Breakfast at the Nessental was good, though not to the standards set by the hotel’s rosti. The kids were very excited, since they loved Hotel Rosenlaui as much as I did. Finishing the descent to Innerkirchen without the customary headwind, we climbed the 4 switchbacks of Kirchet pass before turning left immediately after the now permanently closed Restaurant Lammi.
Xiaoqin and Bowen passed us in the car soon after the intersection on the way to Rosenlaui. The climb up Grosse Scheidegg without a load is straightforward, though to my surprise this time we didn’t hear the postbus bugle before the bus appeared around the corner, forcing a sudden stop and then the requisite walking to the next flat section before resuming the climb.
It was early in the morning, and we stopped at the Kaltenbrunnen restaurant to see if Andreas was there but he wasn’t, so we climbed into Rosenlaui to see Bowen and Xiaoqin walking along the main road to take pictures and greet us. Xiaoqin asked what our plan was and I said the best thing to do was to get to the hotel, change into walking clothes, and go for a hike!
It took us next to no time to get to the hotel, where we met Jacob, the new owner/manager of Rosenlaui, who showed us where to park the huge tandem. He also told us how dry it had been: “The lawn turned brown last week! I’d never seen that before!” I had paired my phone to the car ages ago, so we just walked over to the car, unlocked it, unloaded mine and Boen’s luggage and hiking shoes, parked those in the Rosenlaui left luggage lobby, and changed into hiking clothing. When Bowen and Xiaoqin showed up at the lobby minutes later, so did Andreas! We hugged, chatted, and I asked him if Hornseeli would be good today. “It’s always a good day for Hornseeli, I think.” said Andreas.
With that reassurance, we filled up water bottles, used the bathrooms, grabbed the bus passes, and waited at the bus stop. The bus took us to Schwarzalp, where we would transfer to the Grosse Scheidegg bus (no more than a 5 minute transition), and get off at the top of Grosse Scheidegg. We ate at the balcony of the Berghotel Grosse Scheidegg, since while Grosse Scheidegg was at 1962m, Hornseeli was even higher at 2147m.
Suitably fortified, we set forth first on the Romantikweg, which leads from the top of Grosse Scheidegg towards First along a ridge, granting us panoramic views of the Grindelwald valley. The weather was warm but at 2000m it was a very comfortable temperature. At the fork, we turned right away from First, and followed the hiking trail down. Now we started getting a view of the wall across the valley: Wetterhorn, Engelhorn, Dossen, and Mittelhorn.
The kids went ahead, complaining as usual about how slow adults are because adults want to take photos. But of course, that also meant they missed the Hornseeli turnoff. When we got to the exit I wondered aloud if the kids had missed it. I then texted them and it turned out that they had missed it. We gave them permission to follow the trail all the way back down to Rosenlaui, but they elected to turn around and run back up the hill. We got to watch them make a great impression of Sir Lancelot from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The trail up to Hornseeli was challenging, with a lot of climbing in very steep situation. However, due to how dry it was it wasn’t muddy at all, even though the grass around us was still lush and green to our California trained eyes. When we got to the top, however, it was definitely a shock to me—the lake looked so small compared to previous years, because it had shrunk so much! The others didn’t mind, since they had no comparison, and in fact, Boen managed to catch and release a tadpole!
From the lake, it was downhill all the way to Rosenlaui. There were a couple of choices, and Boen opted for the shorter easier hike while the rest of us went on the longer one. It turned out not to make much difference in scenery, but then the skies clouded up and we started feeling raindrops. The rain jackets were all in my backpack, so we gave Boen’s rain jacket to Bowen, had him wear his rain jacket, and then he went off down the hill in search of Boen. When going downhill, no adult can beat a kid or teenager. Better joints and lighter weight makes the speed difference too much to overcome, especially at the end of a long day.
Regardless, we all managed to make it to Rosenlaui before it started pouring. Mark had already made it back to the hotel, but he was in the room and had assumed that he had no cell connection. In practice, cell towers had recently been upgraded so while data coverage was intermittent, if you put your phone near the window or let it sit still over time it would still get messages.
We eventually got all the luggage in the room, got everyone showered and ready for dinner, and caught up with Mark. “The adventure route was a bit too much adventure for me!” he declared. When we compared his tracks to my tracks from 2016 later on, it would turn out that I had mis-routed him or he had somehow missed a turn and ended up on a much less rideable path. Nevertheless, we confirmed several things: one was that the cable car was happy to take bikes and was a very viable alternative to 90 minutes of riding up a 90% grade. Second was that it was a scenic route, but I should have just given him my route from 2016 instead of drawing a new one on RidewithGPS. Mark also noted that now that he was here he realized that he’d previously stayed at Rosenlaui before with his sisters! He had also figured out how to take the bus from Meiringen to Rosenlaui, because he wanted to save his legs for the next day’s ride.
Dinner was fantastic at Rosenlaui as usual, but with the new “no devices” rule, we couldn’t take any pictures of dinner. We made plans for the next day over dinner. Mark was still up for the classic Rosenlaui loop tomorrow, and since Xiaoqin hadn’t done it before she should go with him. I would take the kids up the Englehornhutte hike the next day, which should be plenty to occupy us.
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