Braunwald days

We were both a little sore and tired after our big day on Aug 31st. But as we still had a few days left before I needed to fly back, we made the most of our time in the beautiful mountains.

We hiked to Ortstock but not all the way to the top

This was my favorite wildflower - I called it the Bedhead flower

On the 1st of September, the forecast was for rain all day but we decided to go for a long hike anyway. We were so, so happy that the weather turned out to be not as bad as predicted where we were walking. There were a lot of clouds around, whooshing up from the valley floor and making swirls around us, making the mountains disappear and partially reappear for some moments before being swallowed again and then blasted by fierce bright sunlight. It was so, so beautiful.

 We got to the little knob at the saddle so we could look over into the other valley, and then reluctantly decided to not go to the summit but to head back. It was already 2:40pm and the last gondola down the mountain from Gumen was at 5:30pm so we really hurried to get back in time for that!

We glissaded down the snow field and it was really fun, though hard work.

 By the time we were on the home stretch of the trail, it was raining hard and steadily for the last 30 minutes or so. We were happy to be able to just hop into a fully enclosed gondola and ride back down to the path that would take us back to our lovely hotel.

Inside the gondola

Our lovely dining table at the hotel, with the terrace overlooking the mountains and valley outside

 The next morning we got an early(ish) start so we could drive all the way to Grindelwald.

View from the dining table window at breakfast

 It was sad to leave this place - the owner and the rest of the staff were so wonderful.

View of the fabulous "Alexander's Todiblick Hotel"

But we got on the funicular and went back down to our rental car in Linthal, and headed for new terrain and even bigger mountains.