The Alps: Lichtenstein, Austria and Switzerland

This post is honestly going to be kind of hard. Even after hiking through the Lichtensteiner, Austrian and Swiss Alps for about 8 days; I am still having a hard time trying to describe just how powerful they really were. Even the pictures do not bring out out just how intense the peaks and valleys were. Well, I'll bring you on a short journey through my Alps experience. 

Lichtenstein has been one of the places I have always wanted to go. I don't know why, it just has been... I think that it is so cool that this 160 square kilometer country is thriving while essentially being surrounded and on top of the Alps. If you do not know anything about Lichtenstein, then look it up. It is a really cool country. We took a train from Freiburg and into Austria; then took a taxi down into Lichtenstein. Once we got to Malbun, the base camp of where we were going, we started hiking. So, the four of us ended up peaking over three different peaks. The highest being Augstenberg, which was 7739 feet. Literally walking on these thin goat paths with clouds below you. It was honestly very peaceful. Also, every cross signifies a peak while walking through this section of the Alps. We stuck to our trail, which was marked by little red and white paintings on the sides of rocks. Which was challenging at times, because the ice and wind would fade the paint and make them hard to see. It would have been quite easy to get lost up there. We finally made it to our hostel that was on the side of the mountain near Augstenberg; so it was way up there. It was on the border of Lichtenstein and Austria so we hiked around the border through both countries Alps. Very cool area. Food was great, views were great, hiking was great. Overall, one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. Then, we met up with our class and set off for the Swiss Alps for the next few days.

We had guides for this section of the Alps since it was with our class and not organzied on our own. It was awesome, too. We stayed at a hotel with a Michelin rated restaurant. We had fondue the first night and I had Alpen deer the second night. So the eatin was good. We hiked all throughout different areas of the Swiss Alps and learned about the different trees, vegetation and so forth. The weather was very distinct for the different sections of the Alps. On the north aspect of the mountain, there was snow and very icy paths we had to walk on... but then on the south aspect we were down to t-shirts and running through the forest at a much faster pace. It was pretty interesting how drastically it changed even while at the same elevation. Obviously, north and south, so it makes sense... but still...

Overall, I'd say it was one of the coolest weeks ever. Hopefully you all can kind of see just how amazing the Alps are from the pictures I took.

-Nathan