Judging by the disproportionately large number of responses I got to a previous article “Get Motivated Business Seminar an Enjoyable Scam”, it would seem that people would rather read about that kind of stuff. But I started this website to talk about rad adventures, so this article gets back to the roots of inspiration for Adventure Stories. I’ll try to keep the content jived up so there’s a little of everything, but a recent backpacking trip to Switzerland is the sort of thing that gets me jived up. Here’s the story:
During the summer of 2009 I spent life at an elevation of zero, being on the water mostly. I went through basic officer training for the NOAA Corps, and when it was over I found myself with some down time until the start of my first assignment. I realized this was an opportunity to get in some backpacking, to hit the mountains while the warmth of summer lingered. But where should I go? Since I was in New York, the Catskills or Adirondacks were obvious choices, but I was in the mood for larger scale terrain. For me the definition of a good backpacking trip involves big granite. I looked at airfares and decided a ticket to Zurich was the best deal going. About 100% of the people I have met that have been to Switzerland report their experience was fantastic. So I thought I would give Switzerland a try.
What I knew about Switzerland was that it was in Europe. What I didn’t know was that the mountains there are insane. I figured I would hit the Swiss Alps with the same mentality that I apply to my backyard mountains, the Sierra Nevada of California. In the Sierras I customarily plan out routes that break from established trails for several days and cross rugged terrain, ideally bagging a summit or two along the way. This behavior is encouraged by the terrain of the Sierras, which is both rugged yet accessible. Challenging cross country routes can be accomplished without any special mountaineering gear. The Swiss Alps, on the other hand, are in a whole another category, as I was about to discover.
the Cabane du Grand Mountet is as a speck in the bottom middle of the photo, dwarfed by the Grand Cornier and Dent Blanche
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