Hiking Mt. Rigi

I made a list last month. But then again, I make a lot of lists. Daily, weekly, monthly to do lists; grocery lists; lists of goals, baking lists, wish lists. Lists of things I want, quotes from people (famous and not), character ideas, random queries. You get the idea.

But this list was about getting up and doing things - and it has succeeded in making me do just that. It's easy to get in a rut when you live somewhere - when I lived in Boston (10+ years), I managed to get to the MFA (which was right down the street) only 2 times, never made it to the Harbor Islands, and rarely ventured to any of the lovely little towns outside the city limits.

As the days speed by here in Switzerland, I was starting to despair that I would find myself in the same predicament, never venturing further than the grocery store and the well-worn sidewalks of Bahnhofstrasse. Hence, the list.

The list is supposed to take place over the course of almost 3 years, and I have no idea how many goals I'll reach. What I do know is that I have used it as the push I needed to get out and explore. I've been down streets in Niederdorf I'd never seen, I've tried  three new coffee shops (guys, one of them has red velvet everywhere - the seats, the walls, the decor - even the ceiling. It's like walking into what I imagine is a 1920s speakeasy - I'll cover it in another post).

Number 5 on my list is "Hike a Swiss Alp." I figured this would be a distant goal, once I had obtained chiseled arms and sculpted calves - I was fairly confident such things were required for scaling a mountain.

So, when a friend offered to take me into canton Schwyz (her home) with her stepfather for an afternoon of driving around rural Switzerland, I jumped at the chance. I figured we'd drive around, ooh and ahh over the cows and scenery, then I'd return to Zurich and tell B how nice it was.

The night before I got a message from her asking if I had hiking shoes. I hesitated, then texted back, "I have some hiking boots (?). I bought them for strapping on snowshoes last winter." She replied Boots? Hmm, ok, that should work and I should bring them because we were going to do a very easy, flat hike (her emphasis).

First lesson of the trip: I've heard the Swiss before talk about "hiking shoes," and I wasn't sure what it meant; in my mind they were like running shoes - sneakers with some slightly thicker soles. But all I had were enormous Columbia boots that, in my mind, were better equipped for feet of snow, so that's what I brought. Turns out "shoes" are a Swiss euphemism; both my friend and her stepfather pulled out their own pairs of huge honkin' boots that are (apparently) standard fare for hiking any time of year.

Second lesson: It turns out that you don't have to be mountain goat-adjacent in order to hike a Swiss alp. Many of them are equipped with cable cars, cogwheel rails, and various other contraptions to spirit you (partway or entirely) up the mountain, allowing you to choose both difficulty and length of your hike. As with most other things in Swiss life, it's efficient, considerate, convenient (and expensive - but totally worth it).

We ended up doing a beautiful 2-3 hour hike along Mt. Rigi, which is crisscrossed with several trails, allowing both exploration and challenges. The weather was gorgeous - creamy, puffy white clouds, a constant cool breeze, and scenery that constantly left me slack-jawed.

None of the pictures below have been altered, enhanced, or changed in any way (partly because I am too lazy to go through each one with iPhoto, partly because I want to share exactly how beautiful it was, unretouched). There's also a few more pictures on my Instagram account, if you care to take a peek.

Just some random Schwyz countryside. It was all this beautiful.

Pretty sure I'd live here if it was an option.

Once I saw this, I suddenly understood why the Swiss go hiking every Sunday. Why yes, I would love a beautiful view without breaking my ankles to get it.

I was right about one thing - there were SO MANY COWS. This one doesn't have a bell around its neck, but most of them did. The bells can be heard for hundreds of meters, making them a constant background accompaniment of the hike (so neat!).

View of Kleiner (left) and Grosser (right) Mythen, the postcard-perfect standard images of canton Schwyz.

On the cable car, looking towards Lake Zug (I think).

Canton Schwyz

Looking south(ish). Visible glaciers!

This lady was hiking in a dress, with a stroller and some slightly-glorified Keds. She was kicking butt, but it couldn't have been too much fun when going through the cow fields..

Looking back over where we've come from. One of the many little Alpine huts/farms/restaurants around. Adorable, functional - and convenient if you need some cheese (or other snack) for an energy fix.

Overlooking the Vierwaldstättersee (in English referred to as Lake Lucerne, but I prefer the German, translated as "the lake of four-forested cantons").

A larger alpine hut - restaurant in the bottom, a few overnight rooms up top.

Lake Lauerzersee in the background

View of the glaciers with the zoom lens.

Last view of the Mythen before taking the cogwheel railway down.

A winter excursion

Just over a week ago, B and I ventured outside the city for the first time since my official arrival (not counting the short trip to Basel to visit B's family). B's work group had organized an outing near Einseiden, in the Schwyz canton (as may be deduced from the name, the canton was one of the original three that formed the alliance that eventually became the Swiss confederation).

Preparation for the outing was a bit chaotic. Neither B nor I are big outdoorsy-type of people, although in our youth we used to be (at least more than we are now). I grew up near a ski resort and used to frequent it on school trips and snow days, but pretty much abandoned the slopes when I hit my growth spurt in late middle school and my scarecrow limbs made skis a more intimidating experience. B grew up in Lima, Peru and once tried to climb the Andes in his backyard as an ill-advised afternoon venture with his cousin.

Random stories aside, this meant that neither of us had any appropriate gear for an outing to the Swiss mountains (I am fairly sure we were not officially in the Alps, although I could be mistaken. Regardless - definitely mountains). We spent the week prior to the outing comparison shopping for snow boots, gloves, hats, and some sort of waterproof/resistant pants for each of us; luckily it's near the end of the season here, so we were able to snag the boots, at least, on sale.

We were picked up quite early on Saturday morning by one of B's coworkers, who graciously agreed to drive us. B doesn't yet have a driver's license (not unusual for people here), and I am still fairly paralyzed at the thought of driving in a country where buses and trams have their own lanes that aren't always clearly marked and the white/yellow color meanings of the road markings are opposite of US ones. It turns out this was wise, as I am not sure we ever would have found the place - the last few kilometers were on a one-lane, snow-covered road that triggered nostalgia for West Virginia driving perils from my youth.

Our audience for our initial lesson in how to put on snowshoes.

Neither B nor I had ever been snowshoeing before, so we had asked to rent both shoes and poles. I was excited upon arrival to see that in comparison to the other participants, we were dressed totally appropriately. (Yes, I laser in on stuff like that. Although my water-resistant pants were a bit thin (real ski pants cost 2-3x as much), and it did take about 3 hours after the excursion for my thighs to thaw out. But at least we didn't look ridiculous and the shopping had not been a waste. What was important was that we appeared to be ready for such an activity).

B had assured me that this would be a light trek, as other people were bringing their young children and the average age of his coworkers is much older than B. Apparently they all cancelled because there were only three other people (two coworkers and one other wife), and they were all in much better shape than me, despite the couple easily having 20 years on me. We snowshoed for over an hour before we took a kaffee (or schokolade, in my case) break, then headed back. There was at least 2 feet of snow on the ground, and we appeared to be trekking through mainly fields (crossing barbwire fences in snowshoes is quite the experience).

In the morning, with heavy fog still covering the mountains.

I forgot how much fun it is to be out in the snow, and the scenery was breathtaking. There was a fairly heavy fog when we headed out, but it started to burn off by the time we returned.

Heading back. I let the other 3 trek ahead - turns out snowshoeing is much easier when you can follow in someone else's already-formed path (thanks to Jenn for this tip, it saved me much exertion).

Unfortunately my transition lenses make it very challenging to take pictures with my phone (the UV-sensitive darkening makes it impossible to see the screen - and I am so nearsighted/light-sensitive that I can't see the screen if I remove my glasses), so I was shooting pics completely blind. B was more successful, and I will post some of his pictures either here or on facebook in the next couple days.

Almost back to the cows! The house halfhidden by the hill is where we ate fondue for lunch.

We met up with several more of B's coworkers for lunch, which was fondue, complete with potatoes and bread for dipping (what else would one expect in the mountains of Switzerland?). It was a very hearty meal that was perfect after 3+ hours of unaccustomed physical activity. Unfortunately (for me), all of B's coworkers + spouses + children that were at lunch were native German speakers, so the conversation naturally occurred in that language. I actually could follow/guess the topic of conversation in some parts, and it was nice to hear German spoken at a normal pace (vs. my German class, in which listening exercises are done AS....IF....YOU...ARE...IGNORANT - which of course the entire class is).

Between the snow trek and the German, I collapsed into a much-needed nap as soon as we arrived back in Zurich. But I was so glad that B and I experienced a Swiss winter in true fashion before the snow starts to melt.

I took the below picture outside our door the very next morning - spring is definitely on its way!