Säntis

 

It had only been a short walk from the clinic to the station and the yellow post bus  left right on time.

Of course it did…..this, after all was Switzerland !

I had been on emergency duty for the last 24 hours and had a day rest before starting another 24 hour shift.  Thankfully it had been reasonably quiet with only some straight forward consults and no need to use the operating theatre.

With the phone now switched over to the neighbouring clinic, I had a whole day of hiking ahead of me and despite it being the beginning of November, the weather forecast had been excellent.

It was too good an opportunity not to miss climbing  Säntis, which with an altitude of just over 2500 m above sea level  is the highest mountain of the Alpstein massif. It is located South of Lake Constance in the North-East of Switzerland.

The short bus journey brought me up to the Schwägalp plateau, where the ground was already frozen and most of the farmers and their livestock had already deserted their seasonal dwellings and the summer pasture. There was hardly any wind and with a couple of hours steady climbing ahead of me, it wasn’t necessary to wrap up in several layers of clothing. Even the light jacket I had on me, soon became too warm.

Not a lot of other hikers had been up so early and most of the day time visitors to the mountain preferred to reach the summit the easy way, with the cable car.

After just over an hour the Tierwis cabin, precariously clinging to a rugged mountain ridge, was reached, but not expecting so favourable weather conditions this late in the year, the place had already closed on the previous weekend for this season.

Passing the ridge, I now was at least rewarded with rays of bright sunlight, so that there was no longer a need for a hat or gloves and the remaining ascent could be done comfortably in shorts and just a shirt.

The Säntis summit, looking like the clone of a mosque with a minaret mixed and a Bond villain hide out, came into view.  It was towering above a small Bergschrund, the sad left over of a once sizeable glacier. Here the first few snowfields of the fast approaching winter had started to settle.

A fair amount of scrambling was now required and while hanging off a steel wire,  exposed above a sheer drop of not less than forty meters, I started to wonder if using the cable car that had just passed above my head, wouldn’t have been the better option after all…..

More steel cables and weathered iron holds followed and finally a small tunnel, which had been cut into the top of the mountain like a hole into an Appenzeller cheese, before the summit was reached.

From here the view was spectacular, covering most of the North Western Alps, but the peaceful enjoyment of the scenery was gone, due to the presence of hundreds of day trippers who must have had the same idea and who by now had caught up with me.

The cable car had certainly been busy that day…..

Having stocked up with local cheese, bread and sausages in the village on the previous day, there was no need for me to fight for a vacant table and I decided instead to make the most of the fine weather and rather then to descend directly, to take a different route further East along the narrow Lisengrat  to the Rotsteinpass.

Here the refuge had closed as well for the season, but the front of the building was at this time bathing in the evening sunlight, providing enough warmth for a well deserved rest.

Always walking towards the sun following my short break, the well maintained path started to drop far more gently towards the Thur valley ahead of me and finding myself now in a more sheltered location, the first farm buildings and some taller trees re-appeared.

Once the sun had vanished behind the mountains, Säntis and the neighbouring Schafberg, which with its summit of contorted ancient layers of sediment looked like thinly sliced Pastrami stuffed into a bagel at a New York Deli, started to glow in a warm red, creating a stark contrast to the darkness and the cold that was now enveloping the valley.

Summer truly had finished and winter was ready to reclaim the mountains.