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Journal: |
After an earlier breakfast, I left the hotel in steady rain to
get some sandwiches from the supermarket and try and find the
William Tell statue in Altdorf before leaving town. A Swiss
ultra-running acquaintance had emailed me last night to say I
couldn't leave town without seeing the latter (thanks, Roberto!).
After a short search I did find it and have to admit it was quite
impressive.
I then left town about 8:30am knowing that I had
a long climb in prospect up to Klausenpass (1948m). It looked
like the rain was going to stay around and I began my plod uphill,
passing through the village of Burglen (which also boasted a William
Tell statue) shortly afterwards. The trail was mostly back
roads and gravel tracks early on, meaning my feet didn't get too
wet, though my shorts were soon saturated. The views were
limited, but still impressive with glimpses of high snow-covered
mountains occasionally available through the low cloud and rain.
As I got higher, the nearer views, across and down the valley,
were still very good. The Schachen River was roaring and milky
white with snowmelt and rain. Water was pouring from the
higher valleys via streams and waterfalls wherever you looked.
You could see and hear nature at work with eroded rocks, silt and
scree everywhere. The track began climbing even more steeply
through pastureland on muddy trails past bemused cattle and, despite
my gaiters and good boots, I could gradually feel my feet starting
to get damp. The rain was just relentless and, although I
wasn't cold, I was pretty damp but confident my pack raincover and
triple dry-bagged gear would be OK.
The trail eventually
joined a minor road at about 1800m and then followed the contour
towards Klausenpass. The rain had now changed to snow and it
was accumulating along the track although not impeding progress.
Here and there I saw a wildflower that must have been regretting
blooming so early. I also saw some marmots for the first time
since the French Maritime Alps. The scenery remained awesome,
despite the weather and clouds, and I felt privileged to see it this
way.
Around noon I came across some unoccupied and closed up
buildings, one of which had an awning that created some shelter and
I stopped for lunch. It was still snowing steadily and I was
starting to feel cold so I spent some time retrieving winter gear
from inside my pack and putting it on before eating my lunch.
Every now and then, a huge lump of snow would slide off the roof and
explode onto the ground, making me jump more than once.
After
lunch it was a gradual climb, often along very muddy and slippery
single track trails, to Klausenpass. The pass was also used by
a minor road which had an occasional vehicle and, on its approaches,
had a guesthouse that looked like it was open from the far distance.
I debated whether to see if they had a room but ultimately decided
not to detour from the trail and continue onto Urnerboden which
should be below the snowline on the other side of the pass.
Near the pass I began to encounter some long patches of snow where
it was sometimes difficult to tell the trail route, but I managed to
stay on track. At the pass there were a couple of closed
restaurants and no cars and the whole place felt pretty bleak.
I didn't hang around and found the track I needed to follow after
clambering over a high snowbank but soon was encountering some long
stretches of sloping snow with no tracks to follow. At least
it wasn't foggy and I could generally work out from the topography
where I needed to go, only making one significant mistake. It
was slow progress crossing these snow stretches and I slipped and
fell over a couple of times, but never travelled very far down the
slope. I think my technique improved as I went further.
Finally I got below the snow line to where it was raining
instead of snowing and the trail was a muddy morass. I
squelched along trying to stay upright and make reasonable speed as
it was starting to get late. I fell over once in the mud, but
managed to avoid full body contact. The trail reached a valley
and then followed a river downstream through pasture which was
almost as wet as the river. Fortunately, it wasn't long before
Urnerboden loomed in front of me and I took a road into the hamlet
and found an open Gasthaus which, happily, had a room. I had a
shower and then spread all my wet and washed gear out to dry in
every available space. I'm using the heat of two bedside lamps
to try and dry my boots and gloves which are particularly wet.
I had a filling dinner in the Gasthaus restaurant where the
proprietress told me the weather is going to start improving
tomorrow. I hope she's right because I've got two or three
more 2200m passes in front of me before I leave Switzerland.
The fresh snow made it harder today. It would have been easier
to navigate and negotiate the old snow fields that I expected to
encounter. The adrenalin was pumping a few times today, but I
was careful and should be OK further on if the weather improves.
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