Here follows account of my trip with my small brother across the Alps of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy and France. Originally we planned to follow Via Alpina’s Red trail from Liechtenstein to Brig Glis (c. 45 stages and c. 630km in 17 days) but as you will see later we abandoned the original plan due to lack of time (or better lacking physical conditioning) and decision to visit Jungfrau region instead.
Besides Via Alpina we planned to visit Chamonix and Mt. Blanc region as well as several cities of Switzerland (similarly to our previous trip to Spain where we explored historic and cultural sites in August 2008) masterfully balancing nature and culture during this three weeks stint. Unfortunately due to scheduling reasons (I had to postpone my flight one week later) we had to amend this plan to each individuals need. My brother visited cities and Mt. Blanc region week prior to my arrival and I plan to visit them (in the time of writing this post) after his departure.
What follows are short summaries of daily experiences including some data (certainly not vital). Kilometres walked and vertical meters ascended are based on guide printed out of Via Alpina website (some data as pointed out later are clearly wrong and / or misleading), maps we obtained during our trip and best guess / estimate I made based on them (particularly in later stage of our trip when we abandoned Via Alpina).
Please read on!
Day 1
Day before, I landed in Zurich and transported my sorry back, with overweight backpack on top of it, to Sargans where I met my brother. Afterwards we set off to Liechtenstein, our destination for a day. Day one of the uber-trip over the Alps started with half a day sightseeing in Vaduz and Schaan (city we stayed). I managed to see Kuntsmuseum and Landes museum (only worth to visit with Liechtenstein pass you can obtain for 25 Swiss francs – hereinafter CHF). Pass included visit and tasting in Hofkelerei (Liechtenstein’s monarch’s vineyards) and me milking the employees for all available information about growing wines.
Around 1.30pm we set off on our journey to the unknown and left low lands of Rhine valley for mighty Alps, their peaks and passes. Of course, we did not even set our feet out of township of Schaan and we made our first mistake. Instead of taking public transport bus (included within pass described earlier are fares for all public buses throughout Liechtenstein) to village of Planken we walked our way up. Later we paid dearly for time lost (especially me – the unofficial office rat on our two men team). After first 1,000 vertical meters I almost died reaching Gafadurahutte (point where we were about to join Via Alpina). After resting and drinking my first Radler of the summer we started off to Drei Schwestern (2,055 meters above sea level) and other peaks lying on day’s stage.
As usual all plans ended up worthless and due to upcoming storm we turned down in the pass just after Drei Schwestern and headed do the nearest waterproof looking lodge. It turned out to be sheep station with complete group of shepherd and shepherdesses. They were so kind to let us sleep in their barn (with two other unlucky hikers). To be honest, the very first night made an all star highlights reel of this trip as probably nothing can beat dry and comfi hay mixed with old sheep poop from previous months and a wakeup call of sheep bells (more on that later)...
Vertical meters (up only): 1,596m
Distance: 8.1km
VA stages: R57 (partially)
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