CLIMBING TO EDELWEISS

From the balcony of our room there's a clear view of the Edelweiss Hotel and Restaurant, a small beige chalet perched some 1100 feet up the side of the hill, hanging above the cow barns that sit on a ledge over town.  It's a hiker's hill, with no lifts to help you make the grade.

The climb starts easily enough, in a verdant hillside across the railroad tracks. The hill has gentle slopes where the parasailors land and discharge their riders. The paths are surrounded by countless wildflowers. 

 But it gets steeper. After a slow climb out of the meadow, it enters the trees, then crosses the dramatic Triftbach (Trift brook), whose waterfalls cascade down from the Trift valley. 

After the bridge, the climb begins in earnest. Clinging to the side of the hillside along the brook, the trail enters a larch forest and switches back and forth, over and over, for an hour or so. The good news is that you're always in the shade, and there are plenty of rocks if want/need to perch beside the brook and enjoy the sights and sounds. Since it's a straight rise from town, you can hear the church bells every quarter hour (when you aren't near the roaring brook). If it's a holiday you could hear echos of an alpenhorn concert carried on the wind. Finally you look up to see colorful umbrellas directly overhead, and you climb the last, steep steps back into the sunshine.  

True to its name, there ARE edelweiss up here -- not on the trail, but in a large container just off the porch of the building. 

 

And over at the porch railing, you are rewarded by looking directly down into the town you left below.