2017-09-19
A simple notion, from my friend Robb: cross the Alps, on foot, in a day.
"Day" could mean within a calender day, within a 24 hour period, or perhaps even "in a push" (without sleeping).
"Cross the Alps" is a little harder to define. It seems reasonable that one would like to go from "plain level" on one side, to "plain level" on the other side, without somehow "going around". However, this is a little tricky, because many valleys penetrate very deep into the range and are connected by passes. For instance, can one simply cross the Gotthard pass, from Airolo to Göshenen? This doesn't seem satisfying, as both are at about 1000m (plain level is about 300m to the south and 500m to the north). But, how far down the valley must one go in either direction for it to "count"? Our first route, last summer, answered this question by connecting the SBB stations at either end of the just-opened Gotthard Base Tunnel, the longest train tunnel in the world at 57 km. This is a nice definition of "connecting the plains" as the point of a "base" tunnel is to allow trains to proceed without having to climb or descend any significant amount.
This year, we pursued another idea, a variant of our initial, 2-day attempt two years ago. The conceit is to connect a very large plans-level lake in the South with a very large plains-level lake in the North. Specifically, we aimed to go from Lago Maggiore to the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake Lucerne). This would conveniently connect the SBB stations of Locarno and Flüelen, via a beautiful route crossing most of the cantons of Ticino and Uri.
| Given my abilities and the distance between the endpoints (about 80km as the crow flies), it seemed obvious to take advantage of the Gotthard Pass. This pass, after all, has centuries of history as one of the easiest ways to cross the range! The minimal-elevation-change route between Flüelen and Locarno would be to head to Bellinzona (with its fortresses built to defend this route) and then follow the old trade route over the pass. We decided on a more direct route with more elevation change. This ascends the beautiful (even in the dark) Vallemaggia north from Locarno (~300m), crosses Passo Sassello (~2300m) to Airolo (~1100) and then proceeds over the Gotthard pass (~2000m) before taking the path of least resistance to Flüelen (~500m).
The full route totals about 120 km with nearly 4000 m of climbing.
Robb and I made our first attempt in late July, when he was in Switzerland for a visit. The weather was gorgeous - a little warm but clear. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.
Robb found himself ill and unable to metabolize food well enough to continue, and I found myself under-prepared. I had not broken in my new shoes, had not done enough long-distance training, and was recovering from a calf strain; within the first 20-30km my calves felt like rocks.
Robb decided he needed a long break at about Peccia, and I continued up, but found myself unable to continuously jog the totally-flat portion along Lago Sambuca. I was, however, treated to a display of Swiss Army people (who look exactly like their plastic counterparts), parachuting in and landing at the bottom of the dam.
I then missed a trail junction and added a couple of unnecessary kilometers. I was hot and exhausted by the time I arrived at Passo Sassello after some muddy, steep trails. I soon found my calves buckling whenever I tried to run, and taking another wrong turn and ending on a seemingly-endless up and down traverse convinced me that there was no feasible way to complete the route that day. In retrospect I suppose that with a very long period of walking I could have completed the "in a push" variant, but this wasn't something that even crossed my mind. I slowly descended what seemed like an endless series of trails to Airolo, and got on the train home. My staggering was subjected to some good-natured mockery in Swiss German.
Robb took a nap, got some breakfast in Fusio, and had a nice day hiking over a different pass, back to Airolo. Both he and I ended up doing about 65km that day.
The summer seemed to be ending quickly, so I jumped at the opportunity for a solo attempt on a single day, September 15, without rain in the forecast. It had snowed at Passo Sassello the previous week, so I was quite worried about that section being a muddy mess. The forecast was mostly for temperatures around 5-10C, with a small chance of rain later in the day.
I took the last train from Zurich to Locarno. It was cold and wet outside, and I was quite anxious as I dozed, not very confident in my ability to complete the route, worried I would get hit by bad weather, worried that I wasn't fully recovered from the Jungfrau Marathon 6 days before. I even went so far as to look up return routes back home, but as I was on the last train, there were none. I figured I might as well spend the night jogging as opposed to sleeping outside somewhere.
I arrived in Locarno just before 00:30 on Friday morning. I snapped a selfie with the FART station (hilarious) and started off, taking the short detour down to the lake before heading towards the Vallemaggia.
On previous attempts, we'd taken a circuitous route through parks along the river, to avoid the direct route, a shoulderless road heading to Ponte Brolla. This time I simply took the road. There were a couple of hairy sections where I wouldn't have wanted to meet a car, but very little traffic (thankfully this was Thursday night, not Friday night when drunk drivers would be a concern). Soon enough I reached the junction near Ponte Brolla and began the first section of the route proper, following the road to Bignasco.
The moon hadn't risen and the sky was clear, so I was treated to a beautiful Milky Way. This section went quite smoothly, as this was now my third time running up the valley.
I spent most of my time on the road itself, as there was almost no traffic once I got away from Locarno. I didn't even need my headlamp, though it was quite dark, as the white lines on the road were enough to stay on the perfectly flat surface. I jogged essentially the entire way to Bignasco, about 27 km in, stopping a couple of times to look at the map and eat a banana. The church bell rang 4 times as I arrived.
It was quite windy at times. The valley is very spooky at night, in how quiet and remote it seems.
The next 10km started with a section on rocky trail, which made me wish I had just taken the road. It probably saves some distance (I doubt it saved time), but the road can be done mindlessly, and there were no cars to be concerned with. On the plus side, on the trail I saw a pair of European Polecats (the domesticated ferret is a subspecies of these), who didn't seem at all concerned with me and ambled past on the trail.
I arrived at Peccia, about where Robb and I parted ways on the first attempt, at 5:45. This is about 37km in, and the trail steepens greatly as you cut a series of steep switchbacks in the road. After rejoining the road, the grade eases up and even flattens a bit as you move to Fusio, the last town before the pass. I arrived there at 7, having seen my first person of the run sitting on the side of the road, waiting for a ride it seemed. Along this stretch I decided that I would no longer attempt to run any significantly uphill sections, as the speed increase didn't warrant the fatigue in my legs that I would surely feel at the end of the route. A few commuters sped past in the opposite direction, but there were never any cars heading uphill.
It was cold but I forced myself to down a bottle of water as I walked from Fusio up to the dam of Lago Sambuca, arriving there at 7:30.
I was very happy that, on this attempt, I had no trouble jogging the flat length of the dam. This time I was also on the lookout for the proper trail to join up to the pass and thankfully located it. I had been very worried that this section of the route would be a mud bath, but it seems that being later in the year, the ground was dry enough to absorb the water from the rain and snow during the previous week, and was actually significantly less muddy than the previous attempt.
Progress up the hill was much easier than the last attempt, and I reveled in the perfect cool morning temperatures. The cool temperatures were very helpful for the entire route - occasionally uncomfortable but worth it for the reduction in sweating. I was thrilled to make it to Passo Sassello at 9:26, and began my way down the other side, excited for lunch in Airolo.
I managed to easily avoid my previous route-finding error, joining a very steep road leading down from some alps. Along the way I surprised a fox, who scrambled away into the brush. I picked up some trail signs to Airolo, which did lead there but not the way I had hoped (quickly rejoining some roads leading to Nante), and I ended up on some familiar territory from my last descent (though, thankfully, with only a little bit of additional climbing during a long traverse). The descent seemed interminable as I clumped down muddy fields and roads, finally arriving at the valley floor, taking a tunnel under the freeway, running under the train station, and ending up at the pizza place at 11:45. I was feeling quite happy with the route so far, as I was over halfway finished (65 km in) and only had the 1000m or so left to the Gotthard pass to climb.
I enjoyed a Rivella and bad funghi pizza of the kind that restaurants around here seem to be able to prepare in \<5 minutes. It was fantastic. I wanted to sit in the restaurant so after I had finished eating in about 15 minutes, I nursed a coffee and tried not to smell too bad after my recent descent through cow pastures.
At about 1pm I dragged myself back outside and began the hike to the Gotthard pass, following the copious signs up switchbacks past the impressive old and new roads that braid their way up. I reached the pass at 2:45.
My body was beginning to protest quite a bit by this point, so I focused as I could on efficiently moving down the hill to Göshenen, aiming to get there by 6 pm. Focusing on using my arms helped a lot. The muddiness was good on this section, as it softened the trail. The route from Hospental to Andermatt is frustratingly convoluted, as one is directed around a golf course (it might have been better to take the main road, as opposed to following the hiking trails). I picked up some extra batteries for my dimming headlamp at the Kiosk at the Andermatt train station, fearing that it wouldn't be sufficient if caught in the dark before reaching "civilization" at Amsteg.
I passed the amazing constructions between Andermatt and Göshenen, the waterfalls roaring, and arrived there at 5:30 pm. I then began a previously-untravelled section between Göshenen and Gurtnellen. Trail signs kept me on track, with many creative trail constructions allowing one to thread down the steep valley. I found myself in Gurtnellen on the "correct" route that I had missed on my last transalp route. This involves following a trail which runs along the river and then suddenly crosses a couple of bridges, underneath the freeway, and then climbs a long series of stairs. This section didn't have many route markers, so I was quite worried I was climbing for nothing, but eventually I found myself back on the trail leading to Amsteg.
It was now almost completely dark.
On the previous route, I had also covered this section, but in a downpour at night. My legs were getting very sore by now and I focused on using my arms to keep some sort of a jog whenever possible, still walking any uphills. I noted the shed I'd sheltered in from the rain on the last attempt, when I'd thought I was lost, and the bridges with roaring streams underneath, which I'd seen illuminated before by flashes of lightning.
Morale was getting low by now, as it often does when the sun goes down again.
I finally arrived in Amsteg, just past the 100km point, rejoicing at my return to "civilization". From here the route is almost entirely flat and on roads.
On the previous route I had simply followed the road almost the entire way to Erstfeld from here, and I was hoping that it'd be that easy to continue to Flüelen. I stopped for a break on some steps, checked my phone and texted with Clara and Dan, looked at the weather forecast (improving, now no chance of rain), and tried to estimate the distance. Google maps told me it was only 16km to the train station. It was now 8:30 and the last train left Flüelen at 10:42. With good route-finding this seemed just possible to do; ten miles in 2 hours shouldn't be too hard, right? I put away the poles, pulled out the secret weapon (a collection of Robyn tracks on my heaphones), ate yet another gu, and set off.
For the first 2-3 km, I felt absolutely euphoric. I was going to make it! I was running at a good pace, around 6 min/km, one downhill km at a hair above 5 minutes.
I followed the way I remembered from last time to the Erstfeld train station. This is mainly on the road but at a certain point the sidewalk ends and one must join a fire road along the river and then take some city streets to get to the station. I moved over to the side of the fire road at one point to let a bicycle pass me. Eventually I realized that I was hallucinating and there was no biker. Minor visual hallucinations continued, usually in the form of seeing a person or animal moving in the distance, wondering if it wasn't just a hallucination, concluding that it was real, then concluding that it wasn't real, after getting closer.
After Erstfeld I was again in untravelled territory. I was running out of energy and water, and slowed down a bit before finding a stream from which I could drink and thus eat another gel. I trusted google maps to give me the route to the finish. I had initially planned to simply follow the main road and trail signs to Altdorf, but Google promised me a tantalizing shortcut which might allow me to make the train. So far it had done well, taking me along a broad bike path. I followed blindly, and was dismayed when I found myself on a high speed frontage road with no shoulder. Unlike the start of the route, it was Friday night and I was worried about drunk drivers, given some of the driving I'd seen in the last couple of hours. I gave up on the train and took a detour on smaller streets and trails.
Things got hard at this point, as my drive to make the train had been masking some of my fatigue (and I had pushed myself more than I would have, otherwise). I was reduced to walking the last couple of kilometers. At one point I passed a spooky building with a sign reading "Kadaver-Sammelstelle".
I finally reach the Flüelen SBB station at about 23:15. I turned on Strava for the last few meters, managing to jog an epic 8:15 min/km pace. I took some pictures with my phone and texted some people.
I got myself a can of Rivella and some Haribo Goldbären (gummy bears) from the vending machine and made my way to the enclosed waiting area on the platform. I wasn't sure if someone would kick me out of there, so after putting on all the clothes I had, I lay down on the bench out of sight.
Finally relaxing felt quite incredible. I shook all over, feeling so good to shiver. I spent the next few hours on the bench, a little cold but glad to rest. The roar of freight trains passing through the station all night was somehow comforting. I woke to 5 church bells, and after very slowly making my way to the WC and back, boarded the 5:40 train home.
Approximate timings:
Gear: