surenenpass hike

went on this hike in the alps, started in a town called altdorf and hiked to engelberg. it was like 28k with 1800m elevation, pretty much just another typical hike. it was quite nice though, came up over this surenenpass, it was raining a bit, which made for some nice clouds and fog. after going on a few of these hikes, i think that i have a bit of perspective on the mountains here - and i think that i still like the ones at home...it's just different i guess, but i'm the kind of guy that goes trekking because it's a chance to challenge yourself and to push it to the limits, to go where no one has gone before, to get away from everything - and here it's more like, there are cable cars and furniculars to take you up to trailheads, warm and comfy mountain huts to sleep overnight in, cows, sheep and farms everywhere. it's not the same looking down into a valley and seeing a town instead of just trees and rivers. that being said, of course it's still very pretty and there are tons of alpine meadows filled with flowers, once you get high enough there are all those little blue forget me nots just like at home.

for this particular hike, we started up under this cable car path to the trailhead, and then proceeded to do a bit of up and down through a more or less flat section, through to a bit of a ridge walk that led to a some snow covered paths. essentially walked up a glacier, up to this surenenpass. it was quite foggy and rainy that day, made for some great photos though. after going over this pass, it was a short walk down to an alpine hut. this was actually quite nice, there was a room just for the 10 of us that were there, dinner and breakfast included. pretty much just ate a ton of pasta and cheese for dinner, and loaded up on bread and milk for breakfast, definitely from the cows that were all over the trail. of course, walking through the typical swiss valley, one can hear just a ton of cowbells at once. the next day was a walk down to the town of engelberg - a nice mountain town might i add, seemed like it would be a great ski base in the winter. lounged around until 7 again, for the free train, played some dutch blitz - i have slept in a park for 5 weeks in a row now - and then took the train through lucerne, back home.

definitely gonna hit up a couple more hikes in august, gonna try and find a bit of a tougher one, and try to get higher to see what 3500 or 4000 m feels like.

also i think it was this week that i had, in consecutive days, lunch at work: 1. all you can eat thai restaurant 2. the most massive doner kebab in history. patrick meunier, you will be the death of me if you keep convincing me to eat as much as i can.