My folks, sister, her husband, and I all ended up in Switzerland mainly because my sister has a neighbor, Jim, who runs a Switzerland touring company. I remember meeting Jim around a year and a half ago because he was a Fred Beckey afficionado and was interested in hearing my stories of going on a climbing trip with Fred. We spent two weeks with Jim and a small group totalling 10 people hiking in the environs of Saas-Fee and Grindelwald. Saas-Fee is a “carless” town sitting high at the end of the Saas valley near the border of Italy surrounded by high 4000 meter peaks. A “carless” village, like it’s more famous neighbor, Zermatt, simply means that passenger cars are not allowed in the town. They park somewhere outside the town and either walk, train, or bus to the town. However, there are plenty of service vehicles roaming the streets of these towns, so, to me, it didn’t feel legitimately carless.

The first night in Saas-Fee saw the mountains engulfed in clouds. On the first day of hiking, where we took a lift from the town to above treeline and hiked the rim of the valley back down to the town, we were able to see that a good amount of snow had fallen at a relatively low elevation. The high peaks were still hidden from view.

(above) The snowline is just above us.

(above) The village of Saas-Fee below. These small, idyllic villages are common in Switzerland. In the past, they were mostly agricultural villages. Now, they get 95% of their revenue from tourism.

Ruth Ann and I took a side trip to a high glacial lake while the rest of the group took a break at a mountain hut. There was virtually no growth around the lake; it was mostly talus, scree, and glacial silt. Gray silt had built up in places and it functioned like a gray puddy or goo that held some of the rocks into place. When we got back at the hut, which was another of these comfortable European huts, Pat invited me to share his “Rosti”, basically an elaborate concoction of hash-browns, sausages, and fried eggs. Turned out the price of the thing was 18.50 francs, which translates to basically 18.50 bucks: The most expensive hash browns of all time! This is Switzerland – it’s a very expensive place. I think the overpriced record goes to a bottle of water at the Hornli Hut on the Matterhorn – $8.

When one of the hut waitresses came by to ask what I wanted, I said, “I’m just going to share with him”, and pointed to the rosti. That translated to “I want to have one of these” and a few minutes later the waitress came back with another rosti (and $18.50) in hand. She got a bit upset when I said I didn’t order it, but, for 18.50, that was just too bad. Actually, this was to become something of a pattern. It seemed like multiple times, waitresses would come out with extra food claiming that we ordered it!

(above) The high glacial lake. The small orange figure on the right side of the stream is me. Photo by Ruth Ann.

(above) Switzerland Wildflowers: 1) Alpenrose (in the Azalea family), 2) “Hens ‘n Chickens”, 3) Asters (just like back in the US)

A couple hours after the hike, when we were back in Saas Fee, the clouds finally broke revealing the impressive peaks above the town. They were higher than I was expecting. We were right underneath the highest peak in Switzerland, “The Dom”.

(above) Common hiking signs. Times are in hours and are fairly accurate, if a little fast for your average hiker. In the background is the Dom.