SILS MARIA AND SOGLIO SWITZERLAND – Well . . . we’ve saved the best for last. We took a short bus ride from Sils Maria down the valley to a trail head (we did this to make time for a more ambitious walk on the mountain) and walked to Solgio. Solgio is a hill town – it’s simply breathtaking. I’m using this post as mini gallery of the day’s walk (which was quite ambitious), rather than trying to edit, which is hopeless without a bit more distance on my part in terms of time a space. All images taken with my Leica M9 and various lenses:
Sils MariaSwiss Cheese on the HoofHydrant! Nothing is too much trouble for the SwissMaria: hiker girlWild flowers reduxGlacier runoffThe Engadine ValleyThe Engadine ValleySoglioSoglio
ABOVE SILS MARIA SWITZERLAND – We’re staying in the lovely town for two evenings taking long hikes into the ever-present mountains. Taken with my M9 and 90mm Elmarit lens.
Above Sils Maria
ON THE TRAIL TO SILS MARIA – We had some rain along the way here – one of two rainy days on the trip. A little rain is a good thing because otherwise we would have been carrying out weatherproof layers in vain. The view from the trail back toward St. Moritz taken with my Leica M9 and 24mm Summilux lens.
St. Moritz
MUOTTAS MURAGL – So it looks like I hit some random keys on the computer. Romansh is spoken by fewer than 1% of the Swiss population – most of them here in the Engadine. It has some pretty remarkable spellings. Amazingly our guide, Ken, can get along in it.
We stopped at a hiker’s hut called Schaftsburg and found an oompah band and a party in progress with other guests dancing a conga line. This has to be lived to be believed. People are drinking a concoction called Jagertee. All images with my Leica M9 and 24mm Summilux, which is continuing to be my most used lens.
SWITZERLAND FROM GUARDA AND ZUOZ – No, I’m not making these place names up at random. Zuoz is a real place. We got to some pretty high altitudes today. I felt in a Black and white mood once we left Guarda. All taken with my Leica M9 and 24mm Summilux lens.
GuardaHigh Alps-Glacier meltOn the trail
BETWEEN SCUOL AND GUARDA, SWITZERLAND – A day of practicing yodeling. Actually not really, I can’t sing at all. We hiked for a bit, took a chairlift to gain some altitude then set off on a serious hike. We typically cover 8 to 15 miles in a day. Our sensational guide, Ken Fuhrer, does a great job of assessing what we can do and then pressing us for just a bit more.
Bunches of pictures – once posted I’ll come back to try to edit these down a bit. All taken with my Leica M9.
Chair lift taken with Leica 35mm Summilux.
Chair lift
Taken with a Leica Wide-Angle Tri- Elmar at 16mm. Glacier melt
SCUOL SWITZERLAND – We’ve at last gotten somewhere, actually somewhere spectacular, after a long day of airplanes and trains. Scuol is the first stop on our week-long trekking adventure, organized by Ryder Walker. The concept is as follows; we hike from town to town through the mountains above the Engadine Valley, with our luggage sent ahead of us each day to our new stopping point. We’ll start tomorrow from here, which is our first of many perfect Swiss villages. I’m traveling with my Leica kit, using my Sony Nex-7 as a backup. These with my M9 and 35mm Summilux lens.
Engedine
We’ve gotten lucky – there are wildflowers here in riotous profusion:
