Living the "Grand Life" at Grand Hotel & Kurhaus in Arolla

After two rigorous hiking days, we feel like we stepped into another world at the historic Grand Hotel & Kurhaus. Seriously, if you are looking for the quintessential Swiss mountaineering lodge, this is it! Dogs are even allowed to stay for free - when I was sitting in the beautiful library this morning, this older hiker was leaving with his correctly-sized backpack :-), a walking stick, and his St. Bernard dog.

 

The hotel is surrounded by beautiful mountains and just happened to be the very first building we encountered on our long down the mountain yesterday. Oh, sweet relief!

 

We've spent a very relaxing day enjoying another day of spectacular weather, packing up as much stuff that we've now deemed "unnecessary" from our packs (we plan to mail our boxes tomorrow before we hike to La Sage), and waiting for Tom and Chanda to arrive.

Tom and Chanda arrived by bus at about 2:30 pm. We enjoyed updating them on our new learning on pack weight and now they are busy packing some things in a box, too.

 

All in all, we've had a wonderful day - refreshed from our "grand living," we're ready to hit the trails again tomorrow.

 

 

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We're Not Hiking - We're Mountain Climbing!

When the alarm rang at 6 am at the 2nd mountain hut, we were moving slowly, but after the previous day's experience, knew we had to get going!

To add to our uncertainty, a light snow was falling. So we dug out our warmer clothes and conferred with the other hikers. You could tell everyone was a little anxious about setting out under the conditions - but we didn't really have choice.

So we after a quick breakfast, we got ourselves outside ready to go.

 

 

 

 

I think these two pictures give you an idea about the first part of our hike this day - in addition, now that I understood the term col, I heard from Captain Kevin that we had two cols to go over today. The second col was higher than any of the previous 3 we had done the day before. In my mind, I was already beginning to think about modifying the remainder of the trip!

Once we got up through the first col, the snow stopped and we had a beautiful view of a long lake below that we would hike by. We were particularly thrilled by the fact that this portion of the hike would be low and flat.

We made good time hiking by the lake and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Our uncertainty from the initial start was replaced by a foolish optimism that we might actually make it to our next stop, Arolla, in time to shower, have dinner at a reasonable time, and enjoy some evening before going to bed.

However, after a nice lunch stop at the end of the lake next to a mountain waterfall, we began the climb of the next col.

After about an hour's steep climb we has once again asked Captain Kevin for short rest stop, Kevin went up to look over the next rise. He came back quickly very distressed and he and Greg conferred with the guidebook. He thought that we had taken the wrong trail and were now heading to another mountain hut instead of the trail to Arolla.

Kris and I sat put while Greg and Kevin went back down the mountain we had just climbed up to see if they could determine the place where the trail broke off to Arolla. Eventually, Greg found the place where we should have turned and signaled up the moutain that we should proceed down. This mistake probably cost us at least 1.5 hours plus the additional wear and tear on our bodies.

 

 

This is what we traveled back down to - a suspension bidge (luckily, not a swinging bridge!) high above a rushing river. Once we crossed, the fun began as we spent the rest of the day hiking over either large boulder fields or scree fields. At one point as I was struggling up a mountain of loose rock I asked Greg what angle he thought we were hiking. He thought we we going up at a 45 degree angle - basically that means your face is practically in the mountain as you try to figure out your next step.

 

 

This was a brief section high above the lake that was between rock fields - here once again, the trail direction wasn't entirely clear and we definitely didn't want to make any additional mistakes that would cost us more precious time.

 

By this point, we are still a long way from the col - Kevin is shuttling Kris' pack for awhile and Greg has taken even more items from my pack in effort to see if I could travel any faster. Just look at how Geg is weighted down now!

 

Here is Kris, picking her way through the boulders - note the lake now far below us.

Late in the afternon, we conferred with the guidebook again as we had two choice for the final ascent of the col - the first was descibed as "an unrelenting climb up through loose scree" and the second was to take a series of ladders up a sheer cliff. As frightening as the ladders seemed, at this point, the term "unrelenting climb through scree" seemed worse. We chose the ladders.

Our amazing Kevin and Greg told us to drop our packs - they went ahead to get their packs to the top and then came back for ours. To make our way to the ladders, you stop using your poles and basically just hold on for dear life to a chain that is attached to the mountain.

 

Here is Kevin climbing back down one of the 4 ladders to come back down to get Kris' pack. And here are the photos of "our heros" coming up with our packs after Kris and I were safely at the top.

 

 

 

Note Kris' excitement at being at the top of the col! For reference for all you mountaineers, Greg estimated the elevation at the top of the 2nd col was just under 10,000 feet. After a brief treat of Swiss chocolate as a reward for our accomplishemt, we began the long descent to Arolla. By this time, we knew we wouldn't make it there until about 7:30 pm - and we all had various places on our bodies that hurt.

This is the point in the hike you have to dig deep inside and find the will to keep taking step after step until you finally reach your destination.

After a 12 hour hike day, we finally reached Arolla and our hotel. We are so thankful we have a planned rest day (more accurately called a recovery day). Tom and Chanda are joining us in Arolla for the 2nd half of the hike. They are excited and enthusiastic, and we are tired and sobered. We are hoping that with some rest, and possible trip stages revision, that we will all be ready to hit the trail again on Sept. 3rd!

 

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Repacking Our Packs

This spring I happened to re-read Richard Leider's excellent book, Repacking Your Bags - Lighten Your Load. The metaphor the book explores is how at certain times, it is good to "unpack our backpacks" with everything we're carrying, examine the contents, and then "repack" just what is needed for the next life stage. Otherwise, over our lives, we just keep adding "more stuff" to our backpacks and that get heavier and heavier and weighing us down.

Well, we've been talking a lot about our backpacks on this trip - our backpacks with much too much heavy stuff! In planning for this trip, we worked off several recommended packing lists for hikers taking the Walker's Haute Route and we thought we were packing light . . . . however, we've realized that even though each individual item might be light, we still have too much stuff in our backpacks!

On our challenging trip up to the 2nd mountain hut, there was a group of older German hikers (we're guessing in their 70s plus) who just blew by us on the boulder field. Clearly, in addition to probably having spent their whole lives hiking similar mountains, they had much lighter packs. So we've been talking to all our fellow hikers about what they brought and the size and weight of their backpacks.

On one extreme is a young Australian couple (they are both physicians) who are trail runners. Their packs are 20 litres - they are even sharing a toothbrush with the end cut off in an effort to keep their packs light.

More typical is Brian, an American who lives in Switerland. His pack is about 36 litres.

 

Now contrast those two examples with Greg's pack which is closer to 75 litres.

 

Need I say more? We have decided that we really do like hiking and we need to learn to "repack our bags" to lighten our loads!

 

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Our Walk Above the Clouds

We woke up after our wonderful stay a Cabane du Mont Fort refreshed from some rest, good food, and fellowship with fellow hikers ready to tackle what we knew would be a challenging day. We were hoping to see a better view than we had the previous day, but the mountains were still mostly socked in by clouds when we left.

 

As we began our ascent, however, we began to get some beautiful views of the mountsin tops with occasional glimpses of the valley below.

 

 

We really enjoyed this part of the hike (probably until about 9 am) - soon, however, the trail would become a lot more punishing and we weren't spending as much time looking at the views or taking photos - we had to concentrate on each place we took our next step.

Okay, so I've learned a little more about mountaineering terminology during this trip. The term "col" refers to the "saddle" or pass between two moutains. In layman's terms, that means you have to do a really steep ascent to the "top of the col" and then an equally steep descent down the otherside. The fact that this day's hike had 3 cols initally meant nothing to this inexperienced hiker - believe me, after completing the first col,I was suddenly sobered on what was ahead. And this time, there was no cable car option!

In my naivity, I envisioned crossing these mountain passes on trails like you see at the end of the movie The Sound of Music - trails like we has taken up to this point, only higher. WRONG! No, what we found was huge boulder fields you had to pick your way up, down, or across while balancing a heavy pack or steep sides of scree - broken rock that you are cross all the while trying to find each next step of sure footing. Oh, let's just throw in crossing some mountain steams, too, all while balancing your pack on slippery rocks!

 

 

Here is where "Captain Kevin" played a huge role. He (and Greg, too) understood much more clearly the challenge ahead of us and he kept pushing us to keep moving. We'd beg, "we have to stop just for a few minutes" - it seemed like I had just taken my pack off and had a handful of gorp, and then our Captain would say, "it's time to get moving again." At certain points of this day, Kevin would go up ahead drop his pack and then come back take ours while Kris and I struggled up the steep rocks. Greg ended up taking stuff out of my pack just to lighten my load. I, in particular found the huge bolders daunting - I was so intent on trying to find a safe place to step, and then trying to lift my body and heavy pack up or down that I definitely slowed our group down.

After crossing 3 cols during this hike, our final "punishment" after a long descent was to finally see the next mountain hut where we would stay - up a steep ascent! Note in photo Greg gearing up for one last climb and the hut up the steep ascent on the left just under the peaks.

When we finally dragged our bodies into the hut after 11 hours of hiking, all our fellow hikers ( who had arrived earlier than us) were relieved to see us. We ate some dinner and then went straight to bed.

 

 

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Our Best Decision of the Day

This morning we woke up and the entire mountain was socked in with clouds. Our hike today was going to entail a little more than a mile (5300 feet) of elevation gain. We all had some sore muscles still after our initial 3 days of hiking - in addition, we knew that, after today, we would have no choice in hiking two very challenging hikes (in distance and elevation gain/loss). So after much discussion, we decided to take the cable car part way up the mountain. Our rationale was we could rest our muscles some and that we wouldn't be able to see much of the view anyway due to the low clouds.

We took the the cable car up about 2/3 of the mountain and then started our hike to our first mountain hut, Cabane du Mont Fort. When we got off the cable car, it was still really cloudy but we could see the path.

Luckily, the climb was fairly moderate for most of our hike - the only steep part was the ascent to the actual hut. Along the way, we once again saw lots of cows with cow bells ringing. We had fun taking a little video of the cows to capture the sound.

 

Once we arrived at the beautiful mountain hut and got settled in our room at the hut at around 12:30 pm, we decided that we had made the "best decison ever!" We had the chance to eat lunch, relax, take a short nap, visit with other people from Australia, England, Germany, etc. as well as enjoy the periodic times when the cloud cover disapated briefly revealing stunning views. During those brief moments when the sun poked through, it was warm enough to be out on the patio.

 

 

When the clouds parted, we enhjoyed the views; when the clouds came back, we moved back inside and enjoyed the warmth of the lodge along with the company of people from all over the world.

 

Consulting the map with some new friends, Diana and Andy - we will see them at the next hut tomorrow, too, ae well as in Arolla.

 

Knowing that tomorrow, we will be leaving early and hiking 14 km (about 9 miles with huge ascents and descents) to the next mountain hut, we decided we made "the best decision ever" to take the cable car part way up the mountain!

 

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