Alpstein: through the car gap

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On Friday afternoon we took the gondola to Ebenalp and into the fog. A circumnavigation of the Ebenalp took us through the Wildkirchli caves, past the limestone and on to Altenalp. After a short break on the Kafi we hiked through fog to the Mesmer where we arrived punctually at 18 o'clock. My "out of the belly" planning was once again wonderful!

There was very little going on with just one family left over here and the three of us. After some pannache with delicious Appenzeller beer and the "best rösti of the alpine stone" and a nice conversation with the hosts, we retired to the camp, enjoyed a few sips of whiskey and chocolate and mellowed us in the soft, warm blankets.

Full concentration on Saturday

On Saturday morning at seven, magnificent inversion weather situation: while it was cool and clear up at 1600m, the sun rose over the dense fog in the valley. Such natural spectacles simply give the mountains something mystical. Slowly we got into the corridors and soon started walking, behind the hut high in the direction of Säntis. The valley is shady, sun comes in very late in the day. But after half an hour we had run warm - which was also necessary, because the snow-hard frozen snow fields, left over from the snowfall at the beginning of the week, demanded our full concentration. Luckily, there were often already deep marks, otherwise we would have had to break off here. But so it went slowly, concentrated, with some climbs, until the rise in the wagon gap. This partially snow and ice-covered gravel slope first gave us such a respect that we took a short break with chocolate and hot tea. Then, as so often in the mountains, it was much easier than it was from below. 

What a wonderful sunshine! At noon we reached the wagon gap, unpacked our Vesper, and had breakfast extensively. The warm sunshine, curious and hungry jackdaws, silence. Over there on the Lisengrat some daredevils struggled slowly and deliberately through the snowfields and gullies. It's hard to get up again, the descent through the valley in front of your eyes. The deeper we came, the faster we got off. The view of the Meglisalp's coffee and toilet accelerated our steps. However, there was so much going on at the Meglisalp - and we were used to so much loneliness that we felt rather lost in the crowd. So, after just a few minutes rest, we attacked the remaining descent to Wasserauen.

Ambitious relegated

A traveling group, probably on the run, pushed, we let them past, but soon caught up with them again. So the game repeated several times. It's just a shame that they lost sight of the weakest of their group due to misunderstood ambition. The lady was very heavy on the snowfields, especially if it breaks off a few hundred meters vertically down to the valley left. Even experienced hikers concentrate in such places (although some would never admit that of course ...). Well, what can one say, ambitious and dangerous idiots are everywhere and also in the mountains.

Leif is Leif ...

After felt a thousand steps, with aching knees, we plunged back into the fog. Again we were enveloped in a mystical mood, fog, the grove, moss-covered boulders. Immediately it was cool and clammy, we took the remaining thousand steps less lively and were just happy to arrive in the valley. There we were greeted by really weird solo entertainer music, the Oktoberfest was revived on a blackboard, and in front of five guests croaked a voice "Leif is Leif ... Nananaaa". Welcome back to reality!

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