Via Alpina, July 17--August 8, 2022 - Tuesday august 2 kandersteg to adelboden

Tuesday August 2: Kandersteg to Adelboden

Okay, today was a day to face my fears head on!

We got up early for another breakfast on the terrace. We walked to the base of the tiny Almenalp cablecar and rode up to the balcony path.

The Almenalp cable car. A lot of these cars are facultative, running when there are customers. Sometimes you can call from the top to get the operator down below to carry you down in the car.

We got out by a farmhouse. This would be a heck of a location to farm!

A sign pointing to various paths. We went left, to Usser Uschine.

In principle, we could’ve just walked straight into the mountains behind that farmhouse and straight on to Adelboden. The advice, though, is that anyone scared of exposure should avoid the Bunderspitz (“To say that this hike is steep is an understatement….). And people say the Bunderchrinde is scary!

To make our lives less scary and increase the odds that I would end the day in Adelboden and not paralyzed on some peak in the Kandertal, we followed the balcony trail (really a gravel road used by farmers) around to Usser Ushine, where there is a little coffee shop.

I believe this is Usser Uschine? The trail follows that dirt road down the middle of the valley and then turns sharply upward on the other side of those trees.

This was an extremely primitive coffee shop, which might not have even had plumbing.

And then, we went up. Up and up. This part of the Alps – it’s just steep, especially toward the tops of peaks. The Bunderchrinde, which we were hiking, is actually the gentle and easy alternative to other ways over this ridge into the next valley. And certainly lots of people skip up the thing without a thought to heights.

They are Swiss. I grew up in Louisiana.

Cows do occasionally fall off these cliffs.

The ridge surprisingly didn’t feel that exposed and had a great view.

That was a minor detour from our actual path; the Bunderchrinde is in the opposite direction of that green ridge.

Anyway, the Bunderchrinde – that was some exposed, nasty, narrow, slippery scary shit! I gollemed my way up the steeper parts.

Now we’re in the ascent proper; it’s all scree and loose rock from here.

This blaze says we’re still on target. This bit involved some skirting of rock faces. Our route cards advised caution, observing that “a slip would be hard to stop.

The Bunderchrinde! The panorama makes it look much broader than it is, but you can see that it’s down on both sides.

And that’s the way down. It’s steep. And loose!

I used the butt traverse to descend that first part. In the future, I should remember to wear tougher and longer pants and some gloves – then the butt descent down scree would be no problem.

Scree fields are not only difficult to walk down, they’re ugly too!

One last look at our friendly Bunderchrinde.

A much-needed rest. I am tired and dirty!

We finally got back into grassy meadow terrain, but had to keep on walking and walking downhill. We did have a nice stop for ice cream and meringue. Then it was just a long walk down.

The sad thing about Adelboden is just when you’ve reached town, you realize you’re at the bottom of it. We waited a little while for the suggested bus, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen. It was another steep climb up to the hotel at the very end, much like arriving in Namche Bazaar.

The hotel Bristol Adelboden had a set menu for dinner, which was nice, because we were much too tired to make decisions.

For example, I didn’t have to decide to have more ice cream.