Hiking the Seven Gipfel (Peaks)

This is the last Blog for a couple of months. (Hurrah, you say.) But I will be back in November (Boo). I am hoping to persuade my Grandson, Bradley to take over, in the interim (Double Hurrah - make it permanent!).

I thought that I would mark this temporary end on a sporting and non-Grumpy note and tell you of our hike with the spectacular views above Flumserberg. (Tannenboden to be precise. I tried to insert a Google Map link, but Google thinks that Tannenboden is in the U.S.A. near Highway 53.)

Bill Hall and Jim Barrington were my co-adventurers on this expedition.

There are a large number of walks above Flumserberg. Like Laax/Flims, the winter ski resort has been turned into a network of “Wanderwegs”. This particular walk starts at the base of the ski resort, Tannenboden (1,400m), above the Wallensee.

As always, we started with a rest (Pause) at Tannenboden. We took the Gondelbahn to Maschgenkamm (2020m). Not much walking so far, except from the car park. It is already 10.00.

Armed with Jim’s Garmin, to keep automatic details of our walk, we walked the 17 k.

Here are my notes.
Along the Zigergipfel (No 1) to Ziggerfurgien (1,990m) (1 km)
Along the Leist Gipfel (No 2) and Rainissalts Gipfel (No 3).

At this point, there was an interesting discussion on the hypothetical use of the only survival blanket on the walk, which was held by Bill. Is cannabalism acceptable? I leave you to imagine the conversation

On to Gulmen (2,317m) (No 4)…and that is the climbing finished. (2 km).

Now it is time to consider what we would do in the event of lightening. As Jim was the tallest, he should stand in the open, and we would take cover elsewhere. (But he should leave Bill’s survival blanket for me to share with Bill). I do not remember whether he agreed to this.

Down to Chrürzen (4 km) with the Munchopf on our left and then along the Cuncels Gipfel (No 5), Chli Güslen (No 6) and Gross Güslen (No 7) (1 km).

Thank goodness, there is a restaurant on this last stretch.
Walk back down to Tannenboden (4 km).

Now, you know that my arithmetic is not so good. I estimated 12k from the map. Jim’s Garmin said that we had walked 17 k, and the brochure said 14 k. Other vital statistics were:

- moving time: 4 hrs 27 m (average walking speed 3.8 k per hour)
- stopping time: 2 hrs 29 m (What were we doing?)
- average overall speed 2.4 kph (Not exactly olympic, I know)
- vertical climb – 656 metres

We reached base camp (Tannenboden) at 17.00, just in time to miss the last Gondelbahn down to Untertetzen. (but we had brought the car up).

Here are some photos. http://picasaweb.google.com/103404285149801869665/OnThe7GipfelAtFlumserberg?feat=email Click on slideshow for easy viewing.

See you in November. If you wish to follow our travels in the U.S., click on http://hawkersustrip.blogspot.com/ or send me an email and I will put you on my distribution list.