GUEST POST: Kathy is back on the blog to share insights from her summer trip in Switzerland. I hope this convinces more fans of the blog to visit us, though fair warning, the amount of hiking Kathy and Steve did while in Switzerland even tired me out! Without further ado..Kathy Englar: Hot Times in Switzerland July/August 2022, Hot Times in Switzerland July/August 2022: Kathy Englar!

Not wanting to miss a chance to see Lisa and Freddy again, my partner and I returned to Switzerland for a month of hiking. This post is primarily about the transportation and food that fueled our visit.

Since Switzerland is mostly mountains, hiking abounds. You could hike daily for the rest of your life without exhausting the available hiking trails, but you would exhaust yourself. If your reference for hiking is the mid-Atlantic or the mountains around Tahoe, you’ll find these glacially carved mountains to be steep. We decided to concentrate on the Valais and rented an apartment in Brig through AirBNB (30-day stay discount.)

Brig:

If you’ve heard of Brig (most people haven’t), that’s because it’s a stop on the Glacier Express between Zermatt and San Moritz, 10 km east of Visp, which is where you get the train to Zermatt. Otherwise, it’s an unassuming, sunny town which serves as a great transportation hub to the entire Valais and it’s not a tourist attraction. Our apartment was a quarter mile from the train station where we could get trains east toward Andermatt, West toward Sierre/Sion/Martigny, North toward Spiez/Interlaken, and buses South to the Simplon Pass and Italy or to a local resort called Belalp. 

Weather:

Our visit that started at the height of the European heat wave, Brig sits at 2300 feet in elevation and was HOT the entire month. There might have been one or two days when the high temperature didn’t hit 90F. The trade off for the great transportation location was the heat so we left early every morning to get to the relative comfort of the high mountains. Still, there wasn’t a day when I needed long pants or a sweatshirt, even in the mountains. And, the AirBNB host who checked “yes” for air conditioning in our fifth floor walk-up wasn’t a native English speaker and apparently thought a fan equated to AC. (I find this to be mis-representation; AirBNB wouldn’t do anything when we tried to get out of this sweltering deal.) Recommendation: Stay in the mountains if you visit during the summer or triple check about AC.

It was too hot for these sheep huddling in the shade against rocks above Bettmeralp at the height of the heat wave

Glaciers were melting before our eyes in Zinal. It was hot and the Rhone River near our apartment was raging with melt water

Transportation:

Our trip was timed to the length of a one-month SBB pass, which cost $420. When we returned from Switzerland, we calculated the retail price of all our transport at more than $1100. Even for a one week trip doing a lot of touring, you need the train pass, just to not worry about getting a ticket and so that you don’t equivocate about taking transportation. No thinking “Do I really NEED to ride this lake steamer?,” or “Should I just walk up the lower forested part of this mountain in the heat rather than ride this lift?” We rode a train, bus, boat, and/or ski lift every day of our trip, abusing it to go to dinner in another town (Zermatt and Belalp, where the temperature was cooler), visit Andermatt (because we live on Andermatt Lane in Truckee) or go to Verbier for lunch (two trains and a gondola ride.) But mostly, we rode trains and buses to access our hikes and were successful in getting to every trailhead via public transportation, generally dropped at the base of a ski lift which was covered by the SBB pass.

Hiking:

The Swiss Alps are amazing, but as mentioned, they are steep. Days with only 1000 meters of elevation gain started to feel like easy days (my biggest climbing day included an 8600 foot elevation gain in 14 miles when Lisa and I missed a connecting bus in a rare failure of Swiss transportation resulting from extensive road work on the first bus’ route.)  In 25 days of hiking, I climbed 80,000 feet of elevation.

This paragraph is an editorial on the use of trekking poles - you need them, if not to take 30% of the load off your legs in the climbing, but more importantly to protect your knees on the associated downhill. Yes, I’m a retiree and using poles is a trademark of geriatric hikers along with zip off pants and floppy sun hats, but note that Lisa and Freddy use poles, too, which helps them arrive fresher at their climbing locations and navigate the retreat with ease. (In fact, Freddy, Lisa, and I have the same low weight Black Diamond carbon fiber poles that fold up and fit in your pack when you don’t need them.)

Riding Ski Lifts to Hike (or Dine):

Google says there are 354 ski resorts in Switzerland. That’s in a country one tenth the acreage of California. I visited many and even the smallest local resorts run rings around Donner Summit’s Sugar Bowl in terms of acreage, lift capacity, variety of terrain, and the recent manufacturing date of their lifts (check out the Eiger Express Cable Car in Grindlewald or actually pretty much any lift - you’re not going to find any fixed grip 2 or 3 seaters but they do have a lot of pomas and t-bars.) As a group, these resorts had big investments not only in lifts, but in snowmaking (they are facing the reality of the melting glaciers and the need to invest in their primary industry, tourism.)

Swiss hikers use the lifts extensively, accessing views and cooler weather.. If there was a town at the top of the lift (seemed to be defined by the existence of retail and full time inhabitants), the lift was included in the SBB pass. But even those not covered were half off with the Swiss pass. Bottom line, ride the lift to get to more interesting terrain and views.

The Oeschinensee, a natural lake about a mile from the top of the gondola out of Kandersteg was a popular beach and a welcome place to cool off after the hike to the Blumlisalphutte.

The most expensive lift we rode was at Crans Montana, a ski resort with a nearly 5000 vertical drop. We rode down in two segments, a funitel followed by a telecabine, after a hike with a big ascent. The operator at the top instructed us to pay at the bottom. When we boarded the second lift down, there was a French speaking lift attendant collecting cash only and yelling at the many confused hikers waving credit cards. We still don’t know if he collected 30 CHF from us legitimately. But look what you see at the top of Crans Montana - the Plaine Morte glacier.

Huts: 

The Swiss are incredibly sporty and big patrons of on-mountain dining and accommodations - the hut system. If you visit Lisa and Freddy, whether winter or summer, they will recommend an overnight hut experience. You will arrive at a beautiful high mountain location with a view, and for a moderate price (by Swiss standards), receive a sleeping spot, dinner and breakfast, while carrying only your very low weight sleeping bag liner, toothbrush, and a change of socks. You get the upside of backpacking in terms of doing a multi-day trip while having access to a communal bathroom (sometimes with showers), and hearty food that’s been flown in by helicopter (including alcoholic libations.) You need to make reservations and keep in mind that it may be a communal sleeping space unless your hut of choice has smaller rooms to reserve at greater expense. During my overnight hut trip with Lisa, we were in a room with 23 snoring climbers, all but the two of us woke up at 3:30 AM for the climbers’ breakfast.

Even if you’re out only for a day hike, although you should carry a snack, it’s likely you can get a hut lunch and a cold or hot drink during your hike, especially if you started from a ski lift. It was great to be able to order a cold drink after a big climb. (I have been really wanting to try that Pflumli Schumli recommended by Freddy’s father, but alas it rained the day I was poised to order and the waitress wouldn’t let us sit outside.) Parenthetical thought: when I asked for a lemonade at the Lotchenpasshutte above Lachneralp, they showed me a Sprite substitute on tap that is apparently mixed with beer (a shandy?). The Swiss soda of choice is Rivella - we didn’t try it. My partner swears by the Apple Schorle, a mix of apple juice and sparkling water. Keep in mind there is no complimentary drinking water except in cities with fountains - bring it with you or buy a drink.

As a vegetarian in a meat-loving country, my lunch of choice was rosti, which is sauteed shredded potatoes which are then roasted under a broiler with gruyere, then topped with a fried egg. The best vegetarian hut rosti I enjoyed was at the Hotel Schwarenbach 3 miles from Gemmi Pass above Leukerbad. The worst was at the Monte Leone hut, where to be fair, we ordered lunch at 10:30 AM so they really weren’t ready, and we ordered a German dish at a hut on the Italian border staffed by a French family from Neufchatel. Even when sub-par, rosti is extremely filling, making it a great hiking lunch that we quickly learned to split. The best rosti of the trip was at a restaurant called The Vieux Chalet in Saas Fee where Lisa and I were seated next to a group of high school alpine skiers from Sugar Bowl Academy on a summer training adventure on the glacier. They seemed completely uninterested in the amazing coincidence that we were from the same town in California, 6000 miles away, but were quite phased by needing to pay 5 CHF for water. Back to the rosti - they did a great job of mixing the cheese with the potatoes; it tasted exactly like macaroni and cheese.

Groceries:

I am used to a 24-hour Safeway and it’s a shock that the rest of the world doesn’t live that way. In our regional town of Brig, the grocery stores closed at 6:30 during the week, earlier on Saturday, and weren’t open at all on Sundays, so plan ahead. Warning about Sunday evenings in a non-tourist friendly city: if you haven’t stocked food for Sunday dinner, the only choice is your local kebab place, which is budget friendly and actually pretty good. Because of the proximity to Turkey and guest workers, there is a lot of falafel in Switzerland!

Despite the limited hours, the groceries had good selections of vegan/vegetarian-friendly food: Oatly oat milk was available in every store, which was surprising given Switzerland’s legendary dairy products. We picked up prepared food at the Coop many nights and there was a great selection of salads and vegan sandwiches.

In bigger cities, however, the options improved. There was a Coop in downtown Sion that was like a Super Target with far more choices than we had in Brig and a great cafeteria and the Coop across from Lisa and Freddy’s apartment has this tantalizing cheese room…

Lindt Factory:

While on the subject of food: Take the Lindt Factory tour if you have a spare afternoon during your visit to Zurich. It’s a short train ride to Kilchberg from Lisa and Freddy’s apartment. It’s self-paced, so you can either delve deeply into the cultivation of chocolate plants, the history of chocolate, and Swiss contributions to the chocolate industry, or you can just concentrate on the abundant samples.

Also in Zurich: On my last day in Switzerland, I swam in the lake near Lisa and Freddy’s apartment. How great is it to be able to paddle in a refreshing, temperate lake after work? Swimming off a dock in the Zurichsee was a treat! One of my swim team friends was in Zurich at the same time and bribed her three kids with a daily afternoon trip to a water park if they went hiking in the morning; apparently there are many water parks with slides and trampolines along the shores of the Zurichsee.

Languages:

Because Switzerland is multilingual, school children are immersed in the second language (German or French) at an early age. (No one was able to explain to me how this works in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.) And after learning the basics of that other language, they tend to study English. In the German speaking areas, we only found one customer-facing employee who didn’t speak English: at the Pretzel King in the Zurich HB where we were charged for 3 pretzels, not 2, and it wasn’t easy to work it out with the pretzel man.

In Verbier, a ski resort in French-speaking Switzerland that’s very popular with English tourists, most people spoke English. But in Sion, Sierre, and Martigny, they didn’t. Fortunately, it’s easy to master restaurant and hotel French, and we were charmed that bus riders in Sierre and Sion greeted the driver with “Bonjour, Monsieur” when boarding and called out “Au revoir, Monsieur,” when disembarking. 

As a minimum, learn your trail greetings:

• Guten tag in German Switzerland
• Gruezi if you want to identify yourself as Swiss
• Bonjour in French Switzerland

Highlight:

Had to be our climbing adventure with Freddy at Pilatus. A walk in the park for Freddy, exhilarating for me!