Magic Mountain_3

7_GLACIERS
Half an hour beyond Obersteinberg we reached a plateau at Schaflager. Traces of retreating glaciers dotted along the the foot of adjacent mountains. Clear sighting of disappeared glaciers raised every hiker's deep concern. Bare glacial deposit exposed as ashes beneath tiny bits of thinning tongues. Some experts warned that Alpine glaciers would disappear entirely by 2050. Judging by what we had seen (despite the time of high summer), perhaps the experts were already over-optimistic.


8_OBERHORESEE
Another hour of steep climb took us to our final destination - a tiny glacial lake at the altitude of 2065m, Oberhoresee (a). As inexperienced hikers, we were overjoyed by reaching this remote destination, almost six hours after we left Gimmelwald. We seated ourselves on a rock, took off our backpacks and jackets. Right away we found ourselves busy taking photos in front of the tiny turquoise lake, in which the Jungfrau imprinted her sacrosanct reflections (b)(c)(d). No one among the dozen or so hikers who rested around the water dared to take a dip into the close-to-freezing water. Some hikers took out their food, some their binoculars, and some, including AC, preferred to take a nap on a rock - an experience that she later described as "eyelid and snow-mountains" (all you can see are the snow-capped mountains when you open your eyes, as simple as that).

9_ALPINE HIGHLANDS
Behind Oberhoresee stood the summit of Breithorn and her glaciers. For 30 minutes we lingered on this peaceful highland around the lake (a). Wild Alpine flowers, mainly in white, purple and yellow, carpeted the ground up to the snowline. Honeybees buzzed and butterflies fluttered up and down (b). Again our hearing was dominated by the sound of running water, mainly from the glaciers of Breithorn and beyond. At Oberhoren we got a chance to cross a small bridge and headed up to the hut at Schmadrihutte(c). That would take us probably another 60-75 minutes. We didn't take it. We had to conserve energy for the long descend ahead. Mini waterfalls cascaded down the mountain, along a path that led us to loop around the highland (d). At around 15:30, we decided to journey back down, as we had no plan to stay the night outdoor.