Hiking near Grindelwald.

This past weekend I went on this hike with my friend Melissa, and we heard yodelers, which was one of the most amazing things that has happened to me on a hike thus far.

We chose this hike because it was where the coolest temperatures in Switzerland were predicted (28 C, only!). It has truly been a ranging inferno here, especially given the lack of A/C, so I was happy not to stay in the city (it was up to 35 C, or 95 F!). The day was sunny and perfect.

Because spring/summer arrived so late, the mountains were still incredibly green, and the wildflowers were in full bloom.

One of my favorite tundra plants that I hadn't seen in the Alps before!

We first hiked up to the Bachalpsee, where we had a picnic and cooled off our feet in the ice-cold lake. We couldn't stay in too long before our feet developed ice cream headaches, but it was certainly refreshing!

From Bachalpsee, the hike went up to a pinnacle, which gave us a great vista over the surrounding mountains. We had to hike through some snow patches (further evidence of the late spring and extreme amount of snow last winter), which was a little slick, but we survived!

I took a video of the panorama from the top:



We then walked along a ridge, with mountains in every view. I felt like my eyes weren't big enough to take everything in!

Look at all that iron!

We finished up at the Post bus stop in Bussalp, and had a nice cold Coke on a deck overlooking the valley. From start to finish, it was pretty much a perfect day in the mountains!

500 and a dream come true!

I realized this week that I was rapidly approaching 500 blog posts! Aside from being shocked that I had found that much to say, I felt some pressure to say something meaningful or extra-special, and I was not sure what on earth that was going to be. But then, one of my dreams came true, which seemed momentous enough for the occasion.

I went on a truly stupendous hike yesterday in the Bernese Alps with my dear friend Melissa (which was actually my first real hike of this season, since the weather was so bad in the spring and then I was gone for almost 6 weeks in the US). It was one of those hikes that was just amazing at every turn, with huge vistas of the mountains around every corner.

Ever since I have started hiking in the Alps, I have wanted to hear yodeling. Sure, I've heard Alphorns on my hikes, as well as much drunken German singing, I've never heard yodeling (except in the transit tram in the Zürich airport). Imagine my delight when we turned the corner to an amazing vista and the hikers behind us broke into yodeling! I tried to capture a video, which is below. I'm still getting used to my camera, so I think I was covering my microphone for the first part of the video, but I think you can still get a taste of what we heard in the video. It was so fantastic!



To be honest, I've always thought that yodeling was a little bizarre. In context, though, it seems to be totally natural and joyous. I don't know how you could look at these glorious mountains and not want to break out into some sort of song...

It's nice here.