Schonbielhutte

We hike to Schonbielhutte on Day 3. We had been wisely advised to hike in the direction from Trift to Schonbuielhutte in order to experience the optimal views of the Matterhorn as we hiked.  

Today was hut-to-hut hiking at its best.  We stretch the projected 4 hour 10 minute hike to roughly 6 hours.   After another relatively leisurely breakfast we have a bit of challenging hiking to gain a few hundred meters of elevation, then the rest of the day is all Alpine paradise.

We arrive at Schonbielhutte at 2pm to a sunlit patio that is as good of place for relaxing in sunshine than any beach or cafe you are likely to find anywhere.  An international crowd - Dutch, French, British, Polish, Canadian -   relaxes on a patio surrounded by breathtaking mountain scenery.  The group exemplifies one of the major things that attracted me to hut-to-hut hiking -- the instant camaraderie that comes from the shared experience of making the journey to this remote setting.





We shower in Schonbielhutte's bathing facility (pictured here)





Our sun deck experience lasts right up until 6:30pm when suddenly the sun drops behind the mountain range looming to the west, the deck plunges into darkness and temperatures plummet.  The group reflexively files into the dining room for dinner.  After the luxuriously refined Hotel du Trift dinner, Schonbielhutte's meals are a more institutional process -- large metal bowls of salad and rice and curry are passed from diner to diner  (curry?  is that Swiss?)




Sleeping is also a bit more of an institutional process.  13 hikers are packed into the small dorm room on this peak-season night.  I sleep fine with my eye mask and ear plugs, and manage to shut out the surrounding cacophony of snoring and farting.  It is only the next morning coming back to the room from this magnificent moonset that I realize how much the air quality had suffered after another hiker had closed the windows.


Breakfast is the most institutional and perfunctory process of all at Schoenbielhutte.  I am determined to eat as much breakfast as possible before the long day of hiking ahead.  Growing up in America, a hearty and leisurely breakfast was highly encouraged.  Surprisingly, eating a hearty breakfast did not seem at all important to the European hikers - after a quick cup of tea and a slice of bread it seemed the hut quickly emptied out with hikers throwing on their backpacks and head down the trail in the crisp morning air.  The hut staff seem a bit taken back as I repeatedly return for more yogurt and muesli before heading off to our next hut destination.