This site is about a hiking trip across the Swiss Alps. It will follow most of the ViaAlpina or Alpine way. There are a few of these such trails across Europe and for the most part are ancient trade routes. This one is officially named the Green Route.
Edit: heres a link to the "actual", the how it went: https://medium.com/@wellsst/via-alpina-switzerland-day-to-day-82fa592f54bb
Why do this?
The German language has plenty of single (perhaps long) words that provide some compelling reasons, it all depends on your Weltanschauung or world-view:
Other similar words from different languages but this is all summed up beautifully in this video:
If you're wondering what the place looks like have a look at the picture blog from the authors who updated the Via Bible
For now we'll cover what is planned since I have not yet done any of it. The plan is for a Sept-Early Oct 2017. I have already hiked and skied in the Grindlewald-Lauterbrunnen-Murren region, but that was close on 10 years back and have been itching to return.
Here I'll work on the planned route, equipment, training and so many other items such as who will I go with if anyone?
The site will evolve over time. I have already done much research and borrowed from those kind enough to publish their experience.
For now it is highly under development and under construction.
It outlines "The Plan", there are a few alternatives possible...hopefully Oct 2017 I can update each page with "The Actual". The route below is the common trek you could take and achieve in a 2 weeks period that covers most of the highlights, though if you did continue on into the French speaking part there is certainly a lot to be impressed by.
Originally I collected as much information as possible from mainly the following sources:
I attempted to give reference to these sources as much as possible and I'm keeping it here as I may use it on my own trip and might help others.
The Swiss rail system is excellent as is the bus and gondola type transport. This gives you many opportunities to have a backup plan in case of bad weather, sickness, making up time or avoiding a lengthy ascent.
Getting bags around
http://www.myswissalps.com/train/practical/luggage:
Traveling within Switzerland
Basic Luggage service:
”
As confirmed at: https://www.sbb.ch/en/station-services/services/luggage-and-flight-luggage/luggage.html
CHF 12 per item, includes insurance to CHF2000
The plan would be to put the bag to a place about 2-4 nights away and catchup with it.
Find the station, to see if it supports it: http://www.sbb.ch/content/sbb/en/desktop/bahnhof-services/am-bahnhof/standort/bahnhoffinder.posid.3239.html
From asking a question on this on https://myviaalpina.wordpress.com some useful tips came back:
The luggage forwarding service on Swiss rail is reliable, and can be very helpful for hikers. We used it several years ago when hiking the Lötschental Höhenweg. Perhaps you have already looked at it, but the website for the Swiss rail system provides excellent information on this and other rail-related services: http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html They even have a smartphone app. I’ve used the Swiss rail and postbus systems for 11 different hiking trips to Switzerland, and found them to be extremely efficient, courteous and helpful. Do keep in mind that more remote rail stations may have limited hours, especially on Sundays or holidays.
During our 2013 and 2016 Via Alpina hikes, we actually did carry everything with us for the entire trip (didn’t use lockers or luggage forwarding).
During our hikes in Switzerland we’ve typically stored our luggage at larger train stations on the way to the hike starting point and picked it up after our hike. We’ve used luggage transfer a few times as well and have never had any problems at all. It’s pricey, though. If you are planning to store luggage, contact swiss rail about the specific stations to see what is available in terms of lockers or attended storage. We’ve encountered stations where there are no lockers and stations where lockers are only good for two days. At some stations there are no longer storage options. At larger stations there is usually the option of leaving a bag with an attendant for longer periods of time. This past fall we left a bag at Sion for 10 days — 9 CHF/day.