23 August 2015

We are on our way to Switzerland.

This will be our third trip to this small but spectacular country. We will be joining about a dozen other travelers from Flagstaff on a trip arranged by Cuylor and Tom Boughner and will be staying at “Our Chalet” in Adelboden for eight days. Adelboden is in Bern Canton and lies in the Bernese Oberland. Mountains surround the town and there are hiking trails, ski areas, funiculars, and gondolas in all directions. And cows.

The second half of our trip will involve traveling on our own to Pontresina in Graubünden Canton in the southeast part of the country.

This trip will be different from our previous visits (2002, 2004) in one important way: we are not planning on any alpine mountaineering so we are not carrying any heavy gear. No climbing helmets, ice axes, crampons, ropes, etc., means more room for extra clothing. We’ve always been light on clothing so this will be a welcome change.

We are flying PHX-ATL-ZRH as we have done before and it feels familiar.

Continue reading →

We recently returned from a trip to Switzerland where we did a lot of hiking in the central and eastern Alps. I plan to post a longer writeup of the trip with a full set of images but thought I would start with this one.

This was taken at Lej Muragl after stormy weather on the previous day had brought rain and snow to the area. The panorama is a compilation of about a dozen images and covers about 270° from the northwest on the left edge though east in the center where the low pass is located to the southwest on the right edge.

We encountered only two other hikers on the walk to the lake. The experience of walking though an early season snowfall (well, maybe not so early for this area) without crowds was truly wonderful.

More to come!