Swiss Via Alpina Day 8: Château-d'Œx to Montreux
Saturday 7/1/23
Château-d'Œx to Montreux, 26.6 miles, 6,575ft gain, 8,415ft loss, 4:14am start, 8 hrs 10 minutes (Strava Activity)
Despite being "crunch time" and my last day on the trail, I felt pretty relaxed this entire day! I had plenty of time to cover the 26 miles to Montreux. Tina's record stood at 8 days, 5 hours, and 26 minutes. I had started last Saturday 6/24 at 12:52pm. If I finished by 6:18pm this evening, I would lower the women's FKT by a full day. I thought if I wanted to get really wild, I could get up early and hustle to get to Montreux before 12:52pm, breaking the seven day barrier. However, I wasn't feeling that hardcore about it and preferred getting a decent amount of sleep and just being happy with finishing Saturday evening.
As the morning got started though, there was an uncanny amount of road walking and downhill, making it quite easy to run. I hadn't really planned to run, but why not? I felt good and it was my last day. So I shuffled along all morning, the miles clicking by, and made great progress. The only exception slowing my progress was a series of switchbacks on a steep grassy slope through a cow pasture: it was slick, very muddy, and full of cows and cow pies. One wrong move and I’d be covered in mud and dung! I audibly winced and whimpered navigating through the mess and was very glad to make it through without incident.
The climb up toward the very last pass of the trail, Rochers de Naye, was mostly forested, but it had slick rocks, roots, and a bit of a erosion from the rain and had some very steep drop offs. I took care on these parts, going more slowly than I probably needed to, but I didn't want to take any chances of slipping, or taking a wrong step on eroding dirt and plummeting down off the side. Thankfully there were ropes to hold onto through the worst parts. My hands got wet and dirty from sliding along the steel cords, but I didn’t care.
Once above treeline, I followed farm trails and roads up toward Rochers de Naye (the final mountain pass), and then was treated to the most beautiful, lush, green ridgewalk with wildflowers, views of Montreux and Lake Geneva down below, and mountains all around. It was the scenery I had daydreamed about that had enticed me to do this hike at all. I felt like I was in a fantasy world, like some beautiful fictional universe engineered by a video game designer. This was no doubt my favorite part of the entire journey.
From the top at Rochers de Naye, it was around 10:30am and I had about 15 kilometers to go. Keeping a keen eye on the time, I thought "if this trail is runnable I could finish before 12:52pm and break seven days!" The trail, in fact, was a wide, user-friendly path most of the way down. Feeling excited and motivated to complete the Swiss Via Alpina in under a week, I took off and started running. It was a long, long way down with over 5,000ft of elevation loss. Not friendly on the feet, knees, or quads! I was so full of adrenaline though that nothing hurt. Well, except for my rib but that’s an entirely different story (I’d been sick since my Colorado Trail prep hike with Tara a few weeks back, and I’m pretty sure I strained a rib muscle from coughing so much–it got exacerbated during this hike, unfortunately).
From the more mountainous part, the trail then dipped into a little gorge and rainforest with a beautiful waterfall, then popped out into the narrow cobblestone roads and pastel painted homes lining the streets of Montreux. The closer I got to the lake, the more crowded and touristy the route became. The route even dipped into train station to go under the tracks, before spitting me out on the other side just down a couple more blocks to the lake. It was chaotic with tourists everywhere, street musicians blaring, and vendor tents set up everywhere. It was like a sensory overload!
I passed by the very last sign with a green square for "Via Alpina 1", touched the fence by Lake Geneva, and stopped my watch at 12:24pm. Only 28 minutes to spare before my "week" was up! I did it! Feeling completely delighted, I snapped a few photos and took a video, then sat down and enjoyed the satisfaction of being finished having one last afternoon in Switzerland... before taking a four hour train to Zürich and flying home the next morning. I wouldn't have it any other way!
Totals by my watch (including detours, wrong turns, and backtracking):
6 days, 23 hrs, 32 min
265.5 miles
72,853ft elevation gain
77,753ft elevation loss
💫
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