Murren and an "easy hike" that ended up being death defying

The next day we took a cable car up to Grutschalp and then the Panoramafahrt - the Panoramic train - to Murren. Murren is a bustling resort town...except in November, when its shoulder season. To be honest, shoulder season is my favorite time to travel (see Sweden in November and Italy in February - if I had actually written a post, whoops) - less crowds and cheaper, so one can get photos like this...  

However, one problem in traveling during shoulder season is that lots of other things may be closed...like the cable car up to Allmunhubel, where our hike started.  So instead, we decided to hike up to Allmunhubel, which was up 1,000 feet from Murren, which turned out to be a bit difficult since the air is much thinner up there, and it was straight uphill. Luckily we had lots of beautiful views...

Birg station on top and the path cutting up on the right.

 

The weather was gorgeous, and we had some great views.  Here's Murren from above, and a non-working ski lift.  There are great ski trails all around the area - I can't wait to go back in March!  

Murren from above

The hike was very long, but had amazing views. Here's a high plateau with a gorgeous view of the mountain range. That is the Schwartzmonch and Jungfrau.

Eye of the Tiger

The Big 3:  Eiger, Monch, Jungfrau, and in the foreground, the Schwartzmonch.

 We decided to hike down to Gimmelwald via the Sprutz trail, where one sees the Sprutz waterfall.  HOWEVER, we did not know that right before the Sprutz waterfall, there is another waterfall that runs on the trail.  This is fine in most months of the year, but when it freezes over and you, your hubs, and your hubs' parents have to cross it AND there is what seems like a 200 foot drop into an icy river, its much, much more scary. We definitely should have had crampons to cross it.  We asked the TI in Lauterbrunnen if it was OK to go on the trail, and very Swiss like, they said yes it is fine but didn't tell us that a part of the trail could be frozen and there is a drop into the icy river below if you fall.  Oh, and you are at least 3 km from civilization should you hurt yourself. Anyway, we survived! :)

Frozen waterfall

After I crossed, D's mom + dad getting ready to cross.  D's dad scampered back and forth 3x while I hyperventilated.

Sprutz waterfall

Frozen waterfall on the left, Sprutz on the right.  I'm freaked out thinking about it.

We finally got down to Gimmelwald, just as the sun was setting and emerged from the forest for sunset and  the very end of some beautiful Alpen glow.

Alpen Glow

The top of Europe!

The Jungfraujoch is called "The Top of Europe" on the saddle between the Monch and the Jungfrau itself.  It is the highest train station in Europe at 3,454 meters or 11,332 ft. We took a (very early) cog rail from Lauterbrunnen to Murren, then up to Kleine Scheidegg. 

The view of Lauterbrunnen from Murren - the sun is about to rise.

 At Kleine Scheidegg, we transferred to another cog rail which takes you into and through the Eiger, with two stops along the way:  one halfway up the North Face of the Eiger and the other on the Sea of Ice. 

From the Eiger - the round patches of snow are snow making machines getting ready for ski season.

Sea of Ice

We finally arrived at the top of Europe after 50 minutes traveling through the Eiger on the cog railway.  Our first stop was to walk out on the top of the Sphinx mountain to see the Jungfrau and the Monch. 

Hello Jungfrau!

Hello Monch!  -  The Monch protecting the Jungfrau from the Eiger

Then we head into the ice palace - where everything, including the floor and chairs are made of ice with ice sculptures everywhere. 

Look what else we found!

Ice seats

There were some tight squeezes - look at that gorgeous color!

 We went to the top of the observatory to see the longest glacier in Europe: the Aletsch glacier, 22 km long.

One side: the Aletsch glacier - check out those crevasses.

The other side - this is the hike we did back in August.

After a few hours at the top of the Jungfrau we head back down to Kleine Scheidegg and hiked down to Wengen Alp. It was a gorgeous day! 

Check out this gorgeous view - Eiger on the left and Monch on the right.

Morocco Part 4: Imlil and an impromptu hike

We took a day trip to Imlil - the base camp of the 2nd highest mountain in Africa - Jebel Toubkal.  Our trip was organized through an excursion company - Sahara Rouge.  They were pretty sketchy.  They wanted all our money up front, in cash, and were a little put out when we asked of what the trip consisted.  The employee said that it included a certified guide, the trip, and lunch.  We found out that it was not necessarily true - but it was an amazing time anyway!

Jebel Toubkal

The mountain we climbed!

Imlil is about 2.5 hours away from Marrakech so we took a minibus there.  The drive was very pretty and a lot like our bus ride through Ecuador to the rainforest - steep ledges, rock slides, and all.  It was cool to see the dessert fall away into the forest.  On the way there we saw a camel!  The views were beautiful.  We get to Imlil and a bunch of men mob the bus.  Our driver looks out and basically says...um, that guy.  We, again, are confused and ask the driver if the guide is included.  He seemed offended but said that he would pay the guide.  

We start the hike through Imlil dodging donkeys, horses, puddles, etc.  We saw beautiful waterfalls and many shoppers enticed us to buy their goods.  Luckily, we did not take them up because we were walking a long way up the mountain.  In the little villages, we saw a goat stampede and had tea in a Berber Village high above the valley.  After a brief respite, we decided to hike to the top of a mountain (not Jebel Toubkal).  

The hike was hard - espescially in sneakers.   The altitude got to all of us a bit.  Our guide was probably about 50 years old and did the hike in dress pants and dress shoes.  He hopped from rock to rock singing while we were all huffing and puffing.  He may have been part goat.  I hope I never forget him singing in Berber and clapping along while skipping along the crazy mountain trail. 

The view from the top was beautiful and well worth it!  We shared our path with brown and white grazing horses.  The hike down was a bit scary, lots of loose rocks, steep slides etc.  When we finally got to a road we were so happy!  

At the end, we gave our guide a tip of 200 dirham (about 20 euros) he seemed very upset but when I told him the driver was going to pay him he was very happy.  Again, a bit sketchy since the driver did not tell the guide he would be paying him.  After a crazy expensive super touristy lunch, we drove back to Marrakech. 

That night was our last night all together in Marrakech.  We went to D'jemma for a bit to play the coke bottle fishing game.  There are a bunch of bottles set up and they give you a fishing pole with a ring attached to the end of the line.  You have to get the ring around the top of the bottle.  The boys probably played this game for an hour.  Both nights.  We took Eric to the souks to do some shopping and had a huge Moroccan meal at our Riad.  It was a wonderful night with great people!  Marrakech was amazing and I would love to go back!  The food, the ambiance, the people - it was awesome!  

The fishing game. 

Take 1 - our awesome dinner. 

Take 2 - the other side of our awesome dinner.