The unplanned hike

If you read my post from the 26th of October, you may remember that I managed to pick a slightly difficult hike. Gratefully, this Saturday's hike was not as strenuous nor was it even planned.

We expected to be picking up our car in Bern on Saturday and did not find out until Friday late afternoon that it wouldn't be in Bern for us to pick up and so we would have the entire day to hike. We had gotten our first snow fall Thursday, which is very early for this area. It was a very wet snow and most of it had melted in our area by Saturday, but there were still areas of snow on the hills surrounding us. We decided to head out toward Amden area, where we have frequently hiked and just find a different loop than those we had previously done. Bob put in our newly purchased snowshoes (which we had found on sale last weekend for 49 Swiss Francs) and we also took our newly purchased waterproof boots (necessary to use with newly purchased snowshoes!)

There are two main ways to Amden from our place. We can either head toward Uster, and go through a number of small towns on the way or go on the other side of the lake, probably a bit longer, but mostly freeway. Bob decided that's the way he wanted to drive this week and so we headed out. However, we must have both been still somewhat asleep, because we didn't take the road toward Amden, but instead found we were headed toward Luzern direction. We considered hiking in the Rigi area, but as there were low clouds, decided to drive up to Engelberg, hoping that we would drive above the clouds and be able to hike from there. And if we were still in the clouds, at least we wouldn't have paid the price to ride the cograil up the mountain.

As we drove into the valley toward Engelberg, it appeared that the sun was breaking through the clouds, and as we drove up the mountain, that is what happened. By the time we reached the village of Engelberg we were above the low cloud layer and saw mountain peaks in this area that we had not seen on our previous three visits to this area. We parked near the Fürenalp cable car, which is not operating this time of year. But the summer hiking trail map indicated a nice hike up the valley toward the mountain pass and so we set out.

Good thing we had purchased and worn those waterproof boots. The trail sometimes doubled as a creek, other times it was slush, some times it was muddy, and other times we were knee deep in snow.

I wish the pictures could do justice to the area. The barren rocks glistening with spray from waterfalls, sparcely covered with snow, some areas with glaciers was spectatular. We were amazed at the number of waterfalls that we were seeing. At one point Bob was pointing out an upcoming waterfall when it stopped.

Now, waterfalls just don't stop running, at least not from large flow to no water as though a water spiget has been turned off. That's when we realized that it wasn't a waterfalls at all, it had been a small avalanche! We continued our hike up above the top of a waterfall, where we sat on our picnic tarp with our backs up against a rock, sheltered from the wind. That's when we heard a loud rumbling noise, and soon saw the start of a small avalanche to the right of us. After the second one, we decided to finish the rest of our lunch down at a lower elevation. ;-)

On the way home, we did stop by a cowbell store that we had first seen when visiting this area with the Barretts. Unfortunately, it was closed, but I'm sure we'll be back in the area and plan on stopping then. We will probably wait until summer to hike in this valley, or maybe do one of the winter wanderwegs that take place along the mountain plateau above where we hiked. Either way we'll probably check the avalanche report ahead of time. This is becoming one of my favorite things about Switzerland, however. No, not avalanches, but the fact that you can just drive somewhere, check a large hiking map that is located on the side of a cable car station and set out. Even without a map. Or a plan. Just another great Saturday.