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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Couple takes memorable stroll along Swiss Alps


Jane Lincoln of Hayden Lake hikes the Alpine Pass Route during a two-week vacation in Switzerland, where she and her husband, Skip, hiked 100 miles from hotel to hotel on a route that's up close and personal with peaks like the Eiger. 
 (Photo by Skip Lincoln / The Spokesman-Review)
Rich Landers Outdoors editor

Savvy world traveling is nothing new to Skip and Jane Lincoln of Hayden Lake. But they took a new perspective a few years ago after enrolling in the Spokane Mountaineers backpacking school.

“Now we can’t imagine going on a trip without working in some sort of walking adventure,” Jane said last year in a Spokesman-Review story about their inn-to-inn hike across England.

She wasn’t kidding. The couple’s most recent calorie-consuming vacation was a September trek along the Alpine Pass Route in the Swiss Alps.

“I understand the route can be followed all the way across Switzerland, but we only hiked 100 to 130 miles of it in the two weeks we were there,” Skip said.

The complete route extends from the Liechtenstein border west to Lake Geneva. The Lincolns zeroed in on the most spectacular section, starting in south-central Switzerland and hiking 7 or 8 miles a day west to the border with France.

Flanked to the south by an almost unbroken succession of stunning rock and ice peaks — the Titlis, Wetterhorn, Eiger, Monch, Jungfrau, Blumlisalp, Wildstrubel and the Wildhorn. With such a backdrop continuously unfolding it is easy to run out of superlatives, Skip said.

“I call it civilized hiking, and I won’t say we tried to make it inexpensive,” he said, noting that virtually nothing in Switzerland could be considered cheap. “We came down to a village every night, stayed in an inn or hotel and ate fine meals.”

The couple carried daypacks with all the essential food, rain gear and extra clothing for scaling numerous mountain passes at elevations up to 8,500 feet. But they booked with Sherpa Expeditions to make arrangements in advance for accommodations and hauling the rest of their gear from village to village.

Costs for accommodations, meals, maps and gear shuttle on a 14-day self-guided hiking trip start at around $1,800.

The 13,025-foot Eiger is a standout in the scenery along the hike, the Lincolns said.

The north face of the Eiger is one of the climbing world’s great challenges, but tourists can take a train to the summit through a tunnel in the mountain. The Lincoln’s didn’t pass up that chance.

“It’s from the summit that you realize the massive nature of those mountains,” Skip said. “Your mind can hardly deal with it.”

September is a prime month for traveling in Europe, and the Alpine Pass Route is no exception. “There’s hardly anyone on the trail except in the popular tourist areas like the Eiger,” Skip said.

“The route is so well marked it would be virtually impossible to get lost. The second you pass one marker you can see the next one. They do this because whiteouts are not uncommon and it can get treacherous at the high elevations.”

Every junction is marked with a sign that gives distances and estimated hiking time to upcoming junctions and attractions. “Those signs were very nice,” Skip said, “But I think the estimated hiking times were designed for Olympic runners.”

The route itself tends to be either up or down and very steep in some sections, he said. “There was one portion that had a cable you could hold on to as you walked along a sheer drop-off,” he said. “It took every ounce of her courage for Jane to negotiate it. I think it would have been treacherous had it been wet.”

The Lincolns recommend planning a few easy tourist days at the front end of any active overseas vacation. This allows you to reunite with any lost luggage and lets you get over jet lag before demanding exertion from your body.

“We generally bought food at a market and packed our lunch, but I had the best lunch of my life at a stone hut up in the Alps,” Skip recalled. “I couldn’t imagine that people lived up in those isolated areas, but there was an innkeeper and he fixed a really hearty Swiss stew of thick broth with vegetables, and of course the beer and fresh bread he baked right there with a view to die for.”