|
When I toured Europe with Jade we
made a quick stop in a little town in the Swiss Alps called Gimmelwald. It
was cloudy and rainy and we were there less than 24 hours, but I knew I
had to come back to take a better advantage of this awesome place. At the
end of May 2003 Heather and I and two friends she met in Rennes, Kim and
Victoria went to the other end of the region to Gimmelwald where we hiked
around such famous high peaks as the Eiger and the Jungfrau. We then hiked
a long ways over a mountain and then took a train the rest of the way back
to Gimmelwald where we spent another two nights. Here are some of the best
of the 200 pictures I took.
Day 1. Hiking part way up the
Grindelwald glacier towards Stieregg.
The alpine flowers were in full bloom
This is the valley we hiked up. A massive chunk of that glacier at the end
of the valley slipped off when it began to rain. It was like the whole
mountain was falling down. We were supposed to hike all the way to the
glacier, but the weather became too unagreeable. (and we forgot our
rainjackets too)
The weather improved dramatically by the time we returned to our hostel.
Fortunately our hostel had a clear view of the Eiger.
Day 2. Grosse Scheidegg-- up some
wierd mountain to First to Gimmelwald
Self portrait of Heather and I waiting for the bus to take us to our
starting point.
I'm an alpine hiker. I just forgot my alphorn and my yodel lyrics.
We scrambled up this peak and we weren't really sure how we would get
down.
The pictures don't really convey the magnitude of these mountains. Check
out the glacier perched on that cliff.
Moo. When you hear bells there are cows nearby.
Day 3. Grindelwald to Klein
Scheidegg to Wengen (with large and heavy packs)
Since we were hiking to a new
location we had to take our heavy backpacks with us. We hiked over a 1000m
mountain to the next valley. It kicked our butts.
The Eiger and a cheese hut. (on stilts to keep out the mice. Mice like
cheese)
The famous north face of the Eiger. It is supposedly really hard to climb.
I wouldn't know, all I have ever tried to climb are boulders which are
about 1/2000th as high.
Once we crossed the peak of our little mountain some clouds crashed into
the Eiger
That is the town of Muerren perched on that cliff. Gimmelwald is around
the corner on the left.
Our view from our short train ride down into the valley. The waterfalls
next to the town of Lauterbrunnen.
Day 4. Gimmelwald to Chilchbalm
Here is me, with 'mountain man' hair do by some roaring glacier water
It was too hot to eat in the sun so instead we ate in a cave. You can see
us really little there. Luckily all the bats were sleeping while we ate.
We hiked up a valley near Gimmelwald. Here is the view back from where we
started. You can just barely see Gimmelwald in the lower left corner.
One of the many waterfalls we saw.
The biggest waterfall that we inspected. Notice the water seeping out of
the mountain on the right.
The weather was hot so I decided an alpine glacier water shower was in
order
The powerful fall nearly took my head (and my underwear) off. It was worth
it though Day 5. Trümmelbach
Fälle The Trümmelbach
waterfalls are glacier runoff from the Eiger and Mönch inside of a
mountain. An elevator takes you up and then you can walk around inside of
the mountain with awesome views of different parts of the falls.
The waterfalls made me say 'whoa!' Notice the White Stripes T-shirt.
Some water falling
The water carved that
This was my favorite waterfall because the water bounced back up.
Waterfalls are cool.
And a final self portrait. Lots of hiking in the Alps makes Erik and
Heather dirty and unkempt. |
