Daily Archives: Thursday, 25 May, 2006

After a night in a brand new camp site (very ecological with waterless urinals and solar panels on the roof of the sanitary building) we stop at the top of the Fl¸ela pass and enjoy being in the snow. When I was still living in the Netherlands it was very special for me to see so much snow, but now I’m used to have it 4 months a year it certainly has lost some of its attraction. There was a lot of it, even though it was late May. They did have very late spring in Switzerland.

We make a big hike in the only National Park of Switzerland, near Zernez. There is still a lot of snow so we have to cross a couple of steep snow fields. That is treacherous terrain, because if you slip you slide over the snow and can gain so much speed that when the snow stops you will crash onto the rocks. Yes, being a climber makes one think all these things. So I give Alison instructions on how to act and nothing happens. We see a lot of mountain crows, a chamois (very distant) and also a few mountain marmots, just out of hibernation. We encounter also a snow hare, which was full of spots because it had just changed its coat from winter colours (white) to summer (brown and grey).