The Haute Route: To the Foot of the Matterhorn

yesterday we did 21 miles with 8,000 feet of climbing so that could be considered if you think about the previous three days yes they could be considered an easy day we are just outside of st. Nicholas we couldn't get a hotel in that town we have found this hotel a little bit further up on the hill and today we'll be starting here and then traversing along the mountains all the way to the Europa Hut and then all the way across and down to Zermatt today should be around 21 miles with 4000 feet or so of climbing this is our last day and the skies have cleared the clouds have parted it looks like it's going to be heavenly here every day starts with a climb and that's like a giant cup of coffee when it comes to waking up and so we're gonna head right out of town and up that hill and get started one more big day I think we lucked out with weather I'm suspecting in my eternally optimistic attitude that today's gonna be even better than yesterday and I don't even think it's going to be as heart of a day you know climbing distance wise I really hope there's not a deathly descent at the end of this and according to our maps which we still don't know how to read correctly there is not but I guess we'll be ready for anything [Music] anybody know it holds hosel slag means this me the trail is closed does it mean warning Christoph's looking up on his phone because this is the trail we want to take and we kind of need to know what that exclamation point is indicating hole slug cutting of timber oh ok so I'll be like look out there's Lumberjacks afoot so just make sure chainsaws don't impale us as we're on the trail all right [Music] good oh my gosh we're a payoff this is gonna be a great day here in Switzerland the very first thing you do in the morning other than get dressed put your gear together okay after those things the very first thing you do is a huge climb thousands of feet straight up through the trees and then the next thing you do is you get your mind blown by the view once you clear the treeline and this morning is no different [Music] so he came across the sign earlier that said they were cutting cutting trees and that sign was an easy one to brush by but this one says that the Europe Europa wing the Europe wag is closed to go back down to the other trail would require us to drop down 3,000 feet and take the trail through the trees just as things were starting to get exciting that's discouraging we're gonna figure this out I don't understand why it would wait till this point this far in to say it's closed so maybe I'll try calling the hut that you rope a hut see if there anybody's even up there hello is this Europa Hut hello yes is this the Europa Hut is the trail open to the Europa Hut that from here breaking a group of egg it's closed okay very good thank you like a rock slide or something is there stone or storm what are they do but he says one year has been closed this closure showed up on my map that I'm using briefly but as we approached it it disappeared it was no longer the warning was no longer showing up on the app we thought you think it was a temporary warning and now he just called it's been closed for a year because of a storm or stone or a storm of stone here's the thing you're on your last day you're close to your target you have the coolest part of the trowel in front of you it's close how many five miles to get to the hut you don't know if it's closed because they don't want the general public tumbling to their death I mean I just don't you we could get Clift up but at the same time I'm isn't this what we do all year round is go through stuff like this we could gently pick our way but if we do that this could become like a thirty mile day if we have to turn around because there's just absolutely no way around part of me thinks that they just closed it because they don't want a backpacker to die but seriously is what we do [Laughter] [Music] did you put the chopper out [Music] we are almost to rope a hut and I think we've gone through the section that was closed and before we get lectured by people I just want to point out something that Kristoff brought up and that is that the trail is closed but the mountain is not this mountain is covered with people all over it all these mountains are and many of them are not on a trail we had 5 to 10 minutes of debate and I really really think Chris got hit on the head the trellis closed with the mountains not [Music] [Music] so I have to remind Danny this is Europe and this is our European vacation and it's your European because my he refused well and if he is hoping the the Hut staff will move at his pace he's going to be very disappointed so he's just gonna have to calm down enjoy the experience mountain hut balcony and not worry about showing up to Zermatt 15 minutes later it's his vacation so I'll let him indulge in a coconut sand on it in the middle of a run [Music] with black wolf and I've heard so much about [Music] we've gotten our first unobstructed view of the entire Matterhorn and it is a magnificent sight jutting or as Christoph said thrusting into the sky we probably have a handful of miles left before we descend into zermat the trail continues to impress it's been fun we've gone through tunnels rock sections over bridges it just never ceases to be an entertaining trail so two thumbs up for the Europa vague looks like for the last hour or two of the of the day today we're just gonna be treated to magnificent views of the Matterhorn yeah I'm trying to think of things to complain about but really I'm kind of sad this is coming to an end because I'm just having a great day and a great time out here [Music] [Music] [Music] five days ago I started in Xiamen II a place I'd never been and then I ran hiked and shuffled through mountain valleys and up through mountain passes day after day until reaching here zermat it's been roughly a hundred and thirty five miles with about forty four thousand feet of climbing through some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever seen I did the first three days on my own and it was a real grind a real beautiful grind but then Christophe joined about two days ago and he made sure that the remaining two days were a luxury tour through the Swiss Alps we stopped every afternoon for lunch at a hut and he turned the last two days into a real vacation thanks to Christoph for making sure these last two days were awesome but yeah it is great to be done I can't wait to take these shoes off I can't believe I'm here in Zermatt I can't believe I'm looking at the Matterhorn when I landed in San Francisco from Tokyo on Sunday I'll have to admit there was the brief thought that this is crazy that I'm gonna get on another plane and fly 11 hours to Zurich and try and find Danny somewhere in the Swiss Alps but I am so glad I did I mean these last two days have been incredible I mean it's like the mountain highs have overcome any fatigue pain suffering just the location has been mind-blowing and as Danny said I made sure that we were going to have a luxury tour of the hot route

Channel: Mediocre Amateur

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Id: _zD7YAMDGF8

Length: 14min 28sec (868 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 21 2019