Zinal to Gruben


Today was a day where we split forces - each member of our group got to decide what their body was up for today. Our journey was from Zinal to Gruben - but there are a couple ways to get there. Greg decided to solo today and he took the “red route” which starts with an almost 4000 ft ascent. Others, myself included, opted to take the “purple route” which included cutting off 2000 ft off the 4000 ft by taking the funicular up from St Luc and then hiking from there.





Here we are after the funicular dropped us off, ready to start our hike to Gruben. The remaining hike still proved challenging as after we got to the top of Col Meidpass (9151 ft), we then had a descent of close to 4000 ft to get to Gruben. 





The trail up to the col (which you can see in the background) was a good path with minimal boulders. 



We started seeing a different breed of cows along the way.



We made it up to the col by lunchtime and then put on warm clothes to eat our lunch as the wind was cold. 







Meanwhile, Greg reached the alternative col on his route by lunch, too. Even though he had an additional 2000 feet to climb, he wasn’t slowed down by all the “photos stops” that Kris, Chanda, and I love!


After lunch, we began the long climb down - as I’ve mentioned before, the descents are hard on the knees and feet. 





Taking a break as we wind our way down through the switchbacks. 



The last 1.5 hours of the descent, we’ve made it to the tree line and we followed the switchbacks through a pine forest. 



Hotel Schwarzhorn is the only hotel in Gruben and mostly caters to hikers. We saw a lot of folks that we had met along the way at other stops - it’s fun to compare notes about how the day’s hike went. 



“Speedy slim” lived up to his nickname and made it to the hotel an hour before the rest of us arrived. 




We all enjoyed sitting out on the patio for awhile before eventually having a nice dinner in the dining room. 






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