Pictures around Davos

Interesting, when chickens are on hills they make vertical trails. Unlike cows which make the horizontal terracing trails. Incidentally, bison do the same.

And here's the train that runs beside the river.

Grialetsch Hut

On the weekend a group of friends went hiking again in the Davos region. This time our goal was the Grialetsch hut but first we started up Schwarzhorn (black horn). On the way up we saw an ibex standing on the peak next to us. It was pretty neat to see and good thing I had a long zoom to take the picture.
We watched the ibex for a while as a hiker approached. Then he went running down a cliff face! It was amazing to see how good it could maneuver in the mountains.

The top of the Schwarzhorn was easy to get to but a little sketchy, lots of loose rock. We were really high up, over 3000m. This peak is the highest one in the region and there were many hikers on top.

And after we left the peak we continued around along a scree slope below a glacier and made our way up to the pass to cross into the valley behind where the hut was located. We stopped to have a magnificant view and take our picture.

And then we continued on to traverse the valley. I started on the trail and noticed the signs were really high, so I figured it was the winter trail and probably pretty rough for hikers. We dropped down a bit into the valley and continued on another hiking trail. This one may have been not as rough as the top one, but there was still a lot of climbing over boulder fields. We were lucky though, the boys took the top route and it sounded like the rougher trail.

The hut itself was located at the end of the valley on a small lake and was rather hidden until we took the last turn.

Before dinner was served we sat around on the lake and chatted and enjoyed the sunshine. We scared a marmot and it sat on top of his rock and chirped at us for quite a while.

And though it got cold throughout the evening I took some pretty nice pictures of the sunset.

The next morning before we headed out we went climbing up to the base of the glacier. Throughout the rock field we had to be careful to not step on casings from the military which had been firing in the area.

At the base of the glacier was a tunnel that had been carved by water flowing from higher up.

Standing at the entrance we could take some pretty nice pictures of the ice.

I liked that you could see streaks, clear blue ice cutting through all the white.

Also what was interesting to see was a big medial moraine.

Then we headed back down into Davos and had pizza for a late lunch/early supper which I call Lupper. It was a fantastic weekend, we had great weather and lots of sunshine (including the sunburns to go with it). The hut for the night was pretty full and our room had a bunch of loud snorers. I have been listening to a lot of Richard Pogge astronomy lectures which were interesting enough to keep my mind off the snoring and finally let myself fall to sleep.

Hagfish

I like hagfish (in that I find them interesting, not necessarily tasty). One of the very first videos I downloaded from the internet was an educational clip from a lab showing a hagfish filling up a tank with slime. The hagfish are interesting from an evolutionary point of view, their slime is fascinating from a biochemistry perspective because slime created by the hagfish can hold a tremendous amount of water, and they have the beginnings of an adaptive immune system.

Here's a comic and post which got me thinking about hagfish again.

Moon over Davos and hiking

There was a fantastic almost full moon hanging over Davos the other night while I was cycling to the lake.

And the following night was museum night in Davos. There are 7 museums in this tiny town and they were open for free until midnight. There were many people going to all the museums and the streets were busy. First we went to a mining museum and learned about mining in the region. Conclusions - not very good. However since we got there early we had a great guide who told us about the different rocks. Next was the toy museum which was really great. One of the dollhouses on display was based on the novel The Magic Mountain which I haven't read yet but is set in Davos in a Sanatorium.

 On Saturday the weather was fantastic and we headed out for a mountain hike. Initially the plan was just to go up to the Sertig pass and back, but since we were making good time we went behind and out another valley leading into Davos. At the top of the Sertig pass (2700m) we had a great view of the taller mountains behind.

And the weather continued to be fabulous throughout the day. Sometimes there were some clouds but they came and went.

I love that these views are such a short distance from home.

We descended down from the Sertig pass and into the valley below. We didn't go to the lakes but continued along, traversing high along the valley.

Below we could see mountain bikers on the flatter trail along the river.

We climbed another pass and then made our way down to the village at the end of the valley below. There were many mountain bikers carrying their bicycles up the trail to the pass and it didn't look very fun! At the village there was a great hotel with a patio and a fantastic view of the mountains behind. Both the Sertig and Dishma valley's in the region have a restaurant with a view and it looks like a great way to finish a hike. Here's hoping next weekend's weather is also as fabulous!

Schwingen festival in Davos

On the weekend in Davos I went to the Schwingen festival. This is a very traditional Swiss event - wrestling in the small mountain villages. The day was beautiful (it rained the day before and the day after so we were very lucky. The wrestling was held at the end of a long valley close to Davos (the Sertig) which ended in a tiny cluster of houses and some farms.

We walked past the end of the road on to the dirt track and then to a path and the rather large waterfall.

I had my photo taken, I was wearing a skirt because it was warm enough in Davos but a little cool in Sertig, about 800m higher up in elevation. I also clearly looked like a tourist, it was clearly a locals event and people from around Switzerland and Germany who follow Schwingen and travel to all the festivals. I wasn't cold though, but that was luck. And maybe all the cider...

A butterfly landed on the camera.

The Schwingen festival typically happens after the hay has been harvested. The farmer would reward his helpers by buying them drinks etc while they attended the festival. There were four wrestling rings laid down with sawdust.

Most of the competitors were boys. There was a strong focus on good 'team spirit', after the wrestling two boys just walked off and the adults who were supervising made them shake hands and the winner brush all the dust from the back of the loser. This behaviour was seen throughout the event, I guess in a small village you don't want grudges to build up because you can't get away from them.

There were a few men's events as well. Ticket prices were 30CHF if you sat on the bench, 25CHF if you sat on the grass and 20CHF if you stood.

In addition to all the wrestling there was lots of music and beer and food. We caught the alphorns, but there was also a yodelling group and a group with clarinets, accordions and string base. They played throughout the day. My friend and I drank 2 giant bottles of some kind of apple cider.

The weather stayed nice and the mountains in the back were beautiful.

We left before the end but there were giant cow bells for the winners.

Ontario Times

Then it was on to Toronto to visit friends and Toronto island. We walked through the markets and the trendy Distillery district where kitchen gadgets were even more expensive than in Switzerland.

And then it was back to the homelands for a family reunion. We had our camperama at the farm and I did a lot of sitting around and reading my old children's books (I still love Gordon Korman and Bunnicula).

I took my little cousin out on the pond to fish for pieces of wood.

The weather was really really hot (after freezing in Vancouver). Everyone was in the pool throughout the day. At least we missed it when it was 38 in Toronto. Davos got really bad weather, they told me it even snowed on the mountains above (but not in the town).

I also worked on driving standard, I took the old truck out for a drive in the driveway to practice getting into gear. After the motorcycle it wasn't too difficult. I think my problems will come when I'm on a steep hill and someone is right behind me and I am stressed. Otherwise, the countryside was really beautiful and I'm experimenting more with taking pictures. They were in the middle of taking off the wheat. Also, I was at the elevator where they returned the crops and they had a GMO test, it was like a pregnancy test with the strip.

The Return to Vancouver

A recent visit to Vancouver showed me how much things had changed (and also remained the same). Here is the Olympic torch.

Then it was a small flight to Victoria where I met up with friends and actually enjoyed some beer. Also, I was still so jetlagged (first 6 hours from Europe and then another 3 from Toronto) that when movie time came I just fell asleep in the bean bag chair.

The flight was  very interesting, a small float plane and even though there were clouds, we could see lots because we were flying so low.

In Victoria I went to see the sook potholes, I think it would be a better trip on a hot day (by bicycle) but the water was very pretty.

To go back to Vancouver I took the ferry.

On one day it was a visit to Stanley Park and the aquarium, the light looked so fantastic on the city that I took some pretty nice pictures.

Once again I watched the Beluga show, at least the dialogue has changed somewhat over the years.

But there was still the tail splash at the end and I picked the wrong part of the seating and got a bit wet.

Also the otters were very cute. Still. Of course.

And now there are three dolphins in the show.

And now at the aquarium they have a much expanded jellyfish section (this is not a jellyfish).

But this is a jellyfish and I don't know what kind it is.

And they still have the moon jellies (common in the region). They even had several tanks showing the various life stages of the jellyfish.

The problem with hiking in Vancouver this year is that summer hasn't really come yet. So the snow was still on all the mountains (including on the top of Cypress - I've never seen that the entire time I was there). Instead we went hiking on the Chief. Holy crap was it crowded. I can understand it was almost the first nice day of summer, but it seems to have become the new Grind. It was packed going up and down and I believe easy access from Vancouver because of the new highway plays a big role.

Also at the top of Chief we found a hungry chipmunk.

And a nice view of Mount Garabaldi through the crack in the Chief.

And of course at the top of the chief is lots of climbing, here my friend clings to a tree as she makes her descent.

There was lots of eating on this trip, Vigs, Bananaleaf, White Spot and all you can eat Sushi. At the Sushi restaurant it was pretty funny to see the limitations, children were limited by age and height.