We took a bus from the Saas Fee bus terminal that was heading back to Visp and Brig and passed by the village of Saas Grund. We dropped off at the cable car (or gondola as the local signage calls it) station that was indicated on the LCD display inside the bus. It was a short walk from the main road to the cable car station which also has a bus stop, but the buses there does not go to Saas Fee. When we returned from the morning hike, we wanted to go Saas Almagell but missed the stop to the cable car station (it was not on the main road of the town) and ended up at the terminus which was Lake Mattmark. Well there were other tourists on the bus and we thought since we missed the bus stop, might as well just follow through and see where we end up at. In the end , it turned to be a pleasant good surprise that we visited the place.
 |
| Short walk from the main road to the station |
 |
| Saas Grund cable car station |
 |
| Display showing the cable car section which is opened. |
Using our Citizen Pass, we just scanned out pass at the gantry and off we hopped onto the next empty cable car and climbed the 1st section to the station of Kreuzboden at 2400m, and from here change to another cable car for the 2nd section that climbed all the way to the highest point, the Hohsaas at 3142m. The view around us was worth the travelling out of Saas Fee village. As we climbed higher, we cleared the tree lines and entered the bare open brown rocks area and finally to the area where we could see glacier tongues besides us. Hohsaas is an area where both sides have glaciers running down. To the right side is the Triftggletscher (Trift Glacier), and to the left is the Gruebugletscher.
 |
| Cable car climbing to Kreuzboden station |
 |
| The Kruezboden station (restaurant to the left) |
 |
| Changing the next section of the cable car to Hohsaas |
 |
| View of the mountains surrounding Saas Fee |
 |
| Mountains made the village of Saas Fee so small |
 |
| Sight of the glacier tongue |
 |
| More of the glacier tongues |
At the top of the Hohsaas station, there is a restaurant just besides the station that offered food and drinks, complete hot cooked meals for visitors. Love the way how Swiss folks build such convenience for visitors even up here at over 3000m. It was still early and not getting too distracted by the restaurant, we followed the sign boards indicating the path to reach the Hohsaas loop trail. There is a trail that loop round the upper section of the Hohsaas station, circling the small pond of Hohsaassee.
 |
| Restaurant at Hohsaas 3142m |
The trails continues just behind the station and climbs up toward sort of a vantage point. And so we climbed and took pictures for all the angles that we found the view worth taking. Weather was best at that time and no savings on memory space on the cameras and phones.
 |
| Hohsaas loop trail in 60mins |
 |
| Checking my watch's altimeter |
 |
| Starting the climb behind the cable station |
 |
| Warming up the legs |
 |
| Clear and blue skies |
 |
| Wonderful description of the mountain and a rock shaped to it is mounted here. |
 |
| Me and wife |
 |
| Mt DOM at the far opposite mountain range. |
 |
| No fix trails, You can just take any path. Safe and wide |
 |
| What comfort seeing this. So relaxing to just sit and watch the mountains |
At one point of the loop, we saw the small lake or pond that caught our attention and so we just walked down towards it. I guessed this is the Hohsaassee (Hohsaas Lake). The top layer of the lake was frozen with a thin layer of ice. Throwing some small stones just bounced off and glided across the surface, but bigger rocks would break through. I tested stepping on it and it just cracked open. It was just a thin sheet of ice form maybe the night before.
 |
| Testing the 1st snow for our holiday |
 |
| Top layer of pond frozen. |
 |
| Hohsaassee (Hohsaas Lake) |
 |
| Me and the amazing view of the snow capped mountains. Stunning mesmerizing view |
After the short playtime at the pond, we followed the loop trail and descended towards the Triftgletscher area and found another wooden bench where we stop for snack and drink.
 |
| A photo shot with the Trift glacier and the Weissmies over the top |
 |
| Descending, still part of the loop trail (red-white marker) |
 |
| Another wefie |
 |
| Rest time. |
 |
| Snack and drink time |
 |
| The Weissmies right up at the top. |
This station is the start point for some ice climbs to the summits around the station. While we were at the Trift glacier entry point, we saw climbers making their way up the steep snow mountain heading towards the peak. There are many organized climbs groups in the Sass Fee area. This location i recall reading about is the Weissmies (4017m). This summit is being a harder climb than Allalinhorn (4027m), but not too much technical and doable as part of a day climb. The normal route starts from Hohsaas station and then up the Trift glacier and finally onto the snow path leading to the summit. From below when we looked up, it seemed very steep for the initial climb after the glacier but was said to level down for a much easier climb once the climbers reach the crest of the mountain summit area.
 |
| Trift Glacier entry point. |
 |
| Taking the uphill task of walking back to the cable car station |
From this point, it is a short but inclined open path back to the cable car station. Our original intention was to take the cable car down to the village to settle lunch. But it was lunch time and the cable car operator needs to break for lunch. The cable car was temporarily stopped for about 1.5hrs, and so we had to use the time to settle our lunch at the restaurant by the station. Because of the service halted, more and more hikers were going into the restaurant for meals. We got ourselves seated and food ordered before the crowd came in.
 |
| Lunch time here |
 |
| Our table with a stunning view of the Trift glacier |
 |
| My lunch, rosti with sunny side up |
 |
| The Hohsaas Cable car station. |
It was around 1:30pm, that we left the restaurant, took the cable car down all the way to the ground station at Saas Grund; and that ended our 1st outdoor activity since our arrival in Switzerland. The morning day hike also served as a warm up hike for our coming Allalinhorn climb the next day.
No comments :
Post a Comment