Mark Pospesel (Coding and Other Stuff)

My hiking group took two weeks off in October for Fall break, but since the hikes resumed I have missed two weeks. I missed the first hike because I was busy with work coming back after vacation (and to be honest, I was not getting enough sleep and was just too tired), and I missed the second hike because I needed to be home to let a serviceperson into our apartment.

Now it’s been a month since the last time I hiked, and I’m feeling out of shape again. But on the bright side, I went on this morning’s hike, so yay! (More on that in a separate post…)

Stanserhorn

8.5 km, 1,385m ascent, 3h:35m
This hike was by far the toughest group hike to-date. In fact it was probably tougher by a factor of 2 or more. It will probably be the toughest hike we do all season aside from our end-of-season goal of ascending Mt Pilatus from the bottom. Prior to this hike the most we had ascended was 650m. It was also the longest hike by an hour.

This hike was very difficult for me. I got dehydrated and low on salts and bonked near the end. I think I was also feeling the altitude. The last 10% was technically the easiest (not nearly as steep as the first 90%), but it was very difficult for me to finish. I was last out of our group of about 30 hikers, but I am proud that I finished. Also, despite my slow finish, I still did it well below the sign-posted Swiss time of 4h15m. If I ever did this again, I think I would like to take a good 5 hours and enjoy the route.

I set numerous records on my watch: most Move calories ever (out of > 500 days of meeting my Move goal), most Exercise minutes ever, 400% Move goal, most calories burned in a Hiking workout, etc. (I was disappointed to see there is not an award for 5x or 6x Move goal, which I also achieved.)

The hike began by following the funicular track up the mountain to the bottom cable car station. From there the trail became a series of switchbacks mostly through woods up until the intermediate cable car station. Past that it was switchbacks up a very steep alpine meadow but staying near the cable car line. The last section was a traverse across the mountain away from the cable car then switchbacks up onto the ridge and finally we followed the ridge up to the cable car station at the top. We ate lunch and enjoyed the views up top before taking the cable car and funicular back down to our cars. I would hate to have to hike back down.

More pics here.

Route map from my watch:

Auw via Horben Loop

11 km, 370m ascent, 2h:30m
This was the longest hike since Week 1. Ascending-wise it was not difficult, but I was feeling the distance in my legs by the time we finished. To truly whip myself into shape I will need to train on both long hikes and steep hikes.

This morning’s hike was more rolling hills and farm land (with the occasional forest) rather than actual mountains. The weather was cool but not cold (maybe 7°C at the start).

More pics here.

Route map from my watch:

Week 4: Maria Niederrickenbach

4.75 km, 640m ascent, 1h:45m
The hiking group was smaller this time: only 14 people, which is a much nicer group size than 40. This was the most ascending we had done yet. Parts of it were quite steep (averaging almost a 15% grade), but I did well. I hiked in the vanguard and was able to rest and catch my breath during regular pauses to wait for stragglers to catch up. The weather was cooler (cold at the beginning), which I appreciated. We took a decent length break at a shelter midway up.

This was a one-way hike. Most of the group stopped for lunch at the mountain restaurant up top before taking the cable car back down.

Sheep grazing on the mountain.

A view of the convent that was our destination, taken as we neared the top.

Selfie with sheep cheese! This region is known for its sheep’s milk cheese, so I bought some from a self-service kiosk (basically an unattended refrigerator and a box for cash).

Route map from my watch (the gap is from when I forgot to resume the workout after our break):

Training hikes

This week I fit in two training hikes.

Wirzweli from Dallenwil, 4.5km, 650m ascent, 1h:30m
This hike left from the opposite side of the valley from Tuesday’s Niederrickenbach hike, but in profile the hike was very similar. I hiked this one by myself. The weather was warmer this day, and I was sweating profusely and drank a lot of water.

Mostelberg from Sattel, 5.5km, 450m ascent, 1h:40m
I hiked this Sunday morning with my son. This hike is from the bottom station of the Sattel gondola to the top station. (The previous weekend we hiked in the same region but started from the gondola top station.) This was a pleasant hike but not as pretty as others I have done recently.

This Fall I have joined a hiking group. They hike every week on Tuesday mornings. The hikes are located within an hour’s drive of Zug, start at 9:30am sharp, and usually take 2 to 2.5 hours. I’m hoping to get in better shape, spend quality time walking outdoors, learn some new hiking routes, and maybe make a few friends while I’m at it.

While I feel that I am living a healthier lifestyle since moving to Switzerland, I still spend far too much time parked in front of a computer. Finding the energy and motivation to exercise has been a challenge for me. (It doesn’t help that the cheese and chocolate here are so delicious.)

This week was week 4 of the hiking club (they start with the school year), and I have done all four hikes. In theory the hiking season starts off easy and then ramps up the difficulty level as the season progresses. The end-of-season goal next Spring is to hike Mt Pilatus, which involves something like 1,600m of ascending. That’s about 1 mile straight up!

After the first hike I realized that I was going to have to up my game if I wanted to keep up with the other members and make it to Pilatus. So I’ve been trying to do at least 1 additional hike each week to get in better shape (and also for the sheer pleasure of it). The hike I did this morning to Wirzweli and the hike I did last Sunday to Sattel-Hochstuckli were both “training” hikes.

I plan to write how each week’s hike goes. I wanted to do this from the beginning but got behind on blogging.

So here’s how the first three weeks went. I’ll write a separate post for this week’s hike.

Week 1: Neuheim-Hollgrotten Loop

11 km, 330m ascent, 2.5h
This hike was tough on me. I was carrying too much water, which made it worse. I found the pace very fast. According to my GPS we had < 4 minutes of stoppage time, and 2h35m of walking time. I felt like we were walking so fast that I barely had time to get a drink of water much less take any photos. There were about 40 hikers.

Training hike: Zugerberg, 9.5 km, 450m ascent, 3h
I did this one with my son, so the pace was a little slower. Still this was probably the most ascending I’ve done in the past year (or more). Very pretty hike. We did this early in the morning and I was glad that the sun was behind the mountain while we did the ascent.

Week 2: Gubel

8 km, 200m ascent, 1.5h
This hike was clearly easier. The pace was gentler as well. We did a nice break at the top before returning to our starting point.

No training hike. I was feeling a bit under the weather that week.

Week 3: Albishorn

8 km, 450m ascent, 2h
The toughest hike yet in terms of ascending, but I felt pretty strong. (Which doesn’t mean I wasn’t huffing and puffing like crazy — I was!). The group split in two at the top, with about half electing to stop for a coffee at the mountaintop restaurant.

Training hike: Sattel-Hochstuckli, 8 km, 450m ascent, 2.5h
Very nice hike with great views, but more difficult than the Zugerberg hike. I also did this with my son, but I felt like we made pretty good time. (Any time we meet or beat the posted Swiss hiking times I feel pretty good.)