30th June A short walk with Matthius


I had a quiet day today. It rained in the morning so I tried to update the Blogg but a total system failure thwarted my attempt. Then early afternoon, when it finally stopped raining I got talking to a nice German guy called Matthius, from the Black forest area, he is a mountain biker but hikes as well. He was interested in doing the Eiger trail so I filled him in on the details. He wanted to walk up the same valley that I started the Eiger trail on yesterday so I offered to show him the way. I walked up to about 1,400m mark then left him to continue on to Baregg hut. During my descent back to Grindelwald I passed the restaurant. Not unusual that is the route. But there were two old chaps in a hot tub wearing nothing but bowler hats, being photographed drinking cocktails. I just said high and carried on. It must be the air around here.

When I returned I started looking at the map and looking at the next hut on my German friends route, the Shreckhornehutte SAC. I studied the map as best I could (1:60,00 not ideal), and thought that the summit of Lauteraarhorn may have been a possibility. Too late now though, and going into the high hills on your own cuts your safety margins down a lot. So now I turn my attention to Chamonix and a possible attempt on Mont Blanc, I move to Chamonix tomorrow, and I will begin looking at the route on Sunday.
I had a drink with Matthius last night, his English is good, and so we discussed mountain biking and walking routes. I advised him to go to Morzine for the mountain biking as here it isn’t very good for it. The Swiss seem to want the bikers mainly on the roads. He gave me a good German beer to try, Beck Brau I think, it was nice. I shall be sad to leave Grindelwald even though the high street is a mass of road works at the moment, and it is very pricey. The views have more than made up for that.

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