Above left: Jakob on the Schauinslandspur at the Notschreiloipe. Above right: Misty trees.

Above: Jakob demonstrating a fantastic classics technique on his skating skis.

Above: Map + random annoying GPS hickup of our route. We did the middle distance route of the Schauinslandspur.

Above: The usual suspects, Jakob and Waltraud.

Above: The road was long and winding. It also wasn’t a road. And it was only about 12 km, I think… But I just wanted to say that the road was long and winding.

Above left: It’s snowed heavily on Friday so we went for a wander around town stopping at the Holzofen Bäckerei for some delicious olive bread and tomato bread. Yum. Above left: The afternoon was spent wandering up to the Seealpe at Nebelhorn and sledding back down again.

Above: We went skiing at Söllereck on Saturday with Katha and her brother Nico. Here’s proof.

Above: It wasn’t long until I started being obnoxious.

Above: Fun with the GoPro.

Above: More fun…

Above: Still more fun…

Above left: Descending into a valley down the side from Feldberg with Elmar. Above right: Jutta, and Leonie descending.

Above: Posers by the “dead man”.

Above: Skiing through the trees.

Above: Descending towards the Stollenbacher Hütte.

I did the same trip about a year ago.

Above left: Basti touring up ahead in the mist. Above right: Waltraud and Basti on Feldberg.

Above: The first tour of the season.

Above: The last time I was on Feldberg it looked somewhat different. Here Julian and I have just finished running up Feldberg from Freiburg.

I made use of the 15 hours I had in Melbourne and went and visited Karen in St Kilda. We spent the day lazing at the beach in the 36 degree heat.

Above: Lazing at St Kilda beach. The weather was forecast at a toasty 36 degrees.

Above: In St Kilda, Melbourne.

Above left: A table full of sugary goodness. Above right: Hanging out with the kiwis.

Of course, seeing has I can’t read it wasn’t actually my last night and instead I spent another day in NZ, paying a mere $1000 for the privilege. Ughh.

Above left: The walk from the carpark down to the cave entrance takes about 5 minutes . Above right: Katie in Cave Stream.

Above left: Although a brighter light might be better it’s still enough to walk enter the cave with a little light like this one attached to my head. Above right: At the exit.

Above: There was a deep pool near the entrance to the cave.

Above left: The single tracks at Makara wind their way through natives like this fern. At least the tracks that I tried did… Above right: Being a poser on Makara Peak.

Above: Descending from Makara Peak.

Above: Riding at Makara.

I caught up with Mark for a coffee in the afternoon before flying back to Christchurch in the evening.

Above: Walking in the hills above the Southern Bays.

In the evening Gina and I gate crashed the Wellington orienteer’s potluck. We caught up with Tim, Penny, Jamie, and Alan Williams there.

Above: Potluck with the orienteers in Wellington.

Above: Kayaking in the Grove Arm.

Above: The map on top of the kayak.

Above: Setting off from Lochmara Bay after hot chocolates.

Above: Using the GoPro for what it was made for.

Above: Kayaking with a tale wind.

Above: Driving out of Ligar Bay.

Today we drove up to Picton. Holly headed over to Welly and Mum and I investigated the Queen Charlotte track for a bit.

Above left: Lake Rotoiti in the evening. Above right: Running around the lake in the evening.

Above left: View from the Bach in Ligar Bay. Murky flood water is flowing across the road from the overflowing culvert. Above right: Debris flows came down from a partially deforested hillside washing the boat seen in this picture down the hill with it. A previous debris flow had hit a bach down the road moving it off it’s foundations.

Above left: Debris flow. Above right: Debris flow next to house.

Better descriptions of the videos in live feed below.

Above: A few moments after the debris flow.

Above: Looking out for the red car.

Above: Moving to safer ground.

Photos:

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Today, Gina, Holly, and I went for some rainy kayaking around the Tata Islands. I suppose that’s what they’re called. The islands off the shore from Tata beach at any rate…

Above: Holly sits in the front of our double kayak-dub. Tata beach is around the corner in front of us. We are rafted up against Gina’s plastic blue tub.

Above: Finding a jelly fish.

So on Saturday Gina, Tane, Katie, Kerry, Chris, Emily, Al, Amber, Greig, Clare, and I piled into cars and drove up to Lake Taylor where we met Ed, Abbie, Simon, Anita, and William. We were armed with a collection of bikes ranging from fully rigid steel beasts with panniers to full suspension mountain bikes. The plan was to take the Hurunui hut by storm and to celebrate Katie’s recent lapse into old age and my impending dhoom.

There is a rough unsealed four-wheel-drive road that runs around the side of Lake Taylor, past Loch Katrine, and beside the Hurunui river to the Hurunui hut. The route is approximately 25 km. The Hurunui hut is a 15 bunk hut tucked in amongst beach forest above the Hurunui river.

We bumped our way into the hut. I had my trusty Ortlieb panniers (the Germans don’t just know how to make cars) on the old rigid steel bike that Gina used for cycle touring in 2008. We rode at differing speeds and the 16 of us spread out a lot over the length of the ride. I bumped in on my laden bike with Katie and Gina around 6 pm. The others were milling around the hut when we arrived. We dumped our copious amounts of food on the tables and took over the place. Luckily there weren’t any unsuspecting trampers there.

We cooked a yummy pot luck dinner and began sampling some of the 5-6 Litres of wine we had brought in. The drink of the vines was left over after Ed and Abbie’s wedding last weekend and needed to be drunk. Gina and Kerry spent some time finding bits and pieces for a fire down in the riverbed and we all trekked down there as darkness fell. We had a fantastic bonfire and toasted marshmallows. We even had music provided by smart phones and Emily and Chris’ little travel speakers.

After the mallows were eaten and the remainder of the wine drunk we made our way back up to the hut through the bush. Some of us slept in the hut and others in tents scattered around near the hut.

Some of the party (the party-poopers) left early the next day to do various domestic duties at home or go kayaking on the Hurunui. The rest of us headed down to the hot pools about 45 mins by bike and foot from the hut. The pools were rather warm and the sand flies hungry so we didn’t spend too much time lazing around. Instead we ate lunch by the river and splashed around for a bit before returning.

We rode out slowly and cleaned our bikes off in Lake Taylor before having a dip at Jollie Brook and driving home, stopping to get some fish and chips in Amberly.

Above left: The keen beans and their cars. We parked the cars at Lake Taylor and got our assortment of bikes ready. Above right: Chris had brought a suitable hat for the trip.

Above: I was eager to test out my GoPro and had it strapped to my head as we started the ride.

Above: Passing Katie and Clare on the ride in.

Above: Pestering Gina about the trip so far…

Above: The Hurunui hut near Lake Sumner where we stayed the night.

Above left: Cris’ bike with his trusty Ortlieb panniers. Above middle: Abbie surveys the scene from the deck of the Hurunui hut. Above right: Katie’s tent with the hut through the trees in the background.

Above left: Muddy bikes at the hut. Above right: An assortment of some of the bikes we used to ride into the hut.

Above left: We hauled a lot of food into the hut as you can see. Above right: After a little wine had been drunk we amused ourselves with the squiddy thing hanging from the roof of the hut. We’re not entirely sure what it’s purpose was but it had lots of funny tentacle things that were fun to flick at each other.

Above left: In the evening we went down to the riverbed to make a bonfire. Above right: Ed carrying wood to the fire.

Above left: Lighting the fire. Above right: Katie, Cris, Simon, and Gina.

Above left: Tending to the fire. Above right: Pots and pans after breakfast.

Above left: Kerry tried sleeping on the deck outside the hut between the bikes. Above right: Clare makes pancakes for breakfast. William did the same. Yum, yum.

Above left: William jumps into the Hurunui near the hot pools. Above right: Cris and Simon revived an age-old tradition and buried Gina.

Above left: William and Simon devour lunch. Above right: The Hurunui hot pools. The pools are fed by a waterfall of hot water. On the left there is a little black pipe that brings cool water from a little stream to the left. The pools are big enough to fit perhaps 8 people at a squeeze.

Above left: A great end to a great trip. We cleaned our bikes in Lake Taylor. Above right: Simon, William, and I had a dip in Jollie Brook on the way back.

Above: Jumping into Jollie Brook.

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Above: I am no match for Chris and Emily in their racing kayaks as we paddle down the Heathcote river.

Above left: Happy to be married. Above right: The first dance.

Above: Cutting the cake.

The next day we wandered along the Kelly range and bashed down through the rather dense bush to the Hunt saddle. From there we joined the track and walked back down Kelly’s creek to the car. The walk back down the river was interesting with large parts of the track damaged or washed away. The walk out took around 8.5 hours while the walk in was around 2 hours.

We stayed the night at the CMC and went for a short road ride down to the Waimak the next day. My ankle was not keen to do more than that. Booo.

Above left: Katie nearing Carroll Hut in the evening. Above right: View from Carroll Hut in the evening.

Above left: Katie leaving Carroll Hut the following day. Above right: Katie tramps with Aarn packs.

Above: Katie navigates through parts of the damaged track in Kelly’s creek.

Above: We cooked up some goodies at the CMC lodge and stayed the night there after our tramp.

Above: Do not feed the keas.

Above left: View out towards Akaroa harbour. Above right: Michael does repeats while waiting for me to reach the top of the hill. Oh old age is a nasty thing.

Above: Cycling along the Summit road.

Above: Our route.

Hilltop to Akaroa via Summit road and back via bays – Time: 2:46:40 Dst: 54.54 km Avg: 19.63 km/h Max: 75.6 km/h

Above: View out towards Lyttelton Harbour from Orton Bradley park.

We walked down the otherside of the Otira river and turned right following the track to Lake Kaurapataka arriving there around 8 pm. As we were still eager to relax in some delicious hot-pooly water we decided to carry on. The last section to the pools is very rough. The track runs along the steep sides of a valley on the true left of the Otehake river. As we were running a little late it started to get dark. Never fear we had anticipated this and already had our headtorches strapped to our heads. From time-to-time we lost the next marker and spent a while bashing around looking for it. Eventually we descended to the Otehake river in darkness.

Above left: Katie and Emily crossing an arm of the Otira river. A rather weak arm. Above right: We are a charming lot.

I investigated the river and decided it seemed ok to cross. It was fairly happy in the bit that I had tried. We linked arms and started crossing but were forced back when it got too swift. We tried further up-stream. About 2/3 of the way across we came to a halt as my feet were washed out from under me by the swift water. Things were looking a little dire as we precariously balanced in the river with the water up near our hips. Apparently Emily and Katie also had rather poor foot holds and so we edged very slowly backwards to the bank where we stood there pumping adrenaline for some time. Ughh…

Above left: The last two hours from Lake Kaurapataka to the hot pools is fairly rough going. It was made more difficult by the darkness. Here you can see the two hard-outs Katie and Emily bashing there way through the bush. Above right: Everything looked much happier in the morning. Here’s our tent pitched on the island.

Instead of trying to cross again we headed up on the right-hand side of the river and pitched our tent in the middle of the ‘island’, an area in the middle of the river. At this point the water was only flowing to the true right of the island but I was unsure if it was going to rise over night and flood the true left leaving us trapped in the middle. We gave up on trying to find the hot pools and went to bed.

In the morning we looked across to see the site of the pools completely under water. Boo hiss only cold pools for us. We packed up and started the long slog back to the car. As we were walking along the steep rough section towards the lake Katie decided to entertain us with her somersaulting prowess. This may have been to alert us that we had briefly left the track and were going the wrong way. Luckily as she somersaulted she also demonstrated how one self-arrests on a steep slope using features of the terrain, i.e. tree roots.

As the river was still too high to cross we walked back to the Deception bridge and I ran down to pick up the car. On the way I was picked up by a couple who had collected Katie and Emily. We drove back to Arthurs Pass, abandoned plans to cycle home the next day, and drove back to Christchurch.

Above: Scrambling back along the rather rough track (with mystery missing frames at the end due to some nasty issue in my encoding software).

Above: A map showing our route into the pools (blue) and back out again (green). The little spikey bits are my GPS loosing it.

Above left: Emily and Ed running towards a control at the beginning of the race. Above right: A rainbow over Halswell Quarry after the race.

Greig and Chris came first finishing in two hours. I was a little worried that Greig hadn’t had a sufficient work-out and egged him on until he ran home with me.

Above: The last 40 minutes.

Above: Chris and Greig riding at a leisurely pace after we dropped off the back of the bunch.

We headed down to coffee culture to continue talking crap loudly. Ahhh it’s good to be back. I went and visited young Katie afterwards and we schemed tramping trip schemes. The evening was filled with more crap talking at Greig and Clare’s with Al and Amber.

Above: The new Tuesday Worlds route goes out to Lyttelton but then back over Dyer’s. We turned around to Lyttelton due to old age and laziness…

Above: The Cat Empire performing in Strasbourg, France.

Above: Miserere.

On Friday we threw Brendan into a MRI scanner to see if we could find his brain. It was a fruitless search. All we could find in there was a little man sitting in front of a bank of monitors pulling levers. We went out with Nick and Cecile who were visiting Julian on Friday night for some Indians. They taste nicer in numbers.

On Saturday we conquered Schauinsland by bike with Jakob.

Above left: Julian does his best to break Jana’s mini-bike during our descent from Schauinsland. Above right: We stopped for a feed at the Rappenecker Hütte on the way back to quieten Jakob “I haven’t had lunch yet” Asslaender.

Brendan and I had an extended breakfast with Jana and Julian on Sunday morning.

And that’s pretty much it…

Schauinsland via Horben descent via Rappenecker Hütte – Studentin Weg Time: 3:01:14 Dst: 42.95 km Avg: 14.22 km/h Max: 47.63 km/h

Above: Team T2 Stern in brilliant 640×480 resolution. Oooh yes.

Above: The route.

Above left: He arrived on two bikes? Surprised? I thought not. Above right: It didn’t take long before he was getting home with the downies at Sophia’s musical production.

Above left: There was some running in the Black Forest with Julian at night. Above right: And some hooning through the forest-of-blackness by day.

Above: Cruising in the Black Forest.

Above: I went night biking on Friday night up Rosskopf.

Above: On Saturday the lovely Leo and I went running up Rosskopf.

For variety, I went riding around Schlossberg on Sunday. Not much variety I admit.

Tuniberg – Time: 02:39:19 Dst: 64.12 km Avg: 24.15 km/h Max: 48.42 km/h Avg cad.: 71

Above: Cyclilng with Anna near Tuniberg on a warm Autumn’s day.

After invoking the ancient art of “kaffee und kuchen” we rode back to Freiburg by the Kandel höhenweg.

Above: After the hill climb race.

SC Kandel MTB hill climb – Time: 0:56:28 Dst: 10.62 Avg: 11.5 km/h Max: 56.93 km/h

Day 1 – Saturday 1/10/2011 – Regensburg to Waldmünchen

I got up at the happy hour of 4:45 am and headed down to the train station and caught the first train to Regensburg where I met one Brendanas Hollandas. He was, as is typical, fairly disorganised which was fantastic as it matched myself perfectly. We decided a map wouldn’t be bad and found one that covered the surroundings and a bit of the Czech Republic.

Brendan’s plan was to cycle to Pilsen in the Czech Republic to drink a beer. What? Surely the German’s can brew beer too, I hear you say… Well yes, but Pilsen is where pils beer comes from. So we set off early-ish afternoon in the warm Autumn sun. We headed up the river and weaved our way into the hills and over to Waldmünchen arriving in the evening. We stayed in a hostel and dined at the local pizzeria. I had a radler…

Above left: Brendan clips his heffalump bag onto his bike before leaving. Above right: Shadows riding towards Waldmünchen in the late afternoon.

Above left: Brendan and I riding as dusk fell. Above right: View from the door of the hostel in Waldmünchen.

Regensburg to Waldmünchen – Time: 3:56:56 Dst: 92.28 km Avg: 23.37 km/h Max: 73.83 km/h Avg cad: 71 rpm

Day 2 – Sunday 2/10/2011 – Waldmünchen to Pilsen, Czech Republic

We set off in the morning sun and reached the border about 20 minutes later. Brendan invoked the time-honoured tradition of playing the border game. The first section in Czech was all up hill but luckily that was followed by all downhill and then a couple of hours of all flat. We arrived in Pilsen and found a hostel. Then we were off to drink some beer in the warm afternoon.

Above: Brendanas standing at the Czech border. Below: Brendanas plays a quick round of the border game.

Above: Brendanas in Pilsen with his golden whatsit.

Above: Beer being consumed by Kiwis.

Waldmünchen to Pilsen – Time: 2:53:13 Dst: 77.23 km Avg: 26.75 km/h Max: 59.64 km/h Avg cad: 73

Day 3 – Monday 2/10/2011 – Pilsen to Regensburg, Germany

We grabbed some goodies from a bakery for breakfast and started the ride back to Regensburg. We took a different route with somewhat less climbing this time. It was still rather nice with some very nice roads and radwegs. The last 20 km was downhill along a cycle path through forest. Very nice.

Above: Leaving the youth hostel in Pilsen.

Above: Cris riding towards Regensburg.

Above: Cycling along a cycle way towards Regensburg.

Pilsen to Regensburg – Time: 5:59:22 Dst: 157.69 km Avg: 26.33 km/h Max: 65.19 km/h Avg cad: 74

Above: A cunning little map of our route over the three days.

Above: I stayed another day in Regensburg before heading off to a conference in Leipzig. Here’s a nice sunset I snapped while riding around on Tuesday evening.

The ‘vultures nest’ with Jakob and Sebastian Time: 01:36:42 Dst: 36.78km Avg: 22.82 km/h Max: 76.02 km/h Avg cad: 64

As it had been two weeks since the Jungfrau Marathon I was starting to feel well overdue for another little jaunt. I therefore had had a bit of a nosey through the race calendar and found the Voralpenmarathon in Kempten. Fantastic. To appeal to the bargain hunters (Kiwis) the organisers had thrown in an extra 20% more marathon bringing the distance to 50.9 km. This has a positive effect on all sorts of important race-quality metrics, such as hours spent suffering per dollar spent; Chris and Greig would be pleased.

Above: I snuck down to Allgäu for the weekend and ran a marathon. Here’s proof that it was in Allgäu.

Before the race on Sunday I had an intensive lazing session with Katha, Franka, and Vero by a lake near Kempten. After successfully burning the backs of my legs it was time to leave. Johanna was kind enough to leave me the key to her flat while she was away for the weekend so after dinner, I left Katha and co. to party the night away and headed off to Johanna’s for an early night.

The weather on race day was quite respectable. At something like 23 degrees it was quite refreshing compared to the Jungfrau Marathon and Inferno Half . Perhaps a little too fresh one might say… I set off at an amble conscious of the fact that I had some bonus kilometres to run at the end of the marathon distance. The route took us up and down through the hills near Kempten. It was quite scenic with forested sections and meadows. It was thankfully not as busy as the Jungfrau Marathon with 157 entries in the 50 km distance.

The race went well and I felt pretty good for the majority of it. At around about 35 km I started to feel a bit sore and there was some premium suffering to be had during the last 10 km. Although the organisers had only extended the race by 20% they had succeeded in increasing the amount of suffering by a disproportionate amount proving that suffering or perhaps sufferage is a function of time and distance.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the ‘fun’ was over after 5:44:02 (h:m:s) and Katha, Franka, and Vero turned up at the finish line to greet me. We hung around for a while before meeting again later in Kempten for an ice cream. By chance I ran into Manu as well and we all ice-creamed together.

I stayed another night at Johanna’s before getting up at 4:30 am and hobbling to the train station to catch my favourite connection back to Freiburg. Amusingly I finished in 8th place in M30 and 90th place overall. A quick flick through the results indicates that there is definitely life after 30 for marathon running.

Above left: My lovely support crew, Katha, Franka, and Vero came to see me at the finish line. Above middle: Yup, it’s definitely gold… definitely… Above right: “Nice, nice.” Katha and I at the finish.

Below: Manu and I in Kempten later in the evening.

Voralpenmarathon Kempten Dst: 50.9 km Time: 5:44:02 Elevation gain: 1250 m

Below: A map of the route and height profile (courtesy race website)

Julian enjoyed a breakfast of stale bread and a bretzel, his harden up food for the marathon ahead. The race started at 9 am and the 3800 strong field began a slow jog. Well when I say slow I am referring to the people around us. I imagine the runners at the front of the field left in a mad-dash.

The first 25 km were a very gradual climb up to Lauterbrunnen. The field slowly spread out but there was always a steady stream in front and behind me. It was another hot Swiss day similar to the Inferno Half-Marathon but not quite as intense. From Lauterbrunnen we climbed steeply up to Wengen. The crowds crawled up the hill and I employed my best striding technique and strode past many of them. My legs were a bit rubbish on the flatter sections but in relation to the other runners around me better on the steeper stuff.

The last section is really steep and everyone was walking. There were so many people that there were little traffic jams on the narrow path. I decided to be very un-Swiss and instead of waiting patiently in the queue I walked on the grass next to the little path. Yes, I can hear you gasping loudly at my boldness. The last part of the race is rather nasty as it’s downhill. My calf muscles were feeling like they were close to cramping so I hobbled down the descent while fresh-legged folks skipped by. I finished in 5 hours 16 mins and Julian cracked the 5 hour mark finishing in 4 hours 49 mins.

We hung around at the finish for some time with the awesome view of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau behind us. The weather really was perfect. We had had such an awesome view during the last section of the mountains and glacier.

Above and below: Photos of Julian, and I at the finish with mother as our support crew. It was awesome to have the finish on the Kleine Scheidegg below the Eiger. Julian and I briefly considered attempting to break the new 2.5 hour record for the Eiger North Face as a bit of a race warm down, however we decided that it might strain relations between New Zealand and Switzerland so we left it. Perhaps next time…

Above: Cris hobbling into the finish of the Jungfrau marathon.

Jungfrau Marathon 2011 Dst: 42.1 km Time: 5:16:21 (h:m:s) Elevation gain: 1829 m Elevation loss: 305 m

Results

Above: Cris and Julian survive the heat and make it to Feldberg.

Above: Having a beer back in Freiburg with Julian, Jana, and Mother (who is visiting at the moment).

Below: Map of our run…

Above: A cruisy run with Jamie and Penny. Below: Oh no, not another photo. Penny cooked us a feast and Jana topped it off with dessert. Delicious…

Another evening and then my trip was over. The commute started with Edit driving me to Vienna in the morning before I flew to Switzerland and trained back to Freiburg.

Thank you Edit for a very nice weekend.

Above left and below: Heading through the forest by train. Above right: Waving shadows. We stopped on a bridge for a few minutes and tried to make our shadows grab people walking under us.

Above left: Running next to the river. Above right: Into the wood oven it goes.

Above left: Looking a little tired after running. Above right: Mmm stew.

In the afternoon we headed into Győr and had a look around. It’s amazing to see the difference between rural Hungary and the towns. In the countryside it seems quite poor but the towns are in very good condition. We grabbed an icecream and had a look at some of the attractions. There was a festival feel in the air… due to there being… a festival on.

Above left: Edit in Győr. Above right: Cris being a poser.

Above left: It was hot-hot-hot. At least until a big storm came in the evening. Above right: Cris being a poser… again…

There’s a massive heat wave in Hungary just at the moment. Today, we headed to Lake Balaton a couple of hours away from Győr. We left early to try and avoid the extreme heat. We didn’t succeed. It was approximately 40 degrees and the radio was reporting the water temperature at 27 degrees. Mmmmm. After spending a little while roller coasting around at an amusement park on the way we arrived at the lake. We had a chilled-out afternoon there swimming in the deliciously warm water and snoozing. Very nice.

The heat continued into the night and it remained in the high twenties.

Above: Edit beside Lake Balaton.

Above left: A boat on Lake Balaton. Above right: Getting wet in a fountain by the lake.

Above: Two hands at Lake Balaton.

Above left: Edit nibbles on a cheesy Hungarian treat, a langos. Above right: We walked along the side of the lake after swimming.  I have a perec in my hand.

Above left: Creative use of the English language. Above right: I found a car for me parked near the lake.

Above left: Julian MacGyver arrives at the BBQ. Above right: Cris, Rebecca, and Julian lazing on the bank of the Dreisam.

Above left: Some sky. Yup, it’s true. Above right: Michael was very proud of his umbrella. Especially so when it started to rain for a few minutes.

Above: Beer here, beer there. Left: Ara, Alex, and Anna drinking a beer. Right: Dan and Ara.

Above left: Time to beat the heat – heading out to Ebringen before work on Monday morning. Above right: Julian riding down from Schlossberg.

Above: Cris running with the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau in the background.

I stopped at each water station and downed a few cups of isotonic drink. There is a flat section in the race before you reach Mueron but aside from this it’s just up, up, up. During the last quarter of the race I started to get little twinges of cramp in my legs but managed to hold it off until reaching the finish line at 2970 m. My race time was 3:08.09,2. Julian took about 15 minutes out of me.

Above left: Running past Swiss flags. Above right: Running up the valley about 3 km from the summit.

Above left: The last 500 m of suffering along a ridge to the top of Schilthorn. Above right: Cris and Julian at the finish with the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau in the background.

Above: The views at the finish weren’t too hard on the eyes. The Eiger is the peak on the left hand side.

Above: Map of the race.

Below: A few videos from the race. As my crappy flash video player does not seem to like the mp3 sound track you’ll have to watch without sound. I’m far too lazy to fix it. You could always snoop through my HTML source and download the video file and play it using some decent player…

Above: The Swiss play a fanfare at the start of the race.

Above: Running with an awesome view of the mountains.

Above: Plodding up the valley towards Schilthorn.

Above: Nearing the Schilthorn summit and finish line.

In the evening we headed off to Zürich in the sweltering heat. Stefan met us at the train station and we headed up to his luxury pad where his girlfriend had cooked us a delicious lasange feast. Fantastic. We caught up with Dr Zwick over a beer in a local beer garden before bed.

The heat wave continued on Sunday and to stay cool we lazed down at the lake. We met Nick Butcher from our Canterbury University days early afternoon by the river. Apparently, the thing to do in such hot weather is to jump from the bridge into the river that flows out of the lake and float down. The water was deliciously warm but cool enough to still be refreshing. Julian and I headed back to Freiburg in the air conditioned ICE in the evening. A good weekend out.

Above left: We lept off a bridge and floated down this river in the delicious heat. Above right: Posey Kiwis. Julian and I caught up with Nick Butcher’s from our Uni days.

The race is the Immenstadt Gebirgsmarathon. It’s a little family-organised running race that starts in Immenstadt in Allgäu. It’s approximately marathon length with about 2900 m of climbing. We began at 8 am. I started slow and got slower… Actually, I started slow and stayed fairly consistent but that’s a quote from someone doing the Transalpine run in 2009(?) which amused me. Completely irrelevant here… The route is fairly unforgiving. It starts off with a climb out of Immenstadt followed by a little flat section before continuously climbing and dropping until the turn around point at the Gondola station on Hochgrat .

Above left: Spot the punter… Above right: The Immenstadt Gebirgsmarathon starts. Photo credit: Christian Steinmüller.

Luckily there seemed to be a bunch of people who had pushed too hard to begin with and after a couple of hours I started to pass people. The organisers are a bit nasty and instead of the race finishing in Immenstadt you descend to nearly the altitude of Immenstadt and then climb back up another mountain (Mittag) to the top. I finished in 5 hours 52 mins and came second in my class out of… wait for it… three. I was a little dissapointed to see that I am now officially old as I placed in the M30 class. Gitti convinced me that they make a distinction at 30 years to give all the younger folks a chance against us older and wiser people.

Above left: There were great views from the ridge. The course essentially runs along a line of mountains and back. Above right: Cris with race organiser shows off his 2nd place.

In the evening Gitti, Siggi, Constantin, the overall winner, and I went to the Allgäu Festwoche. I met Katha there and we spent the evening weaving in and around the drunken people and singing festival songs. The weather was fantastic again on Sunday and I cycled to Oberstdorf and caught up with Christine and Simone before paying a visit to Kathi at NTC. In th evening Gitti, Siggi, and I ate out at the Schiff. A good weekend in Allgäu.

Above left: The festwoche before the majority were drunk. Above right: Katha and I at the festwoche.

Above left: Salad with Simone and Christine in Oberstdorf. Above right: Eating out at the Schiff with Gitti and Siggi.

Above left: At the top of Furkapass (2436 m). Above right: At the top of Grimselpass (2165 m).

Above: Switch-backs on the descent of Grimselpass.

Above: Descending from Grimselpass.

Above: Riding along the lake to Interlaken.

Furkapass to Interlaken via Grimselpass – Time: 04:07:20 Dst: 90.61 km Avg: 21.98 km/h Max: 65.86 km/h

Above left: Cris and Emily are overtaken by a train while riding towards Oberalppass. Above right: At Oberalppass.

Above: Descending from Oberalppass, Switzerland.

Above left: Tane tries the cheesy fondue. Above right: Kiwis eating fondue.

Flims to Furkapass – Time: 5:18:18 Dst: 91.22 km Avg 17.19 km/h Max 74.59 km/h

Above left: Crossing the glacier to climb Chüealphorn. Above right: Glissading down off Chüealphorn.

Above: Riding towards Grialetschhütte.

Above: Sometimes it’s best to avoid any excessive wear-and-tear and your equipment. In these cases it’s best to take the strain off your bicycle by carrying it on your shoulder with your many kgs of bags.

Above left: Emily near the Grialetschhütte. Above right: Emily sups at the Grialetschhütte.

We left our little shelter at Scaletta Pass and headed North down a valley parallel. Instead of heading the full way down we turned right and headed up to what the map calls Fuorcla da Grialetsch. We investigated a little mountain hut (the Grialetschhütte) before heading down another valley. It began to rain as we descended and we ended up spludging around in mud with a heard of cows. Chris and Emily fled in a mad panic leaving me to fend off the mooing creatures. At the bottom of the valley we carried our bikes up to the road and cycled over Flüelapass (2383 m) pass back to Davos while the sky proceeded to empty the ocean on to us. Luckily we had somewhere dry and warm to stay, courtesy of Dieter. Once back at Dieter’s house we feasted on a Chris and Emily veggie wrap feast. Yum yum.

Above left: Emily sums up the mountain biking done on the trip. Above right: Yay, a ridable section. In hindsight we should have crossed to this side of the river much earlier…

Above left: Flüelapass (2383 m). Yes, the height is important… Above right: Chris and Emily cooked up a vegetable wrap storm. Yummy yum yum.

Above: Pre-trip washing disasters…

We set off up the valley from Dieter’s towards the Sertigpass. The sun was shining, the birds were singing. Or as Dylan Moran likes to put it, it was a beautiful day, the birds were swaying, the trees were singing . We were a little shocked when two punters on punter-bikes wearing jeans cruised past us. Chris and I strained hard to keep up with them but failed. Luckily, we later discovered that they were puntering on electric bikes. Pahhhh, punters these days.

After a little road-side feast, we pushed our bikes up the 600 m climb to Sertigpass and then bumped and thumped our way down the otherside. This was followed by a sidle around the side of the mountain. Chris cursed his fat panniers as the endeavoured to push him off the little track. I cursed my toe-clips as I left the track and summersaulted down the mountain. All I can tell you is that toe-clips are not the way of the future.

We arrived at a little shelter on Scaletta pass in the evening and stayed over night there.

Above left: Emily and Chris, a.k.a. One-pan, and Two-pan set off on their merry journey. Above right: Learning to fly.

Above left: Chris lugs his bike up to the top of Sertigpass. There were many less-than-ridable sections. Above right: At the top of Sertigpass.

Above: Bumping down from Sertigpass.

Above: The sound of merry New Zealanders.

Above left: Emily arrives at the shelter on Scalettapass. Above right: Sunset on Scaletta pass.

Above: And then the posing began. Hijinks at the shelter at Scaletta pass.

Above left: Cris and Chris at the shelter on Scalettapass. Above right: Collecting water later in the evening.

Davos to Scalettapass via Sertigpass – Time: 2:56:25 Dst: 18.93 km Avg: 6.4 km/h

Above: On the via ferrata.

Above: On the via ferrata… still…

In the afternoon we headed to Davos to stay the night with Dieter. Dieter cooked up a raclette storm and we played the cook your own meal game.

Above left: Eating lunch with Dieter before heading to Flims. Above right: Mmmm Raclette. The cheesy cook-your-own-meal game.

Above: Posed orienteering shot in the mountains above Flims.

We met the Kiwis briefly in the evening again at their luxury pad that Dieter had found for them. We then scuttled off to get some food from the super market which turned out to be closed. Never fear Dieter was there. He knocked on the door attracting the attention of a Frau. Somehow he convinced her to open the door and then proceeded to convince her that they should open up to allow three starving New Zealander’s to buy food for dinner. Most amusing. We scurried through the supermarket quickly grabbing what we needed. The rest of the supermarket staff looked on incredulously.