Swiss Via Alpina Day 6: Hohtürli Pass to Lenk
Thursday 6/29/23
Hohtürli (Blüemlisalphütte) to Lenk, 28.2 miles, 6,802ft gain, 12,343ft loss(!), 5:30am start, 12 hrs 4 min (Strava Activity I | Strava Activity II)
Though I like to start my days earlier around 4am, I felt nervous about descending the mountain in the dark as I wasn't sure of the snow conditions. There were two breakfast time options: 3:00am or 7:00am. 7:00am seemed too late, so I woke up for the early breakfast, as did a group of rock climbers, and I spent the next couple hours cradling several cups of coffee refills and charging all my electronics, since the few outlets available were taken by other hikers the night before.
Sleeping at over 9,000ft in elevation in a small, crowded room with the heat cranked didn't do wonders for my recovery following a tough day including the two biggest climbs of the trip. It was plenty light out by the time I got started; I think I let my fear of going down the mountain get the best of me. I wasn't completely out of line in my fear though. I made a terrible mistake very early into the day. I followed some built-in wooden steps down a steep part of the mountain, but somehow missed a blaze indicating to turn left at the bottom of the steps. It appeared as if the trail continued to go down, so I followed the "trail" on down the mountain. The terrain consisted of loose scree and became increasingly steep. I felt perplexed as the trail had been relatively user-friendly to this point, and this seemed to be a pretty technical descent. Then it dawned on me that I might no longer be on the trail. I planted my feet, looked up behind me, consulted my map, and sure enough I had gone off trail in a dangerous fashion. My heart started to pound, my body started shaking, and I tried not to panic. I now had to scramble back up very loose scree back to the steps to safety. I looped my one hiking pole around my wrist and plunged my hands into the scree, staying on all fours and leaning forward as to not have a catastrophic fall. In the thin air, and climbing upward, and likely from nerves as well, my breathing became labored. In just a couple minutes I was back on the stairs, shaking, upset, and feeling very stupid. My hands and legs were covered in charcoal-colored dirt. I had plenty of water so took some time to pour water on my arms and hands and clean myself up a bit. From there, I followed a much more (relatively) nicely graded trail down the mountain. There were some more snowfields and scrambly bits, but those seemed like no big deal after what I'd just experienced. It was a harrowing way to start the day.
After getting through the steepest and most technical part of the descent, I had a nice long gradual descent to the next town of Kandersteg with a pretty view of a big glacial lake. I'd taken care to eat well that morning, knowing how fatigued I was. However, I think the altitude and heat of the bunkroom did a number on my body and I was not feeling well. Upon leaving Kandersteg, my stomach lurched and after funny-walking for a bit I quickly ducked into the woods and pulled down my shorts just in time to avoid having a nasty accident (sorry TMI!!). My body was not handling well what it had been through. It made me a bit nervous of how the rest of the day would go. Somehow though, I think "getting it out of my system" was exactly what I needed to feel better. I ate cautiously after that, and thankfully my body handled food okay for the rest of the day. After that I made very good time up and over the next pass to Adelboden. There were quite a few people out (not normal- most of the time I had the mountains to myself!) and I had some nice chats with other hikers throughout the day. Their destination was Adelboden, but I hoped to make it over one more pass beyond that to Lenk. There were storms forecasted for that afternoon, so I was motivated to hustle- the last thing I wanted was to be caught in a storm above treeline.
I hit a construction reroute in Adelboden and ended up having to backtrack and take a different way out of town. Aware of the impending storms, this made me nervous, and I hustled uphill as quickly as I could, essentially paralleling a ski lift line to the top of the pass. The skies had become overcast and some dark clouds were looming, but I made it up and over. On the descent to Lenk, thunder began to rumble and the skies opened up just as I was getting back down to treeline. Lightning flashed and the storm quickly rolled in and before I knew it, it was right above me! Thunder boomed, lightning crackled, rain poured, and I hightailed it down a ridge of powerlines, with the town of Lenk below me in the distance. It was completely exhilarating, and I was so glad I was well below the mountain pass. I made it to Lenk just after 5:30pm and was grateful for an early evening. I had not planned to go further, knowing the stormy forecast into the evening. Lenk is not a big town and I saw the grocery store was closing soon at 6:30pm. I took a quick shower, made a beeline to the store to pick up my breakfast, lunch, and snacks for the next day, then visited the only pub open for a locally sourced cheeseburger with fries and a weissbier. Yes, this was all quite a luxurious way to go about a self-supported FKT attempt!
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