Mountain Fondue

My god I have never eaten so much fondue. I never guessed such a meal would work its way into my social schedule as much as fondue has. Melted cheese sounded disgusting in Canada, like a bad case of Cheese Whiz. However, here it's a convenient social food for large groups and fits in very well with the cold weather.

Anyway, the previous weekend we went hiking around Gstaad and for a November day the weather was perfect and more like early fall. Clear sunny skies and a comfortable temperature. We left the car and walked along the road. I've often seen houses here in Switzerland displaying the cow bells.

We stopped for a lunch in a cow field (ok, it's all cow fields up here but I digress). Here I am, the ugly blue hat makes an appearance and the pose is most unladylike.

There was a lone golden tree and it just looked cool from our lunch position.

Just beautiful up here. Not too wild but the mountains in the distance were snow covered.

The rocks in the alps are very different than the BC mountains. Steeper.

We got to the hut and we had the place to ourselves. It was a pretty posh place for 16 people and a very different hut experience compared to BC. They provided blankets, pillows and mattresses and you just had to bring a sleeping bag liner.

After dropping off our stuff at the hut we continued on to the col. Here's a picture of Pam who was our group photographer, always trying to balance the camera on the bag.

Group photo on top of the col. Once Pam hands over her pictures I'll have more group pictures to post. ^_^

I climbed on to the top of a rocky peak, it was a long way down from there!

That evening in the hut we had our cheese fondue. We brought packages of premixed fondue but the pots were at the hut. The kitchen was very well equipped and there was even a wood stove which we used to heat the cheese. Our leader had called the hut to make our reservation and asked about the fondue pots but the response had a little bit of 'of course we have them, why do you ask stupid questions'. Anyway, not carrying the pots was a big advantage and with the lights out we had a candle lit warm cheese dinner alone in the lovely hut.

The next day was decidedly less picturesque. We took our time in the morning and headed down but in the last hour of the hike the November rain struck with a vengeance. Brrr. Back in the car it was a quick trip back to Lausanne and the end of a fantastic November hike.