Aug 2, Thr: Grindewald (attempt Faulhorn)

Stormy, cloudy upon waking in the morning.

• By 10am weather cleared a little. Decided to attempt Faulhorn (2686m. summit between Eiger/Jungfrau and Interlachen on our side of the valley). Trail took off right out our back door as we are 800m up the hill from town. Our hostel is at 1050m.
• Route: via Aellfluh (few good pics here when clouds cleared for a minute).
  
• Very interesting local `land art` by this hutte. People take local materials (rocks, twigs, etc.) and build little structures that look like fancy trail markers.
• Ascended to Waldspitz (1918m)
• Great suppe (vegetable, bacon bits)- 20 minute break at this nice hutte. Met 2 Britains that said we had to try the suppe. Good decision.
• Still no rain, but cloudy. Met several people descending and they said it may be sunny above this cloud level so we decided to ascend another 1200 feet up to Bachalpsee at 2265m (a high lake).

• Hit an incredible storm 3/4 of the way up. Suddenly very high head winds, temperature drop, sleet, thunder, and eventually lightening. Added layers to shirt, including wind breaker and pancho, gloves. Kept body heat just fine and decided to continue to Bachalpsee shelter as it was closer than descending. Hit it within 10 minutes.
• Totally soaked head to foot.
• 8 ft x 10ft x 6 ft high. Flat roof. 15 people huddled in then until the storm blew over. They all chatted in German, so didn`t understand much. Two elderly locals (in their 70`s) kept peeking out the door to check the wind direction, and we continued to listen to the gap and location between lightening and thunder.
• Kept body heat pretty good and after 20 minutes everyone decided to move on to the next hutte.
• They all went one way, we decided to head back down the other direction.
• Descended over 4000 feet in 1 hr 20 minutes. That`s flying. Legs and body responded perfectly. Lee is a great partner and very agile in these conditions. No problems whatsoever. Didn`t take long to regain body heat.
• Thank goodness for hiking sticks. It`s like having 4 legs. We were able to literally run down slippery trails, over rocks, and crossed 4 streams that had significantly increased in size in less than an hour.
• Ears popping constantly.
• Ended up with 8 miles and 8000 feet of ascend/descend but unable to summit. Maybe tomorrow (as the weather is expected to clear).
• Another great day full of interesting experiences. Hot shower felt great.