Biking Down the Mountain

Biking Down the Mountian at Knuckle Whitening Speeds
By Sharon Miller

Switzerland is beautiful. Everywhere you look, the pristine beauty of the Swiss Alps looms over you as you breathe in the crisp mountain air. It truly is a hiker’s paradise. With that picture in our minds, my family and I headed to the small town of Lauterbrunnen, in central Switzerland, for what I thought to be a few days of hiking. Unfortunately, to my chagrin, they had something different in mind. Instead of a nice, long hike on the Northface Trail, my parents decided it would more fun if we rented bikes, carted them up to the little village of Mürren, cruised through the town, hiked the Northface trail and then rode our bikes back down the mountain to Lauterbrunnen, all by 6:00pm (which was when our bikes were due back at the shop). To be honest, at the beginning of the day, when we were all well-rested and chipper, I agreed that this sounded like a good idea. However, like the rest of my family, I had not truly thought through the logistics of the adventure.

So, we headed on a nice hour bike ride, following a small stream to the gondola station that would carry us to the town of Mürren. After waiting for about 30 minutes, we boarded the gondola, taking care not to crush the other passengers with our bikes and enjoyed the surrounding scenery. We jumped off at the first stop, to have a quick look around the town of Gimmelwald. Gimmelwald could easily be the best place in Switzerland. Nestled amongst the Swiss Alps, you have a gorgeous view in any direction you look. Accessible only by the gondola, or some serious hiking, Gimmelwald is clean, quiet and totally devoid of tourists. Nevertheless, Gimmelwald does boast two hostels in town, the Mountain Host The easy bike ride in Murren did not prepare us for the trails ahead. el that sits right near the station and has magnificent views, and the Sleeping in Straw Hostel, which is only open in the summer months, when the cows are out to pasture. After spending more time than we had originally allotted, we jumped back on the gondola and headed the rest of the way up to Mürren. There we cruised the town on our bikes, on nicely paved roads, while we searched for a place to eat lunch. As we enjoyed our leisurely lunch, the day slowly crept by, and we all became aware of our time constraints. It was already well into the afternoon, we still planned to hike the Northface Trail and then bike back down to Lauterbrunnen. Despite our obvious lack of time, we finished our lunch, locked up our bikes and started up the mountain

Attempting a hike of that caliber is not recommended immediately following a rather large meal. With all of our bellies almost dragging the ground, our progress was much slower then we intended. The Northface Trail is not for the unfit. You will face several ups and downs as you wind your way through the Swiss Alps. The higher altitude will definitely affect your stamina as well, if you are from lowlands, like Texas. Nevertheless, it is low enough for the emerald green grass to cover the mountainside and for the trees and flowers to be in full bloom. At one point, our whole family reenacted the opening sequence of The Sound of Music, by spinning in circles and singing at the top of our lungs. Cattle roamed freely, with their oversized cow-bells dangling from their necks, and often stopped to graze perilously on the edge of a cliff.

Church bells were chiming the four o’clock hour, as we finally made our way back into the town of Mürren. Despite our exhaustion from the day’s activities, we all thought we had plenty of time to bike down to Lauterbrunnen, before the six o’clock deadline rolled around. I mean, how difficult can a downhill be anyway? We all jumped happily onto our bikes, and cruised back through Mürren and onto the trail that would eventually lead us down. Paved, and wide and mostly flat, the beginning of the trail gave of the false impression that this was going to be an easy bike ride. Alas, that was not so. About one mile outside of Mürren the trail took a sharp turn down. And I don’t mean a gentle slope, I mean a decline of about 30 degrees, and in my eyes, as I pedaled along, it looked as if it was straight down. Nevertheless, I controlled my fears and pressed on the brakes and began the descent. That is, of course, until the paved road turned into a small, jagged rock road. Suddenly, it was not Cows often blocked the path on the Northface Trail. concrete covering the ground, it was not even gravel covering the ground, it was golf-ball size, jagged edge gray rocks covering the path on which I was supposed to be riding. Immediately, my brakes stopped working, as my back tires fishtailed behind me, and visions of face planting into those rocks flashed across my mind. Not one to invite physical pain, I got off my bike and refused to get back on, knowing full well that we had at least 10 miles of this down hill trek to reach Lauterbrunnen. My whole family tried, several times to convince me to actually pedal down the mountain, and every time I refused. I knew that if I tried to actually ride down, I would flip off my bike, and not only break my head on those rocks, but also go tumbling off the path and fall several hundred feet to my death. This was not a risk I was willing to take, so I stubbornly walked on. Luckily, my two sisters do invite pain, and were willing to take the risk, so after much debate they were sent down ahead of us, to inform the bike rental people that we would be late.

Although both Tara and Kim have a great deal of mountain biking experience, nothing could have prepared them for the ride they now had to face. Cruising at speeds faster than most people would attempt on a paved rode, they flew straight down the gravel switchbacks, doing their best to avoid the 300 foot drop on one side, knowing full well that they had a deadline to meet.

Upon their arrival in Lauterbrunnen, and the explanation of the events that had transpired, the distraught owner of the bike shop, agreed to drive up the path, on which no cars were actually allowed, in order to pick me up.

As darkness descended over the Alps, the lone headlights of the vehicle appeared in front of my parents and me. I cannot describe the feelings of joy and gratitude at knowing I was saved from the miserable fate of riding down the mountain. As the car pulled up beside me, I handed my bike off to Kim, who was willing to ride it down again and I settled down into the comfortable seat of the economy car, and thoroughly enjoyed my cruise down the mountain.