Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland
Switzerland has always been a special place to Beth. Throughout her child, she and her family would go there on holiday ever year, to the Jungfrau Region in the alps. Over the years, they gathered many special memories, and it very naturally became very meaningful to them all. It was here that Beth and I got engaged almost three years ago, just before we started blogging. On this occasion (her 26th visit, according to the maths; my second) we were in the company of her parents, Katie and Andy.
Snow was the order for the holiday. Where we were staying in Wilderswill, lower down the valley, the snow had melted, as indeed it had thought the majority of the valley floor, yet was still both present and thick further up. We had therefore swapped our trusty walking boots for snow boots for the week. We headed out of our chalet early on the second day and caught the train up to Lauterbrunnen, followed by a cable car to the Grütschalp station. We then hopped straight on to another train which took us even further up the mountain side, to where the village of Mürren is nestled at over 5000ft (we spent much of the holiday in this manner, and last night I genuinely had dreams plagued with constantly getting on and off the excellent Swiss public transport system).
The snow had appeared outside halfway up the cable car portion of the journey, and as we had trundled upward we could see and beautiful winter alpine world out of the window. When we got out at the top, our boots hit the crunch of the snow, and before setting off enjoyed a wander through the snowy village, stopping for a coffee and a hot chocolate. We eventually found our way to the cable car station at the other end, where we made an about turn, and so began our descent. We began at about half past eleven, and made it almost thirty second before our first stop of the walk. Katie had decided she wanted to take some pictures with Beth and the stunning backdrop (which in fairness is particularly picturesque). Meanwhile, I was receiving my first Geography lesson of the day from Andy; all about the glacial nature of the alps, and how they are (geographically speaking) young mountains, with their jagged edges, compared to more ancient and rounded ones. As we continued, the skies were full of Yellow-billed choughs; a common sight and sound in the alps, which I enjoy seeing. We carried on at this leisurely pace back through the village, and it’s fair to say that this was just about the slowest start to one of our walks – which was of course no problem at all; in fact, Beth was so happy she cried.
Initially, the winter-wonderland in which we found ourselves in was overcast, however by the time we had finally left Mürren, the skies had turned blue. This brought with it a surprising heat and a sudden dazzling, as the sun reflected from the bright snow. It was just about the perfect day for it, as we began to descend down the mountain path. Not long after leaving the village behind us, did a peaceful silence and stillness fall around us. The only sounds were the crunching of snow and the occasional passing of the train going to and fro. The peace was briefly shattered when I decided to start a snowball fight with my wife. Naturally, it was less than two minutes until I managed to directly hit Beth’s camera, which of course put a stop to that!
The way down was relatively simple, following a well-defined path through the snowy mountain sides and dense alpine forests. After about an hour and a half of this we arrived at our planned lunch halt; Winteregg. Here awaited a restaurant promising hot food, beer and stunning mountain views – what more could you want on such a day. For a brief moment, we though we had encountered a disaster, lunch service appearing to have ended; however we were thankfully wrong, and chips and rӧstis were ordered. Whilst we waited, we sat outside in the snow and sunshine, where I poured myself a beer and enjoyed those first, perfect sips. As we sat, we looked up at the observatory Jungfraujoch sitting right on the high crests above, looked fruitlessly for the jets we could here echoing off the mountains and Beth gave her parents a selfie lesson.
Once we had refuelled, we rose back to our boots and carried on down through the snow. As we walked past a particularly deep drift, I decided to see just how deep, deep was. The answer; very. I sunk my arm in as far as it could go and I failed to find the bottom! The snow throughout was deeper than anything I’d seen before, and laying in it was a satisfying feeling. Shortly after, I received my second geography lesson of the day, this time regarding trees. Andy pointed out that, across the mountains, there was a very visible line where the trees all suddenly stopped; I’m afraid to say I can’t remember how high that line is right now! As we began to near the finish line however, a more pressing geographical process began to grow relevant. Avalanches were something that had been in the back of my mind (the area after all was on high alert for them). The experienced Swiss visitors with me seems unconcerned, however as we walked, we heard a sudden rushing from across the valley. We looked over in time to see a rush of snow tumbling down from on high, the loud sound reaching our ears even from such a distance. The heat of the day’s sun had loosened the snow, and it wasn’t long before we saw a second, again thankfully across from us. This was the last one we saw (that day), although was certainly not the last that could be heard echoing through the valley.
Despite the present dangers, I was quite sad to see the station appearing below, marking the end of the day’s adventure. We descended back down on the cable car, before jumping straight on the train up to the village of Wengen, which had been visible across the valley from us for large portions of the day. Once we arrived back up the other side, we could see Mürren silhouetted on the edge of the mountain like a medieval fantasy castle, before turning our attention to more pressing matters; pizza and beer!
Matthew G. Huggins 