Hiking in the Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps bring to mind glorious mountains and alpine vistas. This summer my niece Rebecca and her parents visited Switzerland for hiking and other sightseeing in the Swiss mountains. They were part of a group trip organized by an acquaintance of her parents.
The group flew into Zurich, Switzerland, took a train to Ilanz, and traveled by bus to Puzzatsch where the first hike started. The village of Puzzatsch is seen at the left.
This hike was on July 25 but there was still snowpack and snowmelt.
A view along the trail a few hours into the hike.
They found free-ranging cows along the hike, mostly near the pass. These cows were occupying the trail. The cows were friendly, a little too much so as the cows would sometimes follow hikers for a bit.
This is a view from the pass back along the section of trail they already hiked.
They had lunch in the pass before hiking down into the valley, which was covered in wildflowers. This is a view back toward the pass.
They crossed several streams in the valley.
The red and white signs are used to mark a general hiking trail. More strenuous trails are denoted by other colors.
A view from the trail.
The mountains dwarfing Capanne Scaletta which is the distant hut at the lower left of the picture. The hut was the destination of this days hike.
Almost to the hut after about 12 hours of hiking. The group stayed in Capanne Scaletta overnight. Huts like this one are located throughout the Alps. Most huts are staffed and provide dinner, breakfast, a bed, blankets, water, and day food to buy. This allows hikers to carry much less then a backpacker typically does.
The next morning was bright and clear and the group hiked back to Puzzatsch.
For next hike fast forward to August 3. This time the group stayed at Interlaken and took the bus to Stechelberg to start the hike. This is a view towards Stechelberg.
There were beautiful wildflowers along the trail.
One objective of this hike was the see a glacier up close which is the snow behind the foreground rubble field. For scale if you look very closely there are 2 people at the bottom right of the picture.
Lake Oberhornsee with a bit of a mountain reflection.
Snowmelt river passing under a snow “bridge”
This days hike was about 16 hours round trip but views like these mountains, forest, river, and wildfowers had to make it worth the long hike.
Thanks to Rebecca for sharing her pictures. They were in Switzerland for 15 days so maybe sometime in the future we can have Rebecca share a few more pictures.
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