The Culture of Hiking the Alps

Who would have thought that there is a culture of sorts surrounding the sport of hiking. Never occurred to BoomerCafé co-founder David Henderson until he took a vacation to Switzerland and found that hiking is the sport of choice among baby boomers in Europe.

It had never occurred to me … as my wife and I arrived in a remote part of Switzerland’s Engadin region for our vacation of hiking and relaxing … that the sport of hiking has its own culture. Hiking is certainly not an exclusive culture, like ocean yacht racing, or showy, like polo, or boisterous, like football. I suppose it is more like golf, without the funny looking trousers and clubhouses. Well, on second thought … maybe not.

The culture of hiking is different from anything I have experienced. Let me try to explain.

We had driven for several hours on two-lane, twisty-turny roads through Austria and Switzerland to reach a town called Sils-Maria and a nearby valley called Fex that is renowned for its hiking trails – 300 kilometers or about 180 miles of trails. The area is surrounded by the Alps and near the border with Italy. To give you a better idea of location – just in case you are looking for a map of Switzerland online – Sils-Maria is about six miles and a world away from glitzy, crowded and tourist-filled St. Moritz.

My wife and I were in search of rest and exercise, quiet and magnificent scenery, privacy and healthy food, and a replenishing distraction from the hectic environment of Washington, D.C. All those things, I found, are part of the hiking culture.

Hiking is perhaps Europe’s most popular participatory sport. It’s just you and nature, and it appeals especially to baby boomers who need a change. Of course, hiking in the Alps is relatively easy and affordable for many European boomers who can reach any number of spectacular places within a few hours driving. We, on the other hand, had flown from D.C. to Munich, rented a car and had driven five hours to Sils-Maria. But, man, was it worth it!

[Click here to see David's hiking photo album]

After first driving through the traffic-choked streets of St. Moritz and I was thinking, geez, why did we come all this way for THIS!, we arrived at Sils-Maria. It’s off the main highway, and if you are going fast, you’ll miss it. There’s an understated entrance to an underground garage at the edge of town because vehicle traffic is restricted in Sils-Maria. The streets and lanes are too narrow.

Sils-Maria has just a handful of hotels and cafés, all first-class. At night, there is … well, nothing to do. No casinos, no bars, no theatres or entertainment … nothing. People come for one thing each spring, summer and fall – hiking. During the winter, there is world-class skiing, which the locals hope not too many of the St. Moritz crowd will discover.

If Sils-Maria could be described as first-class, the Fex valley (Val Fex on trail signs) earns the pure and authentic title of the most exclusive place in Europe … at least as judged by the completely subjective Henderson rating.

I have visited Cap Ferrat, the toney and staggeringly expensive gathering place of the rich and famous on the French Riveria, while vacationing at nearby Villefranche-sur-Mer, and had never seen such wealth and big gold medallions on chains and great tans. Fex is none of that … it simply defines exclusive. It is a place where celebrities and ordinary folks like us share … each in our own very private way … a precious place on earth that tends to make you forget everything else.

Our hiking adventure began when we arrived at the Hotel Sonne Fex, located just over a mile into the valley from Sils-Maria. They send a van or a horse-drawn carriage for you after your car is parked in the underground garage. No car, no exceptions.

We were greeted by Frau Susanne Witschi-Fümm … a baby boomer on the younger side, I’d guess … who has personally made her hotel a legendary experience for guests. Frau Witschi-Fümm grew up in the Fex valley and the family owned Hotel Sonne.

The hotel … which looks rustic and like the perfect vision of a traditional Swiss lodge, which it is … has 11 rooms. Fabulous rooms of a quality rarely found. Our room had a window that looked out over a 16th century chapel, the tiny village with six or eight houses and a sweeping view of the Alps. The view from the other window was even better … up the valley toward three ancient glaciers. The views were changing constantly with light and weather. I must have taken nearly 200 photos of the Fex valley because I had never before seen anything like it, even though I have traveled around the world. Dinner at Hotel Sonne Fex includes five-courses, and I would rank it among the world’s top restaurants. This hotel is certainly part of the hiking culture.

From this place, we hiked. Now, out of full disclosure, I have to say that I wasn’t too sure about a hiking vacation. My wife has hiked for years in Switzerland and Germany and is passionate about it. So, even after just a year of marriage, I have come to trust her suggestions. When she had suggested a hiking vacation at a place recommended by a friend, I said … well, sure.

There is another factor that made me a little … well, more than a little … nervous – I have terribly bad feet. Flat feet, pronated ankles. All my friends know about my feet. My feet have hurt even when walking across the street, and here I was in Swiss Alpine hiking Valhalla. But, it was really something how some good hiking socks and shoes, custom-made orthotics and a tube of pain-relieving cream that I found in Italy can make real hiking possible.

My favorite hike was up Fex valley to the glacier. It was a windy and cold day right after a storm. There was fresh snow on the mountaintops. Back home in D.C., the temperature was probably in the upper 90s but we weren’t thinking about home.

As we passed other hikers, we exchanged the traditional Swiss greeting, “Grüesi” … a combination of hello and good day. That is part of the culture, too.

We stood at the foot of what once was a mighty glacier now reduced by more than 60 percent by global warming and experienced a sense similar to visiting an ancient cathedral. No words came to express the feeling … the spiritual feeling … of being there. Even a group of French hikers, mostly baby boomers, were silent. We just forgot about the cold and the miles we had hiked and the stinging wind. I had an overwhelming feeling of sadness about this glacier and others I saw. I seem to recall someone once saying that glaciers are living things. Surely, the glaciers of the Alps are dying, and I believe we are all partly responsible.

Other days we hiked through forests to the nearby village of Isola on a lake with clear blue water, called Lej da Segl. We hiked high above tree line on a mountain called Furtschellas to a series of lakes formed by the glaciers and winter snow. But it was being so close to the Fex glacier that haunts me … and you know what? I don’t believe I am alone … and maybe that is part of the culture of hiking, too. An awareness … a time away from everything else in our lives … to allow ourselves to be touched by nature and to be concerned.

While hiking in the region of Sils-Maria and Fex, we heard German, Italian and French spoken most often. Most people at cafés and hotels also speak English. We did encounter a group of Orthodox rabbis from England and their families on a hiking trail who fluently switched between English and Hebrew. But we didn’t run into any other Americans, and maybe that is part of our own hiking culture of just getting away from it all.

[Click here to see David's hiking photo album]

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