"I know something to do for this crappy weather with hardly any visibility outside. We could snowshoe walk up the mountain. We could visit this little hut there, and you can only reach it by foot."
My friend made this suggestion looked at me like this was the obvious thing to do on an overcast kind of day in the mountains. And even if I really liked the thought of hiking towards a hut in the mountains, it also scared me a bit. I had never done any sort of snowshoe walking which seems like a bit of a balance kind of thing. But doing that while walking up a mountain with my not super flashy physical condition and maybe a kilo of body weight too much here and there?
I was having many sorts of doubt on this, but also decided I wanted to be a good sport.
And there we went...Up the hill. First starting on just normal roads. The normal road went over into frozen roads which went over into snowy fields. That is where the snowshoes had to go on.
For the people who don't know how snowshoeing works. These are a sort of tennis rackets which you have to tie onto your normal shoes. Because of the wider and broader surface, you wont go so deep into the snow but stay a lot more superficial and that should make hiking through the snow a lot easier.
The hiking itself was indeed a lot easier.
But the fact of hiking up a snowy moutain....damnnn
The surroundings are stunning though!!
What is really the cool thing about hiking up a mountain is that every 100 metres of elevation that you pass, the landscape just changes a lot. Starting in a regular town on the road and then making a couple of small passages here and there, there you can see that those passages were ofcourse made by water streams aka tiny waterfalls.
And hiking just is slow, especially when there is elevation in play and the air starts to get a bit thinner and the amount of oxygen decreases a bit. This was not that high actually, but you can still notice it.
Following the paths is not that difficult though, there are signs everywhere which tell you where to go. In the summer these are normal walking routes.
But because of the amount of time that you are walking, this also gives you a decent chance to take a good look around. And that sight...is just stunning.
Everything has a little dash of snow on there giving it some extra contrast. And what about the icepicks dangling down from all overhanging ledges. Super cool!!
Nothing wrong with waiting a moment to recatch your breath and taking a good look around to see what all is there
Reaching the hut
Reaching the hut on the hill was like some kind of relieving moment. We had spent quite some time walking up the snowy mountain and I was able to see the hut for a long time.
But seeing it doesn't mean that you are almost reaching it. Going up means making a lot of zigzags. It felt like victory once I finally reached! And what is this Bitcoin flag waving over here?
It was even more surprising to see this Bitcoin flag waving over the valley at the Adlerhorst Hutte. What does this mean? Is it bitcoin friendly? Can you pay with crypto here? Was this built with Bitcoin?
So many questions and unfortunately, there were no answers. But this was mostly intruiging right??? According to the blog on the website the owner switched a couple years back. I just all wonder what this means.
Inside the hut you have this nice central room where you can chill a bit at the fire place and also have a drink and some snacks. What I also learned is that you can spend the night here on the mountain. There is room for 20 people but unfortunately this also comes with a Swiss price tag if you know what I mean.
But having a decent snacks after reaching the top was a well deserved reward. I love it always that the snacks you get here are all coming from Swiss soil and nothing is imported. That keeps the internal economy going if you ask me.
Going down again
After having that well deserved snack it was time to make our way down, but unprepared as we always are....we were running kind of late and it was getting dark already. Crap....did that mean we had to stay on the mountain after all??
Luckily there was this really cool deal with the municipality that you are able to rent a sleigh to make your way down. They have a couple of sleighs standing there and a QR code that you (honestly) pay and just are able to grab a sleigh.
Now I don't know if you have ever made a long sleighing journey on a mountain but that stuff goes fast. Faster than you would like! But it is perfect descending the mountain in a rapid pace and fun as hell!
The views towards town were abolutely stunning as it really was starting to get dark for a bit already. And you can also see that while sleighing you have to be sharp to not launch yourself into the ravine.
That is also a way to descend rapidly though ;)
What an experience. Snowshoeing up the mountain towards the bitcoin hut and taking the sleigh down. This was such a good alternative for not hitting the slopes while the weather wasn't perfect for this.
Would I do it again?? Uhhhhh......