Travels Abroad, 1962-3, Chapter 2 – The Bernese Oberland

The Alps! What a fantastic collection of mountains, and climbing there is made more convenient (than in the US) by the presence of cable cars, chairlifts, mountain railways and huts. Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the wilderness that surrounds most American mountain ranges. But, simply stated, the ambitious climber gets more bang for the buck in the Alps.

I left Germany for Switzerland in mid-June, which is still early in the Alps, with lots of snow remaining in the mountains. Since I was traveling by myself at this point, I chose a relatively easy area for my first climbs, in the western end of the Bernese Oberland. I took a train to Kandersteg, which is located in a gorgeous valley right at the foot of the mountains. Not far from the center of town, at the very upper end of that valley, the train tracks enter a long tunnel which comes out at the other side of the range, at Leukerbad.  Not far from the tunnel entrance is the base station of a 40 passenger cable car, which soars immediately and steeply upward past cliffs and forested ledges and arrives at Sunnbüel, near the Gemmi Pass. This was my first alpine cable car ride and I found it awe-inspiring. From the top station I walked to a nearby mountain hut for the evening, and early in the morning left to climb the Rinderhorn by the north face, an easy snow climb. (The following photos, and the ones seen in the prior chapter, were taken with a “subminiature” Minox camera, that produced 8X11 mm negatives.)

Rinderhorn, elevation: 11328 ft / 3453 m. June 26, 1962

Rinderhorn, summit ridge in early light

Rinderhorn, view from the summit to the east, of the Aletschhorn.

Rinderhorn, view from the summit to the south, of Monte Rosa (second highest peak in Europe) in the Pennine Alps

Rinderhorn, view from the summit to the southwest, of Mt. Blanc, the highest peak in Europe

Rinderhorn, view from the summit to the west, of the Wildstrubel

After this climb, I walked south past the Daubensee, a high lake that sits astride the range (see postcard below), to another mountain hut, the Lammerenhutte, and from there climbed the Daubenhorn (elevation: 2942 m / 9652 ft), on June 27. From the summit of the Daubenhorn one looks directly down onto Leukerbad.

Daubenhorn

On June 28, I climbed the Steghorn (elev. 3146m) by its east ridge. and then descended to Leukerbad.

Steghorn, E.Ridge

Steghorn, E.Ridge

Steghorn, summit view east to Balmhorn (elev. 3698m) on the left, Rinderhorn in the center and the Aletschhorn in the distance

Steghorn, summit view west  to Wildstrubel

Meltwater pond

Daubensee, and the peaks of the Pennine Alps to the south (postcard). The Daubenhorn is seen on the far right.

Leukerbad, with a view to the Daubenhorn, in the center, and Rinderhorn, on the right (postcard)

From Leukerbad, I continued downhill into the Rhone Valley, turned west and crossed over into France.  I must have passed through Chamonix, but apparently didn’t stop there,  (or stop there for long), because my next climbs took place in the Dauphiné, a good-sized range southeast of Grenoble. These climbs will be seen in the following chapter.

https://believesteve.org/2015/08/09/travels-abroad-1962-3-chapter-3-the-dauphine/

 

Travels Abroad, 1962-3, Chapter 1- Morocco, Spain, France and Germany

After spending the winter of 1961-2 ski-bumming in Stowe, Vermont, I returned home to New York with the intention of traveling to Europe, where I would spend the summer climbing in the Alps with David Hiser, afterward to travel south and east. At the passport office in Manhattan, I noticed some folks walking down the hall towards me, conspicuously arrayed in puffy light-blue down jackets. These unmistakeable items of apparel were Lionel Terray “duvets”, one of the few makes of down jacket then available to climbers in the US.

Lionel Terray, in his down jacket, Alaska, 1964 (Moncler photo)

Sure enough, they were some California climbers of my acquaintance. As it turned out, we were all taking the same Yugoslavian freighter to Tangiers, Morocco – the S/S Srbija. This was the line used by Jack Kerouac and other beats to get to Morocco, where they could hang out and smoke all the dope they wanted.

My first passport, issued April 18, 1962

A cable from a friend arrived as we steamed away from New York, May 1, 1962

We had a good time on the crossing, watching for dolphins and drinking slivovitz. We smoked hash in Tangiers, and then I went on to Ceuta, in Spanish Morocco, to catch a ferry to Spain.

Passport, entry to Morocco, May 8, 1962, exit May 10, 1962 and entry to Spanish Morocco, May 10, 1962. Also, Greece in 1963

Tangiers! This is the front side of a tourist map.

From Algeciras, on the other side of the Straits of Gibraltar, I hitch-hiked north to Madrid, where I visited the Prado art museum, and bought a used bike and a fishing license. Earlier, I had asked my folks to save my postcards, to serve as a record of my travels. Here are the first of those:

At the Prado, Goya’s “Aqualarre” (postcard)

At the Prado, Goya’s “Saturno devorando a un Hijo”  (postcard)

At the Prado, Brueghel’s “Triunfo de la Muerte” (postcard)

Backside of above postcard, 6-29-62

At the Prado, Bosco’s “El Jardin de Las Delicias”

Backside of above postcard, mailed 6-6-62, from Germany

My Spanish fishing license

I left Madrid, now on the trail of Hemingway, who had written about parts of Spain that I wanted to visit – especially the Sierra de Gredos and the Rio Tormes, where he had fly fished for trout. I first pedaled south to Toledo. After obtaining lodging, I walked along the neck of land that connects the hill of Toledo to the adjoining mesa. To my right, the sun was setting. To my left, the full moon was rising. And both were positioned exactly on the horizon, 180 degrees apart. It was an unforgettable moment. A band was playing in the Plaza and I savored some of the local delicacy – marzipan. The following day I cycled to the west and arrived at the Parador de Gredos, housed in an elegant old stone building. There, I applied to fish on the Rio Tormes and, like Hemingway, caught some brown trout. As one might imagine, this pleased me no end!

Approaching the Puerto Pico, “Gateway to the Sierra de Gredos”, May 22, 1962

Approaching the Puerto Pico, “Gateway to the Sierra de Gredos”, May 22, 1962

A “truchas” stream alongside the road

The Sierra de Gredos in the distance

The valley of the Rio Tormes and the Sierra de Gredos

Rio Tormes Permiso Para Pescar

The Rio Tormes

The bike was requiring constant repair, so I sold it to an employee at the parador and continued north by thumb and rail. My next destination was a river located along the north coast of Spain, the Rio Ason.

Fishing map of the Rio Ason

The Rio Ason

The Rio Ason, with the railroad bridge seen upstream

The Rio Ason

The Rio Ason was a salmon river, but I caught no salmon. It was probably the wrong time of year. I continued north into France, and on to Germany (as recounted on the postcard of June 6, above). There I met David Hiser, who was staying with his sister Marilyn and her husband, John Staples. John was a US Army chaplain, stationed at a base in Mainz. David’s girlfriend, Sara Jean Rittenhouse, was also around.

Left to right: Me, Sara Jean and David Hiser, Mainz, Germany, June ’62

The next chapter concerns the beginning of my alpine summer, with some solo climbs in the western end of the Bernese Oberland:

https://believesteve.org/2015/08/08/travels-abroad-1962-3-chapter-2-the-bernese-oberland/

Hummingbird Summer 2015, Embudo, NM

Three species of hummingbird are now visiting our feeders: the Black-chinned, the Rufous and the Calliope. They are going through a lot of sugar water, reminding me that my main responsibility of the summer is feeding the hummingbirds, and my main entertainment of the summer is watching and photographing the hummingbirds. This is made easier by the fact that I work at home, and can readily photograph the hummers through open doors and through windows.

First, here’s today’s Rufous action around one particular feeder. The advantageous backdrop of this feeder is a grove of locust trees that, in the morning, provides a dark background for my side-lit shots.

Rufous hummingbird male

Rufous hummingbird male

Rufous hummingbird threesome

Rufous hummingbird female, with her attention-getting tail display

Rufous hummingbird foursome

Here are the Black-chinned and Calliope hummingbirds:

Black-chinned hummingbirds

Black-chinned male

Black-chinned female

Calliope male

The Broad-tailed hummingbird was here in the Spring and then left for higher elevations. They will come back through at the end of the summer:

Broad-tailed male

These photos are all from this Spring and Summer.

Yesterday’s Nature, Embudo, NM, 7-8-15

The Rufous hummingbirds arrive at our place in early July, already on the southern leg of their yearly migration. Alongside the Black-chinned hummingbirds (that have been with us since April), they often stay for the remainder of the summer. We now have at least two Rufous males in residence, and expect the females to soon arrive. The fighting around the feeders is, of course, intensifying, with the Rufous being generally more belligerent than the Black-chinned. I also expect to see the Calliope hummingbird before long.

Black-chinned hummingbird female

Rufous hummingbird, male

Green on green. A katydid on grape leaves.

A Big Day for the Birds, Embudo, NM

A Big Day for the Birds, Embudo, NM.

Yesterday, July 7, 2015, was a good day for birding. In the late afternoon, I began setting up to photograph the hummingbirds that come to the feeder on our back deck. I was hoping to photograph the Rufous male that had recently shown up. But then I heard a plaintive repeated call off to my right, and looked over to the bird houses just a few yards away. Perched there and crying for attention was the (or one of the) juvenile Ash-throated flycatcher(s) that had been born and raised in one of those houses. Then I noticed a blue bird in a bush, just to the side of the bird houses. It was a blue grosbeak, and sat long enough for me to photograph it. I am thrilled with these, my first photographs of a blue grosbeak. I was using my Nikon D80 with 70-300mm lens, zoomed all the way out. I never did get to photograph the Rufous male yesterday, but got flash photos of  Black-chinned hummers instead. Maybe today I’ll get to photograph Señor Rufous.

Juvenile Ash-throated flycatcher

Juvenile Ash-throated flycatcher

Female Black-chinned hummingbird

Male Black-chinned hummingbird

Blue Grosbeak

Blue Grosbeak

Sunset Atmospherics, Embudo, NM, July 5, 2015

Sunset Atmospherics, Embudo, NM, July 5, 2015

Boy, do we ever like monsoon season, which is certainly upon us now. Named after the Indian Monsoon, our’s is caused by the arrival of very moist air from both the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. Thunderstorms develop as this air is pushed to altitude by the mountains it encounters in Arizona and New Mexico. Our position alongside the Rio Grande, south of Taos, is particularly fortunate for viewing stormy atmospherics, with broad views to the east and west. As evening rainstorms sweep by, from west to east, we get rainbows in the eastern sky and spectacular sunsets in the western sky.

Just to the west is this hill, composed of lake sediments. It’s called the Barrancos Blancos. Behind it and to photo right, is a a tilted volcanic mesa. The mesa was pushed up  and tilted by the Embudo fault, a local feature of the Rio Grande Rift

View to the west of volcanic Black Mesa, with God Beams

View to the west of volcanic Black Mesa, some minutes later than the above photo

Viesw to the northwest

View to the north

Rainbow over the New Wave Rafting Co sign, in the southeastern sky

The Cholla Cactus, Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, NM

Here, in the Rio Grande gorge of northern New Mexico, the cholla is the last of the cacti to bloom, and we always await the event with great anticipation. This year’s bloom was no disappointment.

Cholla cactus, alongside the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico

Cholla cactus, alongside the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico

Cholla cactus, alongside the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico

Cholla cactus, alongside the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico

 

Black-chinned Hummingbird and Damsel Fly, 7/1/15, Embudo, NM

Embudo, NM, alongside the Rio Grande

Female Black-chinned Hummingbird

Poem: The Rufous Will Rough You Up

Contentious though they are
the Black-chinned hummingbirds now have
only themselves to contend with
But wait …
the arrival of the Rufous is only days away
When confronted by the latter, the former won’t know what hit ’em

Damselfly

The Catalpa, Embudo, NM (revised)

This is a revision of an earlier post (6/21/15), in which I presented flowers of the catalpa tree. I’m here adding a photo of the catalpa seed pod (8/8/15). From the magnificent flower to the very interesting-looking fruit.

From the flower to the …

 … seedpod (fruit)

Catalpa speciosa, or the northern catalpa, is a native tree which has been replanted throughout the warmer regions of the US. “The name derives from the Muscogee name for the tree, “kutuhlpa” meaning “winged head” and is unrelated to the name of the Catawba people.” (Wikipedia).

What a glorious tree, with such extraordinary orchid-like flowers, large heart-shaped leaves and long skinny fruits.

Catalpa flowers

Catalpa seedpod

Stormy Evenings’ Atmospherics

On the evening of 6/14 a rainbow formed to the east, as a rain shower passed overhead, moving from west to east. These evening rain showers are a regular occurrence in the summer, and especially during our “monsoon” season, which begins in early July and continues to the end of summer. And rainbows usually accompany these showers, with the rain moving to the east while the sun sets in the west.

Rainbow, view to the east from our place alongside the Rio Grande

Rainbow and cottonwoods, view to the east from our place alongside the Rio Grande

Rainbow, cottonwoods, hill and Picuris Mountains, view to the east from our place alongside the Rio Grande

On the evening of 6/16 a stormy sky lit up the Pilar Cliffs, to the east, and the clouds to the west and north.

Pilar Cliffs, view to the east

Sunset clouds

Sunset clouds

Sunset clouds

Sunset clouds