As soon as we landed in Zurich, a dopamine bomb went off in Danielle's brain. She skipped from one end of the airport to the other, pressed her face against the glass in front of delicious-looking baked goods, and at one point grabbed me by both shoulders and shouted, "You can't handle the cuteness!!!"
Unsuccessfully trying to conceal her giddiness
The picture fairy
I was equally impressed with the majestic landscapes we passed on our way to Gimmelwald, but after our exhausting four day transit from Rwanda to Europe via Kenya and Qatar, it took all the energy I had just to control my facial muscles enough to prevent myself from drooling. By the next day, after a good night's sleep, we had both adopted the habit of interrupting whatever we were talking about to say, "OH MY GOSH!!!" every time we left our homey Pension room, because that is the only appropriate response when you walk out the front door to views like this:
We took a million pictures and they all turned out like this
I had never seen mountains like these before. The only problem was that Danielle expected me to climb one with her. It would have been an affront to my pride as a Coloradoan to admit how terrified I was of this idea, so I convinced myself a little hike in the Swiss Alps wasn't a big deal. The whole reason Danielle wanted to climb the Shilthorn was because her parents had done it years before, so it was obviously possible to get to the top. And Danielle hadn't climbed any mountains since we left Hawaii either, so I knew that if I died, I wouldn't die alone. The only thing I asked Danielle about the hike was how long it would take us, and she said around 5 hours.
We spent the first hour following a river through a picturesque valley. The relative normalcy of the terrain lulled me into a false sense of security. Obviously I had worried for nothing....
At first it was all rainbows and lolly pops
The valley
This isn't so bad...
The second hour was somewhat difficult. We followed switchbacks through a forest to the top of what I originally thought was a mountain. As the sounds of the river got further, the incline got steeper until we were traveling steadily up a 45 degree angle. We passed cows that had apparently evolved the ability to lean in order to keep from toppling over, and when we reached the top of this "mountain" we found a precariously situated dairy, next to a cable car that apparently was used to transport fresh milk.
Kind of steep
The cows didn't seem to notice their pasture was lopsided
A very cute dairy on a mountain
We stopped here to ask for directions, and learned two very disturbing truths: 1) the slope we had just climbed merely brought us to the base of the real mountain and 2) our destination was so high we couldn't see it through the clouds. Danielle took a picture of me as this info sunk in.
Wait...we are going up THERE?
I don't see it....
After another hour of climbing, we had passed a remote little restaurant and could finally see the building on the top of the Shilthorn.
There it is.
The lonely little restaurant
Pressing on
By the fourth hour I was completely panic-stricken. My legs felt like they were going to give out already and we were only half-way there! Plus Danielle put on her hardcore face and continued to put one foot in front of the other without any breaks for what seemed (to my oxygen starved brain) like hours at a time. We crossed a stream and starting climbing a hill so steep it occasionally required hands as well as feet. I started pausing to admire the scenery...every few seconds.
Water break!
Across the frozen tundra
Along a precarious ledge
Up a series of steep inclines and ladders
Until suddenly the clouds blew away and we were there!!!
Our first human contact all day
Celebratory photograph
The Shilthorn rotating restaurant, featured in one of the old Bond movies
We celebrated by splitting the most delicious bar of chocolate I have ever tasted and a glass of sparkling apple juice at the ritzy restaurant, where we felt superior to all the tourists dressed in skirts and heels who had taken the overpriced cable car instead of earning their way to the top with their blood, sweat, and tears. But as we sat and let the exhaustion set in, we humbled ourselves and took the same overpriced cable car 1/4 of the way down. It was cold, ok?
We made it down the second steep slope ahead of a rain storm, which caught up to us 5 minutes before we reached Gimmelwald. We ran through the downpour straight into the restaurant next door to our hostel and bought big, steaming bowls of homemade soup.
It was fantastic.
Breakfast
