Rosenlaui Hike

So the other day Brett got an email from an old mission companion, Steven, who was in town on business and asked if he wanted to go hiking.  This is the same companion who was moving away from Switzerland right as we moved in, so he gave us couches, a table, a bed, and other various things that we were soooo grateful to get, because we were still in the I'm-not-sure-we-can-actually-afford-to-live-here stage, and weren't really buying anything.

Anyway, we picked him up on Saturday morning and drove to Rosenlaui.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful place.  (Although to my great dismay and regret, I was told afterwards that we should have paid to go through the gorge that was RIGHT THERE because it is amazing.  Schade.  Maybe we can catch it another time.)

Hazel, because- an owl.

 

 

See the glacier up there?  There's a better picture to come.

Orrin was a serious trooper on this day.  He almost hiked the entire way up by himself, and he was totally into climbing up rocks wherever possible.  It was pretty funny.

There's the glacier.

Looking down into the valley.

Hazel with a silly face in front of the glacier.

Talmage taking a rest.  He (and therefore I) lagged behind quite a bit for a while, and even asked me, "Why did we pick to come to this mountain?  Why do we want to do things that are hard?"  I should read him this quote from Pres. Uchtdorf's talk at the Pioneer Day Devotional earlier this month in Ogden:

{Speaking of pioneers} They learned that doing the hard things—even applying themselves to the tasks they really did not want to do—deepened and strengthened body, mind, and spirit. This habit firmed their souls and became a blessing to them long after their trek across the plains and mountains had ended.

(The rest of the talk is really good, definitely give it a read here.)

Yet another picture of the glacier.

The kids all did really well- it was a pretty steep hike.

We made it to the SAC hut and sat down for a well-earned sandwich.

Why is he sooo cute???

Here we all are eating lunch on the slippery slope.  Wyatt only tumbled down once and was none the worse for wear.  :)  A funny thing- Orrin said, "I have to go to the bathroom," so I hurried to get the sandwich fixings off my lap and get up to help him, but it was too late and he peed his pants.  Then he sternly said, "Mom, you didn't come quick enough!!" because obviously it was my fault.  :)

Here's Elder Sheffield and Elder Bell.  It's really sad I don't have Brett's mission scrapbook so I could do a comparison photo of them hiking in Switzerland 15 years ago.

We played around on the snow for a bit and I climbed up the rocks a bit where the rock climbers were and concluded that I could totally climb to the top, and then we started back down the trail.

Somebody shared some love.

It became a bit grim for a little while because Wyatt was really thirsty and we had run out of water, so he was crying, and I had to carry Orrin piggy back because of course he was tired by this time (it would have been much easier to carry him with the actual carrier thingee we have, but if he saw us bring it then he wouldn't actually walk any of the time because he would want to be carried.  Conundrums.) but we quickly got down to the water and filled up our bottles and drank and felt a hundred times better.  Fresh cold alpine water.  Ahhhh.

 

Here are some pictures from the internet of the area:
This is the hut.


And this is the Rosenlaui Valley, where we were.



The end.