2011-05-30

Pilatus Hike: Esel, Oberhaupt, Tomlishorn

Same procedure as yesterday. Get up late, plan to stay home. Play with google earth checking the surrounding mountains. Find an interesting one close by. Decide to hike it. Start planning the hike. Get psyched about it. Decide what the fuck - I can start it today, the weather is nice. Arrive at trailhead 13:00. Beat the suggested time to the summit by more than an hour all the while taking detours of the trodden path to avoid the hordes coming down from the cable car. I was actually faster than a mountain biker going uphill on the same route ;-) Once on the summit I see a beautiful trail carved in the mountainside following the ridge. It's six o clock. Still some 3 hours of sunlight left. Go for it. No map, no real destination (thanks to the outstanding Swiss rail system you can pretty much come down the mountain wherever you like and board a train home), no idea how long it'll take. Not a smart move. I actually started running along the ridge because a path down wouldn't present itself - impassable steep cliffs to either side. No soul in sight (figures I guess). But anyway, it turned out ok. Perfect actually. I don't think the world can get much better than this.

~8.5 hours, 27 km, 1875 m elevation gain/loss

I did have to use my secret weapon and drink some coke on the way down. I didn't have any food during the day except for some cookies and coca cola is a sure way of bringing out the energizer bunny ;-)

Photos here.






2011-05-29

Mount Rigi Hike

I intended to chill the day at home and do some paperwork. Around 2 pm I decided the weather was too nice to waste and went for a hike. Because I started late I had to go fast. The result: Mount Rigi from Küssnacht to Arth-Goldau, 26.5 km, 1500 m elevation gain and loss, 6.5 hours. Perfect weather. Beautiful views. Nice mountain.

This time I'm trying some fancy new stuff for sharing the photos, so let me know what you think.


Photos here.




I installed a nice app on my phone that tracks how many sit-ups and push-ups you can do and gives you a training regime. I'm currently at 70 sit-ups and 42 push-ups. The goal is to get back to 2004 bike tour fitness levels where I could cycle 200km through Norway's mountains and end the day jumping on a trampoline. Or at least fight the infamous "Google 7", a rule that states every Noogler gains 7 pounds after starting employment with Google. Imagine yourself being surrounded with free ice-cream, chocolate bars and hot meals while sitting at your desk all day...

2011-05-21

Saturday Hike (Grosser Mythen)

Anita and me. 4.5hours, 800m elevation gain and loss, 10km. Just as we made it to the bus a short rain shower and thunder storm hit - perfect timing this time ;-) Perfect weather, beautiful 360° views, well maintained, spectacular trail. We ran out of water at the top and I needed to buy a bottle of apple juice for 18CHF - ouch. Then again, as far as I understand it they carry the stuff up there by hand, so that's probably fair.






Vintage plane circling the mountain:



The road Jan and me took last time when we were fleeing from the rain:






Vierwaldstättersee:

Angry Bird (tm):

Kleiner Mythen:

Summit:

Ultralight plane:

Backpack with human load:


2011-05-20

Friday Hike

Anita, Jan, Christian, Sören. Uetli Mountain. 2.5hours. 10km. 500m elevation gain and loss.









2011-05-15

Saturday Hike

This time Jan came along. We took the train to Einsiedeln and hiked along the "Schwyzer Höhenweg" to Schwyz following a long ridge. We walked for 32km, 1300hm up and 1700hm down. Tracked with a present I got from google, a brand sparkling new Nexus S. We walked from 10:00 to around 18:20 with two breaks. We spent the last couple of hours in a pouring rain and thunderstorm so we took to roads instead of following the torrential creek that used to be our trail. All in all it was a nice trip.

The Rathaus in Einsiedeln: Einsiedeln monastery: Some statue in front of the monastery: Jan jogging uphill backwards: Einsiedeln monastery and lumbermill: Siehlsee and alps: Rearview mirror: Jan playing with GPS: "Grosser Mythen" and "Kleiner Mythen": Waymarkers: Amselspitz: The ridge ahead: Allah Agba
Allah Groß
Allah Mächtig
Krasse Weg
Kongrete Blick
ALDER
Gruß
ABDUL
Dead trees: Another cross: Meadows and flowers: Steep cliff: First real rain: Hobbit trail: Clouds moving in: Grosser Mythen: Lizard: "View" from a summit: Deep in clouds: Almost there: Seeking shelter: Raingear: More raingear: Misty forest: Pouring: Warming at the trainstation: Jan sat here ;-)