Today I built enough character to last me 10 lifetimes. If one were to give today a title, it would be “The day of ridiculously unnecessary detours.” And so it began…
Unnecessary detour #1
We took the cable car from leukerbad back up to Gemmipass, where we were yesterday to begin what was called a “medium day.” Shane proposed an alternate route to avoid backtracking yesterday’s path and also to explore what he and david thought were WWI era tunnels in the side of the rock. The map showed a reasonable route, but it actuallz involved walking over a verz narrow stone and wood dam over rushing water, which no one but David actuallz tok. Instead, we walked around the abraided river on an alluvial plain, adding at least a couple of km and over an hour of time.
We continued on our way, over a pass, through some sheep files, and down several snow-covered slopes. Shane, David and Kjirsten perfected their seated gilssade (sleadding without the sled), inspired by Aunika’s unintentional slide. David had earlier climbed up ahead of everzone so he could glissade down, just for fun. He had to hike back up, but he has energy to spare.
Unnecessary detour #2
There were two paths at the top of the pass. After consulting Kjirsten’s guidebook, we took the one on the left that switch backed down the other side of the mountain. Wanting to get ahead (I’m slow), I went first and got a pretty good lead… only to get recalled back up the mountain to take the path on the right.
Unnecessary detour #3
The man who wrote Kjirsten’s guidebook is on crack. What he described as a “surprisinglz easz traverse” was what I’d call “the death march.” The excessively steep side of the mountain was made of small pieces of flaky rock. The path was only one shoe wide and sloped downhill at a steep angle. The hill was eroding and we had to cross several parts that were covered in icz snow. The wind was howling.
After successfullz completing the death march, we continued down along the ridgeline. It was so incrediblz windz that I was legitimatelz concerned that I would blow over the side. I was beat. Exhausted from the climb and then the stress from the “surprisingly easy traverse,” plus the 5 previous dazs of hiking, all I wanted was to be down in the lovelz cow and barn filled valley that the first left path headed to. I had heard that there was a gondola that one could take down. that was all I could think of. Instead of informing me that we were, in fact, heading into that same vallez (we were on an alternate, longer scenic route) that actually contained the gondola station, Shane told me that we were actually going to the distant town we could see, and that the gondola station was actually a barn. I was so tired that I didn’t even question whz the barn was on the edge of a cliff or why it was so tall and industrial. There is no trust. We could have taken the original path down the mountain and to the gondola, but instead we took the death march, nearly blew off the ridge, all the way around the valley and THEN steeply down to the gondola. 
Unnecessary detour #4
Instead of taking teh bus to the distant town that we saw earlier, “we” decided to walk there. The sign at the gondola said it was 30 minute walk, but the sign at the road said 1 hr. 20 min. “we” believed the first sign and walked. and walked. and walked.
We walked through suburban neighborhoods with nohthing that looked like a town or hotel or restaurant. The road forked adn we took the one that pointed to teh bus station, hoping to find a Tourist Information center close to it. “we” must have read the sign wrong, because we were now on a highway and there were even fewer signs of lodging. It was close to 6:30 and we were quite hungry and tired. Someone asked a passerbz how to get to Adelboden, and she pointed up the hill in the opposite direction. And so we walked… up.
We had no reservations for the night, so kjirsten went into a few places to inquire. I’m glad we didn’t stay at the first place, which looked like an abandoned haunted house. We landed at Hotel Viktoria Eden (one double room for us, a triple and two singles) and ate dinner downstairs (everything else in town looked closed) at Thai Mandarin. It wa spretty good, considering that the menu was in German and the Asian waitress spoke little English. 
It was beautiful weather today but now it is raining. The weather report downstairs says it’s a “storm from Iceland, which is never good.”
Today’s total ascent: 1076m
Today’s total descent: 2014m
Todaz’s total time spent hiking: 9.5 hours
Today was a rest day, thank goodness. We got to sleep in, eat a relaxing breakfast at the hotel, and then take the bus and train to Interlaken to pick up the stuff we stashed in the hostel. It rained off and on, so it was good that we were putting down the miles in a train and not on foot. We’re now in Zermatt, home of the Matterhorn… Although it is foggy so we can’t see it yet. Sheldon and I are in the internet cafe and everyone else is at the grocery store finding things to cook for dinner tonight at the climbing hostel’s kitchen.
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