Grindelwald: Another day, Another Hike

If someone could just pay me to be a full-time hiker and wander around in the mountains, the deep valleys and the lush forests all day, I would be in heaven, literally.  I wonder if I would ever get bored or tired of a job like that.

Will I wake up in the morning and say, “Oh damn, I have to go to work again and climb these annoying mountains and look at this beautiful scenery yet again” and “My life is so hard. I wish I had a desk job.”  

Will I wait for Fridays to arrive the way I did before? I am guessing NOT.  

Hiking presents a different challenge, a different scenery and a different set of conditions every time. If it is not the drenching humidity, it is the bone chilling cold. If it is not the ankle twisting rocky terrain, it is the breath sucking, quad busting steep climb.  Inspite of all the challenges and, twists and turns along the way, you want to push yourself to get to the top of the mountain or at the end of the trail. YOU don’t want to give up even when your body starts to give up.

You push for the reward that awaits you at the end for all your sweat, tears and blisters. It could be a beautiful view from the top of a mountain,  or it could be the most amazing waterfall you’ve ever witnessed or it could even be a simple picnic bench where you can sit and forget about all your pain and the last 6 hrs of hiking.

A job like this could not be less than wonderful. It invigorates you even when you are most tired at the end of the day.

My new work cubicle

I realized I wasn’t tired or sick of hiking. We did long hikes 3 out of the 4 days we were in Lauterbrunnen, the last one being 19 miles/30 kms long. On the 5th day, we reached Grindelwald (another popular skiing and hiking town) in the late afternoon. It was another beautiful day and there was a moment when we both passed out on the chairs outside the hostel while taking in all the sun and the beauty around us.  When we looked up at the mountains around us, we realized we didn’t want to miss doing a hike on our last day in Switzerland. It would be sacrilege!

And we were off to work again.

Town of Grindelwald

                                                         Trail: Grindelwald (3392ft)  to Pfingstagg (4563ft)

Start of our hike

Are we there yet?

Nope, not yet.

Grindelwald far below us

End of the hike..or is it?

Along this trail, we saw a glacier on the other side. Although, we were at the end of our hike, we decided to get closer to the glacier.  On the map, there is actually a restaurant that you can hike to with amazing views of the glacier. Since, the sun was about to set, we decided to just walk around the cliff to get a better view.

and then we decided to go the other direction

The culprit – this glacier. We wanted to get ‘close’ to it

We kept walking and walking but the more we walked the further away we felt we got from the glacier.  For 45 minutes, we kept telling ourselves…another 10 mins and then, we’ll turn around. Ha. Sounded good until we hit this…

Of course, Dan challenged me to run under the cold waterfall. So I did.

Did I mention that the sun was about to set?

cold shower anyone?

Just glacial water. I am totally NOT cold.

watching the sunset behind us

And then, we got to the 2nd waterfall on the trail where we had to take a minute to decide if were BOTH up for it. The water was fast and the rocks were slippery. If you happen to slip, there is nothing to grab, just 5-10 seconds to contemplate your life before you hit the ground 2000 ft below.  Dan volunteered to go first since he had the bigger insurance policy 🙂

Obstacle #2: Hmmm..to cross or not to cross?

Return trip — mouth of madness again

“Dan, if I slip, make sure you get a video!”

All hurdles crossed! Yupee! Now time to watch the sunset in my wet clothes

Enlightened? Perhaps.

Running down to beat the SUN!

Bye bye!

Last rays

Hmph. I guess I can do this boring job everyday 🙂