Sunday, July 25, 2010

Pilatus

The other reason for visiting Luzern was Pilatus, a small (7,000 feet) peak west of town, but one of Europe's great mountain landmarks. My interest in Pilatus is four-fold: 1) view from the summits; 2) regard for Pontius Pilate, whose spirit allegedly dwelled near the summit (it was Pilate who asked, philosophically, "what is truth?," then went on to other things); 3) on Pilatus, supersitions about mountains began to fade after visits, in the 1700s, to the summit demonstrated that no one dwelled there and nothing bad came of climbing; 4) Wagner climbed Pilatus; 5) I wanted the exercise, but did not properly calculate the 5600 feet descent. 

Five-fold. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

I got back down by 4pm, had a Cailliers ice cream bar, thanks to Vicki, and we headed on past Luzern to a lay-by in extreme eastern Switzerland.
OK, I took the cog-wheel train to the saddle
at the top; it is the world's highest-angle
cog-gtrain, 48 degrees at the top; depicted a
bove is how it works














The train; note its terraced structure; had I walked up, I
would not have arrived till mid-afternoon, when everything
had clouded up







Morning view, Lake Luzern below













Lucerne below







Tomlishorn, the western-most, and, I think, highest
summit of Pilatus











Tribschen and the Wagner Museum, center








But the glorious thing about Pilatus is that, on a clear
morning, such as this, you can see, not all that far away,
the whole of the Berner Alps: here, the Finsteraarhorn,
the Schreckhorn, the Weisshorn, others we camped
below in Grindelwald








Summit schema from Esel, the eastern summit of Pilatus










And, snowy in the middle, the Monch, then the Eiger, its
north face in shadow, and then the Jungfrau; totally
exhiliarating!








Looking from the Tomlishorn to the central summit
(mostly Japanese turbuss-folk), and then the Esel; I
climbed the Esel and Tomlishorn, but skipped the
crowded middle









Looking down from the Tomlishorn, toward Luzern,
trails and a high chapel









It's all well above tree-line, but not above flower-line; the
whole trail around the summits is covered in flowers and
in flower labels








Looking down toward the descent trail, 5600 feet...










Down the trail, looking back up toward Esel and the
central summit (hotel, restaurants, gift shoppes, etc.)








And, click to enlarge, a little red train about to enter the
48 percent grade

































































































































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