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Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / Hiking in the Alps / On The Road – BigJimSlade – Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte – Faulhorn

On The Road – BigJimSlade – Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte – Faulhorn

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BigJimSlade

Leaving Bachalpsee, we headed to Faulhorn for lunch. This is the literal high point of the hike, and it has a small hotel/restaurant, basically like the huts we’ve enjoyed lunching at in the Dolomites.
I would be up until the wee hours reading (Pratchett’s Going Postal – fun stuff!), and then getting 5-6 hrs of sleep before getting up at maybe 8:30am. I had jet lag such that each day I felt like merde du chien (dog poop) each day until about 1pm.But I hadn’t recognized the pattern yet, so after draggin’ my butt for hours from First to Bachalpsee to Faulhorn, all uphill, the lunch up in the increasingly socked-in hut was what the doctor ordered. Rosti, sausage, and bread, with a side of soup was delicious and satisfying. When we carried on with the hike, I felt completely restored and credited the lunch. The next day I pretty much realized that this was the way each day was going – I was only becoming humanoid after lunch. I didn’t get any great pictures of the hut, so here’s a link (but don’t let the clear skies in the pictures fool you – when we were there, a cloud came in and swallowed the joint).
On The Road - BigJimSlade - Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte - Faulhorn 8

I couldn’t help a selfie here, leaving Bachalpsee, with a window to Wetterhorn. Embiggen

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte - Faulhorn 7

After quite a bit of climbing, we get to a pass where we can see where we’re headed. It was also a popular launching point for paragliders. Embiggen

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte - Faulhorn 6

From the top of Faulhorn, just about the hotel/restaurant/hut (whatever you want to call it), which is out of sight to the left.  In the background you can catch a glimpse of Thunersee, the lake to the west of Interlaken. Embiggen

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte - Faulhorn 5

Looking off to the right, we see a small lake, and further down, a portion of Brienzersee – the lake to the east of Interlaken. Embiggen

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte - Faulhorn 4

We had taken a dirt road up to the top of Faulhorn, but took the single track down, which was on quite a steep hillside, and at times it looked like it lead nowhere, or into the sky. Embiggen

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte - Faulhorn 3

Looking back at Faulhorn. Embiggen

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte - Faulhorn 2

Paragliders turned up at the oddest times, like just as Faulhorn was getting socked in again. I think they must be the Swiss national bird. Embiggen

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte - Faulhorn 1

another tiny patch of turf and flowers – Embiggen

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Hiking in the Alps, Chamonix and Grindelwald 2022, First to Schynige Platte - Faulhorn

…and we continue on… Embiggen

Reader Interactions

16Comments

  3. 3.

    oldster

    Oh, that little triangle over your shoulder above the lake? Looks like a pretty small knob of rock — you probably scampered right up that one later that day, right?

  4. 4.

    Barbara

    @AlaskaReader: ​Don’t know about Chamonix, but there are alpine peaks you can visit via gondola and just hike the trails along the ridge if so inclined. No helicopter required!

  7. 7.

    frosty

    Beautiful! This is a great hike, your pictures are bringing back memories. I don’t remember a restaurant at the Faulhorn in 1977, but maybe we were too cheap to give it a try. We packed our own food with us. Veggies, sausage, and cheese; no cooking needed.

    We went the other direction and the downhill to Grindelwald was the toughest part. It just killed the quadriceps.

  12. 12.

    StringOnAStick

    Thanks for including direction references in a few photos, it let me visualise exactly where you were and remind me of our hikes in the same area.  The Alps and the huts are an amazing experience!

  13. 13.

    BigJimSlade

    @oldster: If there’s a safe trail to the top of that, I would be interested! But we don’t do the crazy stuff, just the kinda hard stuff. We’re not too comfortable with “exposure” (that’s when you have a big drop off to one side, you know, like a cliff).

  14. 14.

    BigJimSlade

    @Barbara: To go to the top of Aiguille du Midi you take 2 gondolas. But instead of taking the lower gondola, you can hike along the Balcon du Nord to Montenvers, where you can catch a cog rail back to Chamonix. This is what we did, except that we got there too late for the last train and had to walk to 2hrs back down into town. From Montenvers you can also visit the (retreating) glacier, which we skipped (again, it was late in the day).

  15. 15.

    BigJimSlade

    @frosty: Glad to help bring back some memories :-)

    And, yeah, we try to avoid the bigger ascents/descents. Though our first hike of the trip, going along the Balcon du Nord above Chamonix, we were too late to catch the last train down (as I just mentioned above), and had to hike maybe 2,600 feet down. But that’s an issue with these alpine valleys! If you don’t want to pony up for gondolas or cog trains, you got big climbs (sometimes you can catch a bus to a pass and start pretty high)!  Notably, for our first trip to the Dolomites in Italy, we stayed in Cortina and managed to not need any gondolas! That trip was covered in a single post (back then I didn’t realize we could put together a whole bunch of posts!)

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