The Swiss Adventure...: Emmental – Snowshoeing

Here it is…the big Wow, the big Geez you have been waiting for…or maybe not. Anyway, after our last big snowshoeing adventure, we decided to return to the same place to do it all over again, but this time with friends. As I write this, I am actually laughing internally to myself carrying on a dialogue that goes a little something like this…"Are you kidding that you would take friends along with you after what happened last time? Is it not enough that you don’t have any family within 5,000 miles from where you live, but now, you want to lose the only friends you have by offering to organize a snowshoeing adventure? Have you lost your mind?”

The mind is still in tact (or at least I like to think so) and despite our wickedly (I had to throw in some Boston jive just for fun, we don’t really hear that in Switzerland if you know what we mean) awesome adventure last time, we had a fabulous time. We had a bit of a learning curve and this time (the Boyscouts and Brownie troops of America would be proud) we came prepared. In fact, we bought enough groceries at the local store (proud to say this time it was open, so don’t worry, no laws were broken) to last us through quite possibly the worst imaginable snow blizzard in Switzerland that would leave us buried under approximately 155 feet of snow (I just like the image…what does 155 feet of snow look like anyway???)

We picked up our friends at the local bus stop around 7:00pm by torch (now torch is a fun English word, which actually means flashlight…now that we have this international experience, we like to use fun words every now and then). With happy smiles on our faces and darkness in front of us, we led them by flashlight (again so prepared) back to the Berghaus. They were in awe of the place; they were happy, and looking forward to a great weekend! We were looking forward to a hopefully non-eventful adventure and hoping our friends had the same smiles on their faces when we were finished with the whole experience!

Let’s fast forward to the next morning. We woke up, ate some breakfast, packed our packs (I mean what are you supposed to do with backpacks if not to pack them?) and headed out. The day was something out of a storybook and not one of those dark and twisted storybooks, but out of one of the sweet Candylane type of story books, with nice fluffy marshmallow clouds, a yellow Sweet Tart sun, and little pink peeps frockling in the grass (it’s OK, I too, want to throw up after reading that last sentence.) It really was a nice day and with the distraction of some great conversation, the first two hours of the hike flew by. We quickly found ourselves at Berghaus Erika where we had a nice warm, Swiss style meal. This is truly rejuvenating…like a nice, deep Swedish massage, we revived after downing our Rosti.

Now on the backside of the trail, we took the steepest way we could find. We like to do this to ourselves if not for the sheer intensity of climbing mountains, but also to challenge my fear levels. Heather, our friend (who at this point still seemed to like us) was rather intent on using her snowshoes on every inch of snow, toggled between life and death as she hugged the side of the mountain. I simply couldn’t look and took myself to my happy place, deep in the world of those fluffy marshmallow clouds. She did make it and might be a bit braver than I.

The snow was nice, the wind, it blew and right in front of us were the Alps. Now, we have lived here for approximately 9 months (for us, this too is hard to believe) and we have not yet even remotely grown tired of looking at these beauties! What eye candy!

Continuing to hike, we had a great time trekking through the snow. This time, (to our surprise) the snow level had dropped enough that we didn’t have to subject our friends to electrocution from hopping the electric fence or impalement from jumping the barbed wire fence. After this section our friends were still smiling!

Keep moving on, moving on….passing the Kujo Emmental dogs (these dogs, or mighty beasts are quite territorial) they bark and bark and get closer and closer letting you know that you are encroaching on their property line. The fun thing is, I like to use the name Kujo because immediately you get this image in your mind of some huge, bear of a dog, foaming at the mouth, ready to lunge at you, mean while, these dogs (the Emmental breeds) are really quite small, rather cute and do wag their tails the entire time they ferociously bark at you. Nonetheless, Kujo is a great name and can truly enhance any dog story.

A bit further in the wilderness (this is no shit for real…) we saw two life sized gnomes who were cutting down trees (I guess we all need firewood to make it through those long winter nights) and we realized, all gnomes must live and breed in the Emmental region. What do they look like you ask? Well, good question my inquisitive friend. They have these funny little hats (in an array of colors) that barely cover their heads (why they are called hats, I am not sure), smoke sweet smelling pipes, have jolly old faces (sort of like Saint Nick), and they are wrapped in jeans that smell of pine trees (I was close enough to catch a wiff), with the nicest, rainbow colored suspenders. And when they laugh, you immediately think of your neighbor’s lawn. These guys are really something worth seeing and if only I had more time (and knew the language) I would have loved to sit down with these fellows over a cup of egg nog (I don’t know why I chose egg nog, but it sounds gross and sweet all at the same time) and talk to them about their lives. In fact, maybe I will become a writer on gnome culture and propel myself on assignment deep into the Emmental forest and only emerge when I have the story covered to my satisfaction or at the very least have one of those awesome hats.

So, that is it, no major, life altering snowshoeing events (other than putting an end to the gnome mystery.) We came, we saw, we conquered (so dramatic…even a bit so for myself) and when we left, we still had friends, and we even made some along the way (AKA…the gnomes, Kira and Sky.)

Keep trekking on!