This morning we had breakfast and checked out at a leisurely hour so that we would get to our hotel in Braunwald with enough time to be able to leave again and do some climbing on the via ferrata that we are supposed to do tomorrow. We had a heck of a time driving out of Zurich, but this time it was Rhodri behind the wheel rather than me. Finally we got out of the city and onto the open road!
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| Heading for the mountains of Glarus canton |
It was a stunning day - so, so beautiful with big mountains and green grass and tidy farms. We decided that the Swiss would never let us live in this country - we are not tidy enough.
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| Unknown mountains with beautiful clouds |
We followed the directions to get to the Braunwaldbahn station.
Braunwald is a village up on the side of the mountain so you can't actually drive there and you have to take a funicular-train-thingy from Linthal to get up there instead. Rhodri and I were like two excited kids getting into this funicular-train-thing to go up the steep mountain to Braunwald!
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| On the funicular to Braunwald from Linthal |
Once we arrived, there was a horse and cart from our hotel waiting to transport us further up the mountain.
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| Braunwald with our horses & cart in the foreground and Eggstock in the background |
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| On the way to Hotel Todiblick in the cart |
We checked into this lovely hotel,
Hotel Todiblick, and then made our way to the chairlift to take us up to Gumen. It is so amazing how accessible the mountains are here in Switzerland!
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| On the chairlift en route to Gumen |
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| The light was spectacular on the tidy little farms set on the mountainside |
We got to Gumen and rented some equipment so that we could do some practicing on the mini-via ferrata that was set up behind the hut. The reason we chose to come to Braunwald in the first place was so we could do
this fixed-rope climb (aka via ferrata) on the mountain called Eggstock. We spent a couple of hours on this "child" climb, which really scared the cr** out of each of us in one section. We were thinking, oiy, if this is the child's version, then what will tomorrow be like?!!
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| Me on the practice climb |
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| Rhodri on the practice climb |
We got through it and came back down the hill to Gumen so we could catch the chairlift back down in time for dinner at our lovely hotel.
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| Gumen hut visible with the Todi valley in the background, peaks covered in clouds |
The hotel offers set dinner menus which we heartily signed up for, and it was such a delicious meal.
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