Mega trip 2014: part 2, "adventurous" hiking in Hoch-Ybrig
In this part I will tell you how and where we finally found winter this year. And about my rather lame skills in dealing with mountains :)
That was our first and long-awaited Saturday in Switzerland. Where to go? Of course to the mountains, to see some snowy peaks!
Our friend suggested us Hoch-Ybrig (thank you, Jana!). It's not far from Zürich and it has some hiking trails, maintained in winter.
Indeed, just one hour by train and 20 minutes in a bus with free Wi-Fi and packed with snowboarders. The bus even has a trailer for equipment! :)
"There are two ways up, one really long and another much shorter. The shorter one suits us better".
"Nice views, but are we really going to climb this wall?"
"Come on, there is a sign, which says that it takes just 1,5 hours to Druesberghütte!"
And we decided to climb the wall.
Half meter of show! Unbelievable view after non-snowy winter in Finland. I can somehow understand that there is snow on top of mountains, but I've seen also a lot of XC ski tracks from the bus window. And they were not high, just over some fields. Swiss nature is amazing :)
In the beginning it was not hard to climb at all.
At some point climbing became rather hard and the snow cover deepened.
A nice place for lunch. If you don't have vertigo :)
At this point I realized that we chose wrong way. Mountaneering equipment is needed to go further.
Continuation of the route was pretty close (those stairs), but one wrong movement at that point means falling down. We decided to go back.
Not achieving the goal is bad, but feeling safe and alive is a wonderful thing :)
Forest is a perfect place to spend all weekends. In every country. Switzerland is not an exception :)
And crazy Swiss weather again. We just walked in the snow, it was cold and wet and now it's so sunny and warm. We decided just to sit on the grass, eat our lunch and look around.
And when we reached the starting point again I tried to understand what was our fault. Why the sign says "1,5 hours" and we spent a little bit more with no results?
And then I understood. The small text, which was far and not visible because there were a huge pile of snow around the signpost.
People! Read everything about the route. It will save your time and will increase your safety.
From the other point of view, that was still a good adventure :) Not as easy as just to walk on the well-maintained trail.
Some people prefer not to walk at all :(
We still had some time until evening, so we just walked around, looking how everything is melting.
The change from bus to train happens in the town of Einsiedeln, which is definitely worth visiting. It's famous mainly for Einsiedeln Abbey - the most important pilgrimage destination in Switzerland. It's also a birthplace of Paracelsus and a nice tiny town in general.
Tired and happy we took a train and came back to Zürich.
***
Please feel free to leave a comment in any language.
Part 1 can be found here.
That was our first and long-awaited Saturday in Switzerland. Where to go? Of course to the mountains, to see some snowy peaks!
Our friend suggested us Hoch-Ybrig (thank you, Jana!). It's not far from Zürich and it has some hiking trails, maintained in winter.
Indeed, just one hour by train and 20 minutes in a bus with free Wi-Fi and packed with snowboarders. The bus even has a trailer for equipment! :)
"There are two ways up, one really long and another much shorter. The shorter one suits us better".
"Nice views, but are we really going to climb this wall?"
"Come on, there is a sign, which says that it takes just 1,5 hours to Druesberghütte!"
And we decided to climb the wall.
Half meter of show! Unbelievable view after non-snowy winter in Finland. I can somehow understand that there is snow on top of mountains, but I've seen also a lot of XC ski tracks from the bus window. And they were not high, just over some fields. Swiss nature is amazing :)
In the beginning it was not hard to climb at all.
At some point climbing became rather hard and the snow cover deepened.
A nice place for lunch. If you don't have vertigo :)
At this point I realized that we chose wrong way. Mountaneering equipment is needed to go further.
Continuation of the route was pretty close (those stairs), but one wrong movement at that point means falling down. We decided to go back.
Not achieving the goal is bad, but feeling safe and alive is a wonderful thing :)
Forest is a perfect place to spend all weekends. In every country. Switzerland is not an exception :)
And crazy Swiss weather again. We just walked in the snow, it was cold and wet and now it's so sunny and warm. We decided just to sit on the grass, eat our lunch and look around.
And when we reached the starting point again I tried to understand what was our fault. Why the sign says "1,5 hours" and we spent a little bit more with no results?
And then I understood. The small text, which was far and not visible because there were a huge pile of snow around the signpost.
People! Read everything about the route. It will save your time and will increase your safety.
From the other point of view, that was still a good adventure :) Not as easy as just to walk on the well-maintained trail.
Some people prefer not to walk at all :(
We still had some time until evening, so we just walked around, looking how everything is melting.
The change from bus to train happens in the town of Einsiedeln, which is definitely worth visiting. It's famous mainly for Einsiedeln Abbey - the most important pilgrimage destination in Switzerland. It's also a birthplace of Paracelsus and a nice tiny town in general.
Tired and happy we took a train and came back to Zürich.
***
Please feel free to leave a comment in any language.
Part 1 can be found here.