So I got into Interlaken two nights ago. This is alps country. The whole point of being here is to get your ass up into the mountains, hike around, and take fancy photos with pretty little meadows of yellow flowers with snow-capped white peaks in the background. In these particular digs, the main event is the three peaks at the end of the long valley which you can see from the town way down below. I had two days planned out. On one day I was going to hit the side of the valley with the big peaks, take some cog-wheeled trains and a couple lifts up the mountain, go for a 90 minute hike on the ridge on one side of the valley approaching the peaks, and from there, catch the train that takes you way up to the peaks of the mountains. They had actually cut a big, 5 km tunnel through the mountain so a train can take you way up into the peak of the mountain at around 1100 feet. It's a pretty slick operation. Particularly when you consider that the built all this crap in the 1800s. These Swiss sure are crafty. They have these special cog-wheel trains that have a 3rd track with teeth in it that a big gear on the train connects to in order to propel it up the mountain. They have to do this because a regular train would never have the traction to get up such a steep incline. In addition to these and array of cable cars and other lifts they also have scattered around, you can get pretty much anywhere on the mountains. Anyways, being able to get to the top of the mountain is really the main event here, so that was planned out for a day (it’s a full day thing, as it takes 2 ½ hours to get there going just one way with no stops for exploring or hiking). I was then going to spend another day exploring the mountains on other side of the valley where there's more great hiking, a bunch of picturesque little towns with tons of cows, some other peaks (albeit ones that aren't quite as high), and supposedly great views of the big boys on the other ridge. In addition, I was going to take a day trip to a nearby city a day while I was here. I'm in the alps three days, so I thought I could do the two days on the mountain, and could hit the city on whichever of the three days I want. That way if the weather was crappy I'd just hit the city on that day, and save the nice weather for the mountain activities.
Of course, this brilliant little plan falls apart if the weather sucks more than one of the three days I'm here. I got in in the afternoon two days ago, explored the lower part of the valley a little bit, and then planned out my time. And the forecast was: rainy on day 1, even more rainy on day 2, not quite so rainy on day 3. Shit. Now I had to roll the dice and see when I want to use my city day. So this morning when I looked out my window and saw the sun trying to peak out and checked the forecast for days 2 and 3 (still very rainy on day 2, still not so rainy day 3), and figured I still needed to save my flex day in the city for day 2 when I’m expecting the worst weather. So I quickly packed up my gear and caught a train up into the mountains. Well, in my case you actually have to catch a couple. I'm staying in Interlaken, which is the big city on the valley floor. (Big as in maybe 3000 permanent residents.) From there, you have to catch a regular train to a much smaller town up between the mountains. From there, you can then start catching your combination of cog wheel trains or lifts to whatever part of the area you're getting to, be it a hiking destination, the resort towns up the mountains, or one of the little alpine herder huts where the people rent out their beds on the side to supplement their income from making selling cheese and milk. So after 30 minutes on a regular train, another 30 on a cog-wheel train, and about 20 minutes on a lift, I'm on my hike. And unfortunately, the weather didn't hold out. As soon as I got to the start of the hike everything got clouded over, and it pretty much stayed that way until I had to leave for the day. The hike was nice, and I only got rained on a bit, but I was deprived of all the great views because everything was covered in mist. Every once in a while I'd see part of the mountains peak out from behind the clouds, but nothing that I could get a decent picture of (hence the complete lack of photos). It was the same deal after I touch the train through the mountain tunnel to actually get up to the peaks. On the southern side it was a little clearer, so I at least got a look at the big glacier there, but you couldn't see squat on the valley side. Major drag. Supposedly, on a clear day you can see all the way to the Vosge Forest in France and the Black in Germany. I stuck around at the top for about 4 hours just in case the weather would clear up eventually, but no dice. I finally had to start heading back down to Interlaken at around 4:00.
To add insult to injury, the sky cleared completely up while I was eating dinner at around 7:30 this evening. I'm actually sitting at the desk in my hotel room writing this right now, looking through my window at the big peaks 5 miles away, and they couldn't be clearer. The mountain is giving me a big middle finger.
We'll see how it goes, though. I was actually rained on the half day that I got here when I was exploring the lower valley, too, so this makes 3 of 4 days that I've been rained on or otherwise screwed over by the weather here on this trip. Not such a big deal in Zurich, but not being able to see anything above 5000 ft really takes away from the experience here. I figure the rain's got to pass at some point, so hopefully I can get a great weather day on Wednesday when I'm back up in the mountains again.
Of course, this brilliant little plan falls apart if the weather sucks more than one of the three days I'm here. I got in in the afternoon two days ago, explored the lower part of the valley a little bit, and then planned out my time. And the forecast was: rainy on day 1, even more rainy on day 2, not quite so rainy on day 3. Shit. Now I had to roll the dice and see when I want to use my city day. So this morning when I looked out my window and saw the sun trying to peak out and checked the forecast for days 2 and 3 (still very rainy on day 2, still not so rainy day 3), and figured I still needed to save my flex day in the city for day 2 when I’m expecting the worst weather. So I quickly packed up my gear and caught a train up into the mountains. Well, in my case you actually have to catch a couple. I'm staying in Interlaken, which is the big city on the valley floor. (Big as in maybe 3000 permanent residents.) From there, you have to catch a regular train to a much smaller town up between the mountains. From there, you can then start catching your combination of cog wheel trains or lifts to whatever part of the area you're getting to, be it a hiking destination, the resort towns up the mountains, or one of the little alpine herder huts where the people rent out their beds on the side to supplement their income from making selling cheese and milk. So after 30 minutes on a regular train, another 30 on a cog-wheel train, and about 20 minutes on a lift, I'm on my hike. And unfortunately, the weather didn't hold out. As soon as I got to the start of the hike everything got clouded over, and it pretty much stayed that way until I had to leave for the day. The hike was nice, and I only got rained on a bit, but I was deprived of all the great views because everything was covered in mist. Every once in a while I'd see part of the mountains peak out from behind the clouds, but nothing that I could get a decent picture of (hence the complete lack of photos). It was the same deal after I touch the train through the mountain tunnel to actually get up to the peaks. On the southern side it was a little clearer, so I at least got a look at the big glacier there, but you couldn't see squat on the valley side. Major drag. Supposedly, on a clear day you can see all the way to the Vosge Forest in France and the Black in Germany. I stuck around at the top for about 4 hours just in case the weather would clear up eventually, but no dice. I finally had to start heading back down to Interlaken at around 4:00.
To add insult to injury, the sky cleared completely up while I was eating dinner at around 7:30 this evening. I'm actually sitting at the desk in my hotel room writing this right now, looking through my window at the big peaks 5 miles away, and they couldn't be clearer. The mountain is giving me a big middle finger.
We'll see how it goes, though. I was actually rained on the half day that I got here when I was exploring the lower valley, too, so this makes 3 of 4 days that I've been rained on or otherwise screwed over by the weather here on this trip. Not such a big deal in Zurich, but not being able to see anything above 5000 ft really takes away from the experience here. I figure the rain's got to pass at some point, so hopefully I can get a great weather day on Wednesday when I'm back up in the mountains again.
