The time had come for more immersion therapy. This saved us about 3,000' descent, which our knees told us was worth the mental discomfort. It didn't occur to me until five days later, atop Kleine Scheidegg, to read up about ski lift fatality statistics, but the comfort of that information wasn't yet available to me as I clutched the handrail going down.
S, who has zero Höhenangst, is kindly patient yet bemused.
Success for this acrophobe means "hooray, I didn't die!" I guess this means I have been a successful acrophobe for several decades. Yet my knees still feel wobbly and my heart still skips multiple beats even when I just look at photos of people looking down from great heights. It makes NO SENSE, which is why it's a phobia.
Bürglen, in canton Uri (the sixth canton of our hike), is known as the Ur-Stadt of the Wilhelm Tell legend. Signage suggests that Bürglen's civil engineers have a sense of humor:
The story takes place in the early 14th-c. and was first mentioned in the 15th-c. White Book of Sarnen (on which Schiller based his 1804 Wilhelm Tell stage play). By the 16th c., writers were already questioning the historicity of the story, and by the 20th c., most historians agreed Tell existed in legend only.
But everyone needs a good tale of resistance against corrupt government overreach, and Switzerland has embraced Tell as a national hero. Wikipedia says Adolf Hitler was initially a fan of Schiller's retelling, until he realized that Wilhelm Tell is...a tale of resistance against corrupt government overreach.
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| A formidable figure, indeed |
Many of the buildings in canton St. Gallen had a blocky utilitarian look; in Bürglen, it was clear that we were entering the Switzerland of storybooks.
Near the Tell statue, Bürglen has a chapel, the Tellkappelle, built in 1582 on the location where Tell supposedly resided. The interior is decorated with frescoes devoted to the Tell narrative.
We crossed the valley to Attinghausen, where a gondola lift will transport hikers up 3,300' to Brüsti. We skipped the lift and hiked up. Initially one of those straight-shot-up routes, the route followed a stone path bordered by stacked stone walls...
Once straight-shot became too steep, the trail yielded to equally steep switchbacks. To distract myself from the workout, I started counting steps, ending somewhere around 6,500 but the time we reached the pass where we turned off toward Brüsti.
We paused at Brüsti for Fruchtwähe and Apfelschorle.
From there, it was another hour along the ridge to our accommodation for the night, Alp Grat.
In some places, we could see into the valley to the left and the valley to the right at the same time.
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| Left |
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| Right |
Alp Grat is a hut run by a family that keeps cows in the surrounding meadows and makes cheese at another Alp a little lower on the mountain. The accommodation was a Matratzenlager--rooms with multiple mattresses, located above the stable in the hayloft.
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| Alp Grat |
Carly wasn't sure what to make of the imbibing locals.
We had the entire hut to ourselves that night. Our stay included Halppension--dinner and breakfast. Dinner was Chäsmagronen enhanced with potatoes and onions and made with the most local of all possible cheeses, having been manufactured by our host herself, served with homemade applesauce. We ate next door with our host and her son before heading back to the hut for the night.
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| Hay in the hayloft |
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| Room with a view |
It started raining late afternoon, and continued to rain all night. The forecast for the next day--when we were supposed to reach the highest elevation of our hike, crossing the Surenen pass at 7,520'--was for a heavy downpour, with MeteoSwiss advising people to avoid higher elevations and slippery-when-wet slopes. The forecast for the day after that included snowstorms above 6,500', when we would be at 7,485' near the Jochpass. We started making backup plans involving buses for both days.
Ta da! 7.8 miles, 4,500' ascent, 750' descent.
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