom with 80 other people, all snug and cozy and stinky? Ah, so many decisions.
For years (as in like, 10+) we’ve been driving past the Tramway Boulders on our way to Yosemite, never once stopping. Every time we’ve sailed past Palm Springs, with pedal to the metal to get to Yosemite Valley as fast as humanly possible, either Paul or I would call out “there’s the mountain with The Tram! Tramway Boulders up there!” Every time. The kids might have glanced out their window once or twice at the massive mountain that our highway was snaking around, amidst the more-exciting windmills everywhere, but never once did they ask why we weren’t stopping. Cause duh. We were on our way to Yosemite! We’d check out those boulders some other day.
The Tramway boulders are legend, featured in one of first and possibly most cult-classic climbing videos ever made, Rampage. We always talked about going, chatting with San Diego locals about how amazing the lines were, and sometimes even rewatching the Tram segment of Rampage. Drooling. But we never went. Only 7ish hours away and we never went.
Problem is, they’re a bit logistically and economically challenging to get to. Access to the top of the San Jacinto Mountains where the boulders sit, perfectly placed amongst pines and meadows and blue bird sky, can only be done by either a strenuous 12 mile hike, or a pricy Tram ride. Most (all?) climbers use The Tram. Like Disney World. Purchase your tickets, stand in line, and wait for the “big ride.” Strike one. Next, there’s no convenient camping options. While there are what appear to be some decent forest service campgrounds on the other side of the mountain from The Tram, they’re on the OTHER side of the mountain!, an hour’s drive away, minimum. Strike two. Which means….climbers who can’t day-trip it from home need to stay in the swanky city of Palm Springs. Strike three.
Well, as I tend to say often here on apAdventures, one adventure always leads to another. Earlier this year we had an epic “adventure” where Silas had a gymnastics comp on a THURSDAY in the middle of ARIZONA STATE TESTING WEEK in
C A L I F O R N I A!!!! And this wasn’t just any old comp. This was Regionals. And of course Silas qualified. Of course. Neither Paul nor I had budgeted vacation time for this. And after a couple of stern emails to the Regionals Organizer that fell on deaf ears, Paul took one for the team and shuttled Silas out to the comp. Silas did well but (thankfully) didn’t qualify for Nationals. (I say thankfully because Nationals was scheduled smack on top of the weekend we had planned to do R2R2R for Ivan’s Birthday). [Side note totally unrelated to this post: For anyone eager to get their kids into boys gymnastics, beware of the last minute scheduling of the entire comp season! 😤]. Epic.
So where am I going with this? Well, Paul being Paul, obsessed with rocks and with a knack for turning one heck of a lemon into lemonade, he squeezes a trip up The Tram into this gymnastics-adventure-gone-sour. Just he and Silas with one tiny organic pad. No guidebook. No Kaya app. A quick rewatch of Rampage. Old school.
And this is why I love my Paul.
Back home during this adventure my phone is off the hook with pics of gorgeous granite boulders in an alpine setting. Paul and Silas call Ivan and I on the drive home and are nuts on the phone. It’s amazing! You’ll love it! They roll in super late that evening. Paul shows me more pics late into the night, we sip tequila, we drool.
No more drivebys. Open the pocketbook. Bougie Bouldering, here we come.
Ivan wishing he was “a little bit taller”, Hueco Shuffle, v1
Me sampling Swing Dance, v7. Fingers noticing the few months off for trail rage
