A Mad Scramble (Swiss Alps - Part 2)

Many circuits in Switzerland have an easy mode and a hard mode. The easy mode is at lower elevation and shorter, which is still 5-6 hours and at least 5 miles (8km). Never flat. So if that’s the easy mode, then you can imagine that the hard mode, like this pass called Fenetre d’Arpette, is a little spicy.

Day 2 started off with an uphill meander through the forest. The first rays of sunrise hit the mountains just right, giving them that glowing halo.

I follow the stream farther up, my eyes drawn to the Trient Glacier. I have a goal to see all the glaciers before we melt them all, and with a pang of sadness you can see that’s not too far away. The tell-tale signs of destruction is the bare rock under the glacier, where it’s been receding for years. In reality late June should still have too much snow for the high passes, making this trail impassable, yet like everywhere else it’s been a warm year. A warm decade, really.

After a few hours that pleasant uphill meander turns into a mad scramble. It’s an uphill sea of rocks upon rocks. Some of them are not exactly stable. My 20lb/9kg backpack offsetting my natural center of gravity, this quickly becomes a brutal slog for the next 3 hours. Worse yet, the path is so steep that the top is always deceptively just a few steps away. Prisoners of war die of broken hearts when their release date comes and goes. I wonder if trekkers go similarly.

Not much fanfare at the top. A brief “congratulations, here’s a sign that tells you how long it should have take you to do this thus far. We know that's not your actual time, we just want to make you feel bad. Now do it again, but in reverse”.

In one moment the landscapes change completely. One side of the mountain was lush and green. This side is Mars. Rocks, rocks, and - you guessed it - more rocks. Evidently the other side has been hogging all the rain.

What awaits me next? Well, from this vantage point I can see it. A scramble down the rocks now, with no end in sight. I ponder faking an injury so I can get rescued by a Swiss helicopter. Bankruptcy is just a phone call away. Or perhaps just slide down - can guarantee I won’t need to fake the injury after that.

Evidently the signage was not for my pace - it took me almost twice as long to come down. By the end my feet were jigsawed together in band aids. What kept me going? Rotisserie chicken. When I get into town I am going to buy a whole rotisserie chicken and eat the entire thing in one sitting like a savage. It’s going to be glorious.

After seemingly forever, I turn a corner and a spot a cabin in the distance. CIVILIZATION! The path levels out into a giant meadow. I’m surrounded by wildflowers and butterflies, all in brilliant pinks, blues, yellows. It’s the kind of beauty that nature puts out only in places where the good weather will end all too soon. A fleeting moment on a geological scale. Maybe that's what makes it feel more special.

Once I get to the main road, I discover that my lodging is actually in the next town over. It’s a 2 hour walk to town. Oh cruel world and poor distance planning. However, there is one last bus for the day, 20 minutes away. But I don’t want to be on my feet for any second longer.

So, what to do?

I stick out my thumb. Sorry mom.

An unmarked white van pulls over, driven by an elderly gentleman who speaks only French. In school they teach us not be lured by ice cream into white vans. They didn’t say anything about the lure of saving 20 minutes of walking. So I get in.

If you’re wondering, no I didn’t get kidnapped. And that rotisserie chicken I spent half the day dreaming about? Divine.