Blüemlisalp

This week we made a return to Berner Oberland. We drove to Kandersteg and began from there. The first hour of our trek we passed about thirty members of Troop 101, as we called them. This was a disjointed group of kids, maybe 14 years old or so, evidently on a camping/hiking excursion. About an hour into our trek we reached the Oeschinensee. There was a restaurant/hotel there and this was, thankfully, also the final destination for the Troop. We continued along the path to get away from the crowd of kids, many of whom already had reached the lake. We walked on the north side of the lake from west to east and took in the magnificent view. The lake was fed by numerous waterfalls and had a stunning shear cliff making up its east bank.



After we climbed out of the valley we found that we were in another, but we could no longer see the lake. Here we could more clearly see one of the sources of the lake: the Blüemlisalp Glacier. The glacier had some loud waterfalls coming from its melting edges. A few spots were a wonderful blue color, but most was a dirty color because it is the middle of summer.



After a few more hours we reached the pass. We climbed a little farther and stopped to rest at the Blüemlisalphütte. Fortunately, we filled up our water at that restaurant because there was no potable water here (then we questioned the potabitality of the water at the restaurant too). We felt a little out of place at the hut. Let me explain. First, the high temperature for Kandersteg was supposed to be 23° C. The temperature drops about 1 degree per 100 meters of elevation change. The hut was 1600 meters above Kandersteg, making it about 7° C (~45° F) max. We (well, thanks to our fearless leader, me) foolishly did not bring any long sleeves or jackets and our hands were a little numb when we reached our goal. Everyone at the hut was wearing their waterproof, windproof hiking gear. We had hiked in cotton t-shirts and shorts. Second, we have noticed that if you hike, you have to wear 3 pound hiking boots, otherwise you can't walk over rocks. Bryan and I both feel much more comfortable and stable in our running shoes. But we did see a pair of tennis shoes on the rack where we got our indoor, hut footwear! They must have been packed along by one of those staying at the hut for the evening. We got a bowl of hot soup and a chocolate bar and warmed up slightly before our descent back to Kandersteg.

About 15 or 20 minutes from the hut, we were already down far enough to be warm again. To that point we had passed a number of other descenders. It was probably because they were bogged down in their hiking boots. (In fact, on the whole day, other than our rest breaks, only at the end when we were marveling at some cool tree carvings did we get passed by someone.)

This hike this week was a particularly big one. If you are familiar with the metric system you may have caught I mentioned the magnitude of our ascent: 1600 meters (if not the number didn't mean anything to you). Actually, it was 1660 meters. For those of you who aren't familiar, 1600 meters is 1 mile. If you're from South Dakota or Wisconsin on the Great Plains, every square foot of the plains is exactly 1100 feet. Well, Sioux Falls is about 1400 feet and Madison 900 feet. Denver, the Mile High City, is 5280 feet. The elevation change of our hike was more than the difference between the plains and the base of the Rockies. Because of this, I was a little surprised by the people that we saw in the hut, those who looked down at us foolish kids for wearing tennis shoes and t-shirts. There were a few people of retirement age. A number of others were, well, maybe I should just say that there weren't too many people in their 20s as I would have expected after such a climb. I guess that means we're not so special.



Today we have been paying the price for the hike because we have been hobbling around. But the trip was worth it because we feel a little sense of accomplishment after such a big hike. A better reason that it was worth it was because the lake and glacier were brilliant. Again, it's so hard to describe and it's even better than the pictures can show.