31st August

Where is the time going? End of August and 3 weeks gone already and our stay at Engelberg is drawing to a close.For today's hike we are going to catch the same first 2 chair-lifts as yesterday, but then take a different one that will take us up to Trubsee and Jochpass where our hike will begin.

Engelberg main street, Dorfstrasse.

                                                This is our apartment, first floor on the left.

Character made out of timber and nailed to the side of the little house in the photo below.

                                                    These are the signs for the hiking trails.

                                                     Once again our apartment

Reflections in the Trubsee. Cloudy weather but it shouldn't be too bad for a full day's hiking. Cool and perfect for hiking.

                                            On our chair-lift from Trubsee up to Jochpass

Our hike was to take us firstly high up to Schaftal, along a ridge to Tannalp, down to Engstlenalp and then walk up to the top of Jochpass to take the chair-lift back to Trubsee. The views were awesome and we could see across to Titlis when there was a break in the clouds.

As we walked up to Schaftal, we could see Engstlensee where we would eventually end up before we walked back up to Jochpass.

Looking down to Engstlenalp but we headed to the right and walked up along the ridge in the middle right.

The peaks emerging from the clouds above and in the background in the photo below are Jungfrau and Monch, where we will be heading to in about 2 weeks.  Titlis is 3239m high, but Jungfrau is 4158m and Monch is 4107m, considerably higher than Titlis here at Engelberg.

                                    This is Tannelp where we will start our walk down.

                                        View back to our starting point with Titlis on the right.
Schaftal where we walked to at the start of our walk is on the left, near the right peak of the 2 on the left.

Great day, great weather but very tired after 5.5 hours walking. And thank God for chair-lifts. There is very little walking here that does not entail lifts as it is all just too steep. And the views are awesome when hiking high up so I have no problems paying for the lifts.  Tomorrow is going to be cloudier than today so we might have a semi-rest day and do a short walk along the Aaschlucht (gorge). We will take the train to Grafenort, the next village along the valley and walk back to Engelberg. 10km and should only take 2.5 hours. Then it will be good-bye to Engelberg as we head to Chamonix. This week-end, Chamonix hosts an annual ultra-marathon where thousands come from all over the world to run around Mont Blanc. 168kms, over 9,600m height gain, through 3 countries and maximum of 46hours to complete. The winner is expected to finish in about 20 hours. This is awesome as I would struggle to walk up 1000m in a day let alone nearly 10,000m. But luckily we will be arriving after everyone has gone home and all will be quiet. Plenty of sales in the sports shops I hope. Our apartment owner is a climbing guide and has climbed Mont Blanc more than 160 times. Hope he doesn't offer to take me up there. Just not going to happen!! Not too sure about internet at our Chamonix apartment so I hope I will be able to continue the blog while in Chamonix.  Bye for now. Talk again soon.