A hug with eternal messengers!

A hike along the Glacier? Wow! A dream of many years. What else can make an ideal pick than the Aletsch glacier- the longest (with 23km stretch) in Alps and Europe? We chose Fiescheralp-Bettmeralp-Reideralp region for this weekend (July31-Aug1) hike. We started with little and vague hiking expectations on the trip. We booked an accommodation in a chalet in a stunning location in Riederalp.

Moments of eternal bliss, breathtaking sceneries, the most forgettable nightmares, God's timely aid, the worst-ever physical exhaustion, and the precious lessons-from-the-mountains!! Wow!! so much bundled in a 2-day experience!

DAY-1 (July 31st)

We reached the village of Fiesch by 10am (the village where the recent Glacier express accident happened) and took the cable car to reach a resort- Fiescheralp. We roamed around in the pictur

esqueresort- we really enjoyed the sight of dozens of para-gliders covering the skies overlooking the Matterhorn mountain in the distance. We slowly started moving up in a cable car towards Eggishorn, the last cable station at 2800mt high. Wow! right next to the station, the outstanding view of the glacier and magnificent four-thousanders lined up on both sides (all peaks were above 4000mts high), offer a red-carpet welcome to the guests.

I was just speechless for a moment and then slowly started captivating the scenes into my little sweet TZ7. The top of Europe in the distance, really seemed so short as if it was lying at the base of these massive heights. Dozens of people lined on top of Eggishorn to enjoy the panoramic view of the whole area. A place-over-3km- height flourishing with so many people, restaurants, facilities!! - another wow to Swiss infra, which made accessing even the most possibly-abandoned places trivial. We had lunch in the restaurant and started lazily on our hiking mission- which we did not know then- that it is going to be nothing short of a mission impossible.

We started on the famous UNESCO hiking trail from Eggishorn to Bettmerhorn (known as line no. 153 in hiking maps). This route is made up of massive jargon of rocks at 2km+ height. The whole texture of the mountain trail looked as if it was bombed in a world war. The rocks were so cleverly packed even at such heights for people to walk safely. After all, Nature is the best civil engineer. Being amateur hikers, I still dont know how and why we picked up a difficult and physically challenging route for hike. Ignorance is bliss!

We started lazily thinking vaguely whether we should continue or drop! Somehow we just started moving. It went on. Rock after the rock, slope after the slope, we still couldn't see the end. We kept on hiking on this jargon of rocks for hours and hours. Some parts of the route were really dangerous and one must be extremely conscious of next step. Yet, all the effort is worth the price we pay for breathtaking sceneries we could enjoy from such an altitude. Within no time, one can realize why this route is recognized by UNESCO. Finally, we reached the end probably after 6hrs (official estimation was for 3hrs!!)

The story just begins! It was 8pm by the time we were at Bettermerhorn cable station. The last cable for the day left 2hrs back. Oh! should we celebrate our achievement or get panic about what to do next- given that it would get dark in 1hour from then. We have to reach the chalet in Rideralp which is around 2hrs from there (official estimation!!). oh God! what the hell is that. I really started getting panic. We were physically exhausted totally. Somehow, we made up our mind to clear the mountain slope and reach some easy trail before it gets dark. I had light wit

h me- so thought could easily walk on this easy trail even in dark. Two of us went ahead fast, me and one more (Anudeep) slowly following them. Two more are lagging way back and yet to reach this station!

Anudeep and me started hiking down in whatever the way that looked easy! We kept a goal- reaching the lake Bettmersee before it gets dark. The lake looks easily reachable, but oh God! we could never reach it! The mountains taught me one precious lesson. Dont believe in your ears or eyes on mountains! You hear the sound of a water stream and your ears say it is so close! but your legs know the truth! Your eyes see a water pond and it appears so close, but your legs realize the pond is at least 10 times farther!

We tried all possible ways to clear the slopes- walking, jumping, rolling down on the stones, grass. It was getting dark and the lake was still unreachable. We don't even know how long it would take still. We were in panic and at our physical limits. Finally, we saw a sign board saying lake is around 20mins far. We walked walked and walked only to find "way closed" sign on the way! oh God! where do we go from there? Sun was already fading. Then, to our great surprise, a man was coming with his bicycle (!!) on this way. He just removed the rope and showed the way to the village. We just rushed behind his bicycle and reached his home. We were totally exhausted by then. Somehow, an idea struck me. I used my presence of my mind and asked "do we get taxi here??"- secretly thinking inside- taxi?? in such a remote place?? we dont even see faces here! Somehow I was hoping that this guy might be having a vehicle and offer his help!! To my great astonishment, this guy went inside the house and came out- got his milk van ready as a taxi! oh! was the God disguised as this milkman??? Anudeep sat inside the cabin and me behind the milk tank!! This man was so kind-hearted. He took both of us till Bettmeralp cable station and then to Rideralp after we told him our chalet is in Rideralp. Finally we both got reunited with the other 2 who walked all the way to Rideralp and reached exactly the same time. While so many things were running in my mind, this God-as-milk-man left. Later, I regretted a lot for not taking his address and taking a photo with him.

The story did not end there! Yet another shock was awaiting us!!! Two of us who were lagging behind got struck on the slopes. It became dark and they could not see any path! I already warned them either to stay in the cable car station and start the next morning or reach the base before it gets dark. They did neither and it became a panic situation for us. With the help of the chalet care-taker who was really really helpful, we contacted the local police who sent a res

cue team to bring these two. We ate pasta and slept while the care-taker took care of bringing these two back. After 2-3 hours, we got the news that the rescue team found them with the little information on their coordinates. Finally, they arrived much to the relief of all.

Lesson-2: if we don't plan well in the mountain slopes, a beautiful experience otherwise would end up in a nightmare.

DAY-2 (Aug1st)

We started the day with almost zero expectations. We got ready, learnt the previous day's experiences from the two, paid the bills, took photos with the care-taker and started moving into the village. The weather was so impressive. It was August 1st- swiss national day. There was festive mood here and there. We stopped for a tea in a cafeteria. There were performers in swiss traditional uniform playing long alpine horns. We started walking into the village planning vaguely about what to do for the day. We reluctantly climbed up to Riderfurka questioning ourselves should we relax or start yet-another-adventure? We met a South African lady on the way who settled in London. I was discussing with her about the recent FIFA cup in SA, before others joined for a photograph. In Riderfurka, Anudeep wanted to go back as he had no energy left for any hike. Other two decided for a crazy idea of reaching the other side of the mountains, BelAlp through a

suspension bridge. The suspension bridge is in between the mountains with Riderfurka and BelAlp on the peaks on either side. It means we have to climb down all the way to reach the bridge and start climbing up! The official estimation was for 5hrs!! It was formidable for me given that it is more physically challenging than the previous day- and it was predicted there would be thunderstorms in the evening!! With the physical energy left over after the previous day's marathon hike, it would probably take 10hrs for me!

Somehow, I felt instinctively, I should try this, after all I may not get this opportunity in my lifetime. Learning from the previous days' experiences and with the fear of the weather haunting inside, we decided to just keep going without any breaks and relaxation. We climbed down further and

further for almost 2hours non-stop, with so many other enthusiastic hikers on the way. It was all through a big forest with large trees side ways. We finally could hear the sound of the water stream near by! but it did not matter to me as I knew from the previous day the only thing that matters is to "really" reach the site. We kept going and at some point, we saw the beautiful bridge over fantastic water stream coming from sky-height peaks nearby. It took almost 30 min for us to "reach" the bridge from this point. At some point, the trail was so dangerous. At other point, we went in a wrong direction and this time God came with a family! Some family guy warned us and showed the right way. It seemed anything can happen in that zig zag rocky area.

It was a moment of celebration. We were really excited- mainly for two things: we made it on schedule and secondly for the stunning view of the glacier and the stream. When looked back at the point where we started, it was almost beyond imagination, that I could come down all the way from such a height. Same time, I was in panic when I saw the point where I have to still reach!!- the Belalp church on top of the peak on the other side of the bridge! The whole mountain range looked so unorganized- there was no way to sense there could exist a path to Belalp in that jargon of trees and rocks.

After lunch, we started moving. Climbing up is more physically challenging. It looked impossible with fatigue showing up on my face already. But thanks to Prakash, I kept going- Johnie hiker: keep hiking! This route from the bridge to Belalp was marked as panoramic path. It went through really mind blowing locations, greenery, waterfalls, huts, forest, peaks of massive heights. We saw a dam in a superb location. We climbed up, up and up for hours. I executed hill climbing algorithm from my college days- it is simple: keep climbing. nothing more and nothing less. I was aware of only the next step- knowing eventually we would make it to the peak someday! On the way, we were sharing jokes from Telugu movies, sardarji jokes in order to divert the mind from fatigue! I got briefed by Prakash on The Lord of the Rings.

Finally, we reached the peak 3 hours later after intensive effort pushing to my physical limits. It was truly a moment of great celebration. We enjoyed the view of the glacier, the peaks for the final time. When I see the little hut where we started on the other side, i could not believe myself whether is it me who made it all the loooooong way! We met there an Indian lady from Calcutta settled in Swiss in the town of Zug with her husband who works part-time at EPFL. We managed to take group photos from them and finally started towards the cable.

The weather prediction indeed was accurate. We were so lucky that it started raining after we cleared all the slopes. We ran towards the cable while i was taking shots still now and then. Our run ended with an amazing

sight of a magnificent rainbow painting the skies over Brig. Sun was peeping through clouds occasionally to lighten selective regions of the mountain area. The view was simply stunning!

We started back to Lausanne in train after 8pm. Every moment of the whole hike was flashing in my memory. The train was speeding me up towards mundane "reality" of office-home from the exotic world of eternal gigantic messengers. As we reached the outskirts of Lausanne, the colorful fireworks along the lakeside villages to celebrate the Swiss National day (Aug1st) gave a perfect finish to the weekend's rainbow of experiences!

If you don't believe in words, at least believe in numbers! Even though our bodies exhausted, the little cams were not. All our cams captured more than 1200 shots including my TZ7's 950!!!!! All just in honor of this outstanding scenary and landscapes.

Being the first time hikers, the altitude profile was very impressive for me-

Starting point Eggishorn station was at 9200ft (2800mt)

The lowest- suspension bridge- 5000ft (1600mt)

Final destination- Belalp: 6750ft (2000mt)

Total distance covered- 20km approximate

And all the routes were marked with the dashed blue and dashed red lines- colors representing the difficulty levels of hiking trails.

Be "Alps"holic!

Here is the link to photos.

The hiking trail as marked in Google Earth.