Where: Hasliberg and around Canton de Fribourg
When: 19th and 20th September 2009
Who: Edoardo, Michela
Type: hike
How long: 8 hours
At 10 am on Saturday we were at the Meiringen station of the cable car and by 11 am we were at the Alpen Tower. The view was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. There were incredibly fast moving clouds that were continuously changing the light and colors of the landscape, and the walking trail took us all along a valley with a bottomless canyon below us and silent mountains with the top covered by glaciers on the other side of the valley. About 2 hours after starting from the Alpen Tower, we headed toward Melchsee-Frutt via an Alpine Trail that took us about 15 minutes to realize that was not something to do without climbing gear. Instead of going back to the main trail we just went straight in direction Melchsee-Frutt without following any trail…honestly pretty scary but nothing like what was ahead of us. We had a goulash soup at the lake and it was about 3pm. At that point we headed to Hochstollen doing a pretty steep climb that took us to a point were there was a trail without indications of the direction to follow. It was 4:20pm. Looking at the map we thought we were already past Hochstollen and walking in direction Flochsträss. It was extremely cloudy so there was nothing that could confirm it to us. After about 40 minutes of a very steep trail we thought we took the wrong trail because the path, against our expectations, kept climbing. So we decided to go back until we found a sign that told us that we were actually walking in the right direction, and that Käserstatt was 1 hour and 40 minutes away. It was already 5:20pm, it was completely clouded and we were expecting darkness by 8 pm. I really started to get scared because Käserstatt is still very far from the valley. So, with already more than 6 hours of hiking and climbing behind us, we started to run as quickly as the sore muscles allowed us thru the pics and we were by 7pm at Käserstatt. From there we took (luckily) the wrong way toward Mägisalp, and coming back we found a lady who recommended us not to try to go back to Meiringen because it would get dark very soon and there was no way we could find our way thru the woods in the night. She recommended to walk to Balisalp as there were some farmers there that may give us a ride toward the valley. And arriving there we saw some cars leaving those huts and I just rushed down the trail and stopped the Jeep of a farmer who drove us to Hochfluh. He was the last farmer going down for the day… Arrived to the village restaurant (it was about 8:20pm and already dark) we asked to the owner if he knew someone who was driving to Meiringen. Luckily two guys were going to the valley for a party and they gave us a ride back to the car at the Meringen cable car station. A very intense day…
Sunday, after 10+ hours of good sleep, we drove to La Gruyere and nearby villages, and we went to the Gorges de Jaun, a idyllic river canyon near Broc. Then to the Jogne pass and back to Bern.
Tags: Halsiberg, Hike, Switzerland
