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Published: September 6th 2009
Saas-Almagell
We started here. Eva and her old buddy, Marcus. Hi guys,
I was supposed to be back in US last Tuesday 1 Sept. But, things have changed. Unfortunately, my US visa is not ready yet. I was informed that I had to wait again.
Obviously it puts a lot of stress on me. But I have to deal with it in a healthy way.
I am not responsible for the current situation and I hope that I can get my visa on time this time so I won't miss my flight (and the quarter).
Last weekend, my flatmate Eva, informed me that one of her friends and she were going to a hike. And luckily, I got an invitation too.
I decided to join them to change my status and not being lonely her in my apartment.
We were supposed to go to an area calls Saas-Almagell in southern part of Switzerland.
Eva's friend, Marcus, originally wanted to go there to see her mother. Her mother was working in a cottage on the top of the mountain for the past 3 months. That sounds like a fun summer! Do you agree?
So, we decided to go there on Saturday, stay the night in the little hostel
Saas-Almagell
This is the peak almost 4,000m high. and then on Sunday go to the top of the next mountain.
That was a lovely weekend. Warm and sunny.
I took the train to Saas-Almagell from Zurich. Eva and Marcus joined me on the same train in Bern (the capital).
The train was really crowded. I think this is the problem where people try to go to the same destination on the nice and sunny weekends.
We got to the small village around 1pm. We had to take the cable car to the start of an advanture park.
You can see how it looks. Some fun parts for sure.
Out first destination was one small restuarant-cottage. That was almost 1 hour and a half. While walking toward there, thanks to Eva, we found a lot of blue-berries. There were a lot of bushes around. So, we stopped there and had some! Yummy. Marcus also saved some for his mother. Good boy!
How it looks and how gorgeous it is! Just go through the pictures.
We stopped at the resturant. Had some drink and lunch. I was lucky that I found Raclette on their menu. This is also one of the swiss traditional food. I could not
Saas-Almagell
We are going through the advature park find it in the restaurants I went before (not that many though, cause here it is really expensive to eat outside). It was really good with a good price too. I think it was only 8 CHF.
After almost 45 minutes, we decided to go for our next stop. That was the challenging part. Cause we would go from 1000m high to 3000m. That would give us a challenging trail. And that was true cause we were keep going up and up.
I felt that the change in the elevation was so quick that I could tell the height. Either I was not in my best shape or the elevation, I did not feel that fresh.
Anyhow, Marcus was always ahead of us. He was really fast. No doubt about it, the Swiss guy!
Finally, after almost 2 hours, we arrived there around 5-6pm. Don't remember exactly.
God! That building was packed with people. Almost all of them were mountain climbers.
Later, Marcus's mom told us that there were almost 160 people in that building and 140 of them left the buidling around 4am the following day to go to one of the peaks.
So, we found
Saas-Almagell
Surrounding view our room shared with one family and 2 other hikers.
Thanks to Maruc's mom, we got the room on the 3rd floor. No noise from the top.
In half an hour, we were supposed to go to the kitchen and help Marcus's mom with the dishes. :-)
They were really busy since it was the time for dinner. And you can imagine a small kitchen with only 4 people in total working in that building. We were the saviors maybe! Just kidding. They were really organized with everything.
Ok, now we are hungry. First some vegetable soup! Then rice and some curry. And finally some fruit.
Then, we had some special coffee. I think I had it before once with Helen's family when we hiked to the top of the mountain in the Wolfenschiessen area.
Tastes really good. You should try it if you come to Switzerland and hiked all the way to the top.
After the dinner, we just stayed outside and enjoyed the sunset. I think after 9pm, it was silence time. We played a Swiss card game which I don't remember the name.
Now here it comes the interesting part of the story.
Going
to sleep.
When we went to bed, already 2 people were snoring. :-)
Then, it came up to 4-5. And I think including myself that would be 6.
I could not go to sleep until 1-2pm. This is my nowadays habbit. Even if I am extremely tired, I can not fall sleep. Don't know why, if anyone, please let me know.
We had to wake up around 7am to have breakfast. Luckily, this time, it was not crowded as before since 140 people had left the cottage around 4am to go to the peak.
After serving breakfast, Marcus's mother showed us around. All the basement and the food storage and generator and her tiny room where she had been sleeping since start of summer.
This tiny newly built building was really green and environment friendly.
Some lights used solar energy. All the lights were sensor activated. Nobody around for more than 30 seconds, they turn off.
The local sewage system and the heater. They did not provide warm water. Just cold and freezing water. No showers either.
And tons of beer! :-)
They used Helicopter to transport all the food and their needs to the top.
Marcus's mother told
Saas-Almagell
Advanture park us that she wanted to ask us to bring some bread to the top. Why? Because of the weather conditions, the helicopters were not sure if they were flying until noon. So, she thought maybe she could ask us to bring some bread to the top since they had run out of it. :-)
I think we were super lucky that the weather was good enough later in the day. Otherwise, we were used as Mules. Kidding :-)
After having a coffee again and some chat with Marcus's mother, we decided to go to the next peak. That would let us see all the otherside of the mountain chains. We could see the Italian part of Switzerland and even Italy.
We passed some snow and we got there in less than an hour. Now we could see the other side. It was foggy, yet spectacular.
I really like it when we see the cloud-lake!
We could see some people walking down to the other side and also some people trying to reach to next peak. Here, we were at the elevation of 3,400m. The next peak was about 4,000m.
I really wanted to go there. Maybe next
Saas-Almagell
Advanture park time. :-)
Relaxing there for half an hour, we headed back down. Again, we had drink and relaxed for a bit. Now, we are going down again.
This time, we took a different trail which was much steeper.
We again stopped at the same restaurant. Marcus found out that one of his friends were there too since she had been going to one of those peaks.
We stayed there again for an hour and had lunch. And I had (again) one of my experiences with Swiss people being seriously and unexpectedly direct.
It was Marcus's friend (a woman in her 30's) asked me about the difference between women there and back in Iran.
Well, to be honest, it was for sure direct, but I aslo found it a bit insulting too. So, I guess she got what she was looking for. My frank and direct answer too. :-)
On the way back in the advanture park, Eva warned me about the bees flying around. And guess what happened 15 minutes later? She herself got stung by a bee! Unlucky and funny at the same time.
The last part was fun. Since instead of taking the
Saas-Almagell
Advanture park cable cars back down, we decided to try something different. We took some special bikes (without any pedals) (called Trotti). Awesome, all the way downhill and fun.
Then we just waited for the bus for one hour and then later headed back home. The train were packed with people.
They also had an extra train in the same route. But it was not enough. Everyone was going back to Bern and Zurich.
Alright, that was another weekend.
Take care,
Momo
PS: Btw, I forgot to say that here in that area, we could see the highest mountain which is completely located in Switzerland (4,545 m (14,911 ft)). The glacier was gorgoues and made you feel like going to the top! That is the temptation when you just stare at such a beautiful mountain for more than 10 seconds. :-)
PS2: I think I talk and write too much! :-)
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