Today we didn't leave camp till noon. We woke up, had some breakfast, rinsed out some clothes and set them out to dry before heading out to take a tram ride to Glacier Paradise, which is the tallest glacier in the world standing over 13,000 feet.

Since our legs were killing us from the vertical mile and a half descent we hiked yesterday we decided to take the gondola up and down to a beautiful tram which would take us to the top.

The tram ride and the top was beautiful with stunning view of the surrounding peaks and and valley. From the top you can see France, Italy, and (obviously) Switzerland.

While up there we ran into Nick again come down from his summit of a peak whose name I forget. He really made us look lazy as not only did he summit a peak, but he was going to find a place to bivy up there for the night to prepare for his Mt. Blanc ascent.

We came back to camp and made a cheap dinner while meeting to nice women who had moved to Switzerland in the recent years. One from New Zealand and one from Canada. They let us know that this was unseasonably hot and the heat should brake this week which is good since we are on the bikes again tomorrow.

Day 16

After a lazy morning we awoke to a bright sun and made a nice breakfast of bread. Then we headed to the train station to get our tickets up to Zermatt. Even though Mark and Nate were extremely clear about not being eligible for discounted tickets, for some reason our bike tickets were half price. Thankfully the lady on the train was nice enough to let us go this time and told us not to make the same mistake on the ride down. Jokes on her, we're biking down!

The entire way up Matt was asking if every peak was the Matterhorn, but unfortunately we weren't able to see it till we were off the train. Due to the incline the train had to take, parts of the track had grooves in the center for the train to literally climb up.

From our campsite in Zermatt we can see the Matterhorn which is basically a dream come true for Nate.

The campsite is surprisingly enough the cheapest campsite of the trip! That was a huge surprise. It was also overrun with middle school American kids. Mark and Nate felt like they were back in Boy Scouts. A company called Overland Summers runs these trips for middle school and high school kids. They are hiking all they way to Mount Blanc!

We met another American (lots of them hear) named Nick from New York. We drank and talked with him for awhile. He knew all the mountaineering jargon so Matt sat there dumbfounded as Nate and Mark used all this terminology he'd never heard. Also, frat star review of Nick, his chill to pull ratio was massive!

Day 17

Today we hiked up to the base camp (aka really nice hut) for the ascent of the Matterhorn. It wasn't a treacherous route up but we'll call it tricky. It was beautiful though and definitely worth the views. We hiked up with Nick who talked to every attractive girl on the trail. We all took notes.

The hike took all day (9 - 6) and so it was 4 brauts per boy for dinner. We chatted with Nick and some random Swiss people on holiday. Matt ran into a Harvard CS grad in the bathroom. After 5 mins of talking he told Matt to add him on LinkedIn, that's probably not happening.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Zermatt, then off to more towns in Switzerland.

Side note: Matt lost his Leatherman today but is religiously against buying a Swiss-Army knife because he doesn't trust the Swiss. So he's on the lookout for another leatherman.

Pre-pre-Post note: We're enjoying the comments on the blog! Thanks all

Pre-Post Note: Sorry for the lack of photos, Matt's phone died.

Today could be described as epic. Nate seems to enjoy planning 100km+ days with just under a mile of vertical gain. To be fair, we are camping around 1000 meters lower than we did last night, so you'd think we'd have an easier day, but the Swiss seem to enjoy bringing their bike routes up to tiny little mountain towns. A little teaser to entice you to read the rest, the day included a beautiful mountain pass, some older Americans who were traveling by bike the right way, a graceful fall over the handlebars by Mark, a washed out road and interesting detour, cursing Switzerland for it's insane bike paths and finally a water park.

The day started with a nice wake up at 8am. The grocery store was closed all Sunday, so Mark biked to the store to pickup strudel, bananas, and bread for breakfast. Forgetting that the grocery stores here require you to weigh your own produce, a nice line built up at the cash register while the cashier walked through the store to weigh the bananas.

By 9am we were on the road, and heading to Furka Pass. It took us around three hours of grueling climbing to go up the 1000 meters to the pass, Matt doing a beautiful job of setting a pace all the way up. The views at the top, however, were stupendous. And, bragging rights, we didn't see any other cyclist with touring bikes going up and over the pass.

At the top we ran into a group of three Americans from Boston. They, unlike us, were just riding light road bikes, and called the climb was just did a "moderate" climb. Okay, whatever. They were just doing circles from towns they were staying in, and took the train from town to town. Not a bad idea, we'll keep that in the books for next time. They all liked the bikes though, and were impressed that we were going over Furka Pass fully loaded.

After the top came out reward, the ride down. We absolutely flew down the hill (we're all pretty happy with our choice of disc brakes after today.) At this point, we were all pretty sure that it was all downhill into Visp, but we couldn't of been more wrong.

On the way down we made a quick stop at a glacier. They charged 7 francs to get in so Mark refused due to religious reasons but big spenders Matt and Nate paid to get in. We're pretty sure this is was the set for Hoth from Star Wars since due to the tunnels the Swiss have carved through the ice.

The next town we hit after Furka pass was Oberwald, and from there we started up again. The route took us up and down along the river. We'd climb up to a small mountain town, then fly back down into the valley, and then up again to the next mountain town. We were thoroughly annoyed.

Finally we reached a town with a a sign pointing to Briggs, the big town next to where we were staying. Nate launched down the road but Matt dutifully stopped him as a pointed to the bike sign the pointed up another road. We all wish he hadn't said anything. Right below the sign, there was a warning sign, but it was all in German so we just ignored it and continued down the road, which turned into a single lane road, which turned into a dirt road, which turned into a two track. Pretty soon we were on a mountain biking trail, and flying down a steep ravine. Someone needs to talk to the Swiss about what constitutes a touring trail.

At the bottom of the steep hill, there was a bridge to cross the stream and start up the other side. That was all fine and dandy, but at the bridge, and on either side were a group of young adults (were pretty sure they were Italian) just hanging out resting in the shade. Nate and Matt both craftfully executed a full stop, hopped of the bike and walked their bikes across the bridge. Mark, however, opted for a more complicated approach, choosing to crash his front pannier into a rock on the side of the trail, and with his bike flipping over the handle bars, unclippped his feet from the pedals, jumped off the bike clearing the handle bars and landed on his feet. Ten points all around. (Well, except for the Russian judge, but the lowest score is dropped.)

After that fiasco, bikes were pushed up the trail on the far side of the bridge, got on the bikes when the trail flattened out a little, and proceeded to our next obstacle. About ten minutes later down the trail, we ran into a full construction barrier blocking the road. At this point we decided it was worth our time to translate the German warning signs. This one was pretty simple, "hikers take bypass trail, bikers not passable". That's what they think. After some exploration (turns out a mudslide has taken out a good portion of the road, Nate and Mark seem to be running into that a lot recently) it was decided that we'd hike our bikes along the bypass trail, because there was no way we were going back over the bridge to the last town. Nate went first opting to just go for it and push his entire bike up the trail. Matt and Mark opted to carry panniers up first, and then come backs for the bikes.

After pushing/carrying/falling with our bikes up the trail, we all made it back to the real bike routes, and with great relief, rode the trail all the back down to the valley and began to see signs for Visp!

From this point forward we were sure that it was all downhill to Visp, and would be cruising down to the campsite. This time, we were right about the downhill, but the wind picked up and the final hour was brutal as the wind seemed to buffet us back a half meter for every meter we made. At this point, the sun was brutal, and the temperatures were in the mid 80s. We were all ready to be done.

After a little bit of searching in Visp, we found the campsite around 5pm, and much to Nate's and Matt's delight it was right next to a water park. Even better, camping here is much cheaper than most of Switzerland (28 CHF a night for all of us) and the water park entrance was included in the price! We think the camp host felt bad for us and gave us a discount.

We ran (okay, walked very slowly) to the local Coop (a Swiss/European grocery chain) to pickup dinner. Turns out the place we found on Google maps was actually the Coop corporate headquarters and not a grocery store. Luckily, there was a Migros (think Walmart/IKEA) right next store, so we went there and picked up dinner, breakfast, and cookies. We're now following the rule, whatever you think we're going to eat, double it, because we never feel like we're eating enough.

After our errand run, Nate and Matt went swimming and Mark began to investigate where to get new biking shoes. The sole on one of his shoes has almost fallen completely off. With in 15 minutes, Matt and Nate were back because the water was so cold, and Mark figured out that the bike store he wanted to go to was closed on Monday. So we cooked dinner (burritos, yum) ate our cookies, and then moved to hangout next to the outlet to use the wifi and charge our phones.

We will all sleep well tonight, and tomorrow we will take the train up to Zermatt where we will spend 3 days without touring (sounds like heaven right now.)

To close, we will leave you with a song composed by Nate with help from Matt. This song is a tribute to the last 6 days of our trip, and sung to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas:

On the 5th day of our trip the Swiss gave to us,
5 nights of camping,
4 days of biking,
3 mountain passes,
2 sore legs,
And beer (or a few) waiting for me

Today was quite the adventure. We awoke to the mountain goats near the campsite breaking free of their string fence and wandering towards the camp. These goats (not sure if they were actually goats) had horns and liked to butt heads so we kept a weary eye on them.

Thankfully men with sticks came runny to our rescue and chased the goats back in the fenced area. Disaster averted. The fence could use some work though.

The grocery store is closed on Sunday so Mark found a "buffet" near the train station but I guess buffet just means coffee in Switzerland. Someone needs to bring the idea of brunch to Switzerland.

Afterwords we went to Devil's Bridge. No one really knows who built the bridge but legend has it that every year many would die trying to ford the river. So a farmer asked the devil to build a bridge. The devil agreed but only if the first soul who crossed the bridge would belong to the devil. The farmer drove a sheep across the bridge, thus tricking the devil. Enraged, the devil went to pick up a rock to strike down the bridge, but an old women put a cross on the rock thus thwarting the devil. Today a newer bridge has been built but the old bridge still stands.

We also noticed a lot of fortified bunkers in the side of the rock on the way there. We are pretty convinced the Swiss have a tunnel system through the mountains to fight off attacks.

We stopped for lunch at a pizza place and each wolfed down a full pizza since we had not had breakfast. Then we headed up a valley by foot to a hut that was 7 km up from town. Much to our dismay there was a road that went there as well, but thankfully it was not very crowded.

The trail was beautiful. There were waterfalls flowing from each side of the valley down to the valley floor. You just had to watch out for the cow pies since the trail went through cow grazing territory.

We stopped at the hut for a beer and to ask if we could have dinner there before continuing on to explore the valley. It was half surrounded by snow capped peaks and offered stunning views.

After frolicking in the valley we went back to the hut for dinner. The people at the hut were extremely kind to us. The made us the best dinner of the trip so far which was a 3 course meal! It started with a great soup, then a noodle/potato/cheese combo which you were supposed to put applesauce on top of and was finished by some sweet yogurt with apples in it. We were so full! It was also the cheapest meal in town.

Mark and Nate want to go back there in winter due to the amount of back country skiing accessible from the hut and the fact you can ride a tram up to a peak and ski down to the hut.

The sun was setting and it was a long way back so we said our dankes and headed back to camp.

There are a bunch of motorcyclist from Wales in camp who have awesome accents. They also have flashing lights on their tents.

Tomorrow is another large climb, so for now. Goodnight!

Today started out with a climb out of the campsite. Then a climb out of Disentis. Then a climb up to Oberalp Pass. In total, we climbed about 800 meters. The 500 meter descent into Andermatt was a well earned blast.

On the climb we met a great guy from Switzerland (but his dad is from England so his English was really good). He told us that he hiked the other way over the pass from Andermatt to see his girl friend in Disentis and then is biking back today. That's dedication! (To the girlfriends out there reading the blog, it's up in the air if we would do the same. Hopefully Uber is a thing <3).

We arrived at the campsite around noon and grabbed some lunch and beers. The campsite is located right outside of Andermatt which is a beautiful little town.

Mark and Matt decided to go to a mass tonight. They weren't really sure when it was but the bells give you a 5 minute warning so we used them as our trigger. Turns out they have a 6:30pm mass.

For those of you wondering, if you've ever been to church and afterwards couldn't tell anyone what the homily was about or what the readings were, you've experienced a mass in German.

On an exploration of the city, Mark ran into the local school. They have an awesome playground with a slack line and a climbing wall.

The tents all set up and the sun is setting, so we're off to bed. There is a rain storm over the next ridge that is slowly making its way over so we can expect some rain tonight but it's beautiful now.