Switzerland

I had mixed feelings about finishing the hike as my body was really done with hiking while I still wanted to stay in the mountains. Two weeks on a trail was the longest I’ve done so far.

Europaweg, the final section of Walker’s Haute route, is an iconic two-day hike, which is both demanding and rewarding. Once up there you pretty much have awesome views all the way until Zermatt.

Kev Reynolds (the author of the guidebook) is telling me that today we’re getting some spectacular views. We still have to work for them, but at this point we’re kind of used to it. I also don’t have that much ankle pain or lazy thoughts (remember my morning on day 8?), so bring it on!

It was a cold night as the rain did not stop. We also woke up to a surprise – white peaks of the hills that were definitely not white yesterday. Did it snow? In August?… With all the warmth enforcement (layers of clothes and gloves) we quickly packed and walked to Zinal.

We hit the trail at 7:30 as the weather forecast did not look great. Yesterday we got lucky and avoided rain, while today we woke up in a cloud that didn’t seem to move anywhere.

By 6:30 we were already leaving the camping. I woke up rested, but not in high spirits. For the first time I was not looking forward to another day of hiking – oh not again, I need to go all the way up and then all the way down…

Funny thing is that while you think you’re walking on a rock, if you pay more attention, you start seeing that beneath the layer of rock there’s ice. That’s when I realised that I’ve been already walking on the glacier for a while without even noticing it.

We were total snails today, inching slowly with our houses on the backs. I was saving my Snickers for a hard day and here we are – sharing a Snickers and cursing at the trail. Where is the hut??

We knew that day 6 was going to be a long day. Unfortunately we could not get the Cabane de Prafleuri, thus we’ll have to hike at least an extra hour on an already challenging day. Instead of 3 passes, we’ll cross 4 passes (jeeeey!…)

It seemed that with every step more and more of a grand scenery was unfolding in front of us. Low clouds were filling the valley like a foamy river as far as we could see with white-capped mountains shaping the shores of this spectacular river.