DIRETTISSIMA BLOGFreitag, 30.06.2017NOW WE’RE OFF!On Monday, 3rd of July, early morning, I will be at boundary stone number 183 in the Vallée de Joux to start my adventure. I’ll be off! Off on the Direttissima! 330 kilometers of Swissness in its purest form, 45'000 height meters to be conquered a defined line: I can hardly wait to see all the things Switzerland has to offer. I’m certain of one thing: it won’t be boring!

Monday, 03.07.2017EN ROUTE!In the lush, green woods at the back of Mont Risoux I actually found the fateful boundary stone with the number 183, which I have been talking about for a long time. The beautifully worked stone is the official starting point of my journey, my Direttissima across Switzerland. I can hardly believe that it is 6.00am in the morning: I’m really standing at the beginning of my big Swiss expedition! First it goes nice and comfortably along a road, but soon it takes on a proper Direttissima feeling: I snake my way through the wood, over moss-covered walls, through the middle of cow pastures and weeds. I have to keep an even better grip on the navigation – it takes quite a lot of concentration, a permanent check of map and GPS, where I am and always to be sure that I’m not going out of my corridor. Once I nearly went out while leaping euphorically downhill in the woods… and in the first kilometers?! Very well! But one thing I also found out in the first kilometers: the Direttissima is fun! My line takes me to special places and I cross many tracks: today among others those of the Jurassic chamois, forester Jean and the mammoths of Le Brassus. So long – until tomorrow!

Thomas crosses a mossy wall in the woods above Le Brassus.

Tuesday, 04.07.2017CORNFIELDS, WOOD AND MEADOWSToday I walked from the A1 to the A12. East of the A12 opposite La Verrerie I waited for Sylvia and Chula to turn up with the van and I have to say, although the land hardly went up and down, it would have been magnificent to cool the feet in a stream and stretch the legs. To make a detour around a cornfield looked like a wonderful prospect, but no detours are allowed. I walked through a few quite thickly-housed areas and, as soon as I plunged into the cool shadows of a wood, wondered several times how nature would take over again in no time at all. Straight away I felt as if I was in the primeval forest - of the nearby civilisation there was not a sound. I enjoyed the quiet so much: it was briar and stinging nettle that brought me aggravation here. I cursed ‘my’ Kilometer 1160; but actually every child knows that stinging nettles and short trousers are not a good combination.

The Flatlands are now over. Tomorrow some proper up and down awaits me through the Fribourger Alps. They look nice from the west, but there are a few wickedly steep woods there. I’ve brought the paraglider, so can, I hope, fly over this or that climb down. I’ll certainly have to refine my navigation management in the air, otherwise I’ll soar out of the the corridor in a flash! But first things first: Sweet dreams!

A big wide sky over the Waadtland.

Hiking in the flats will soon be over.

Wednesday, 05.07.2017FINITO FLATLANDThree times today I covered some of the distance in the air. It’s not necessarily faster, but definitely more agreeable. It was fantastic to be flying! I’m overjoyed that it works. But it’s not just the light equipment. Luckily I can count on many years experience because the landing and takeoff places are sometimes not entirely perfect. For the takeoff for the first flight from the skilift above Le Pâquier Michel the shepherd looked at me wide-eyed. He had recommended the takeoff spot next to his hut, and I had answered that I couldn’t take off there because it was outside my sector. OK… at least this gave me time to get the bearings of Gruyères airfield, otherwise I would have become more puzzled about my strange route than the herdsman.To be honest, the hilly land suited me much more than the flatland. There will be some places that go steeply upwards, but I prefer this to trudging along on the flats. Yesterday I soon had the impression that my feet hurt. Now that’s all blown away. Keep going!

At least two hands too few: flying, navigating and photographing.

Thursday, 06.07.2017SUMMER HEATI’ve perched In a dead spot! Isn’t that nice. My Handy’s really quiet. It must have been like this for my forerunners (in the truest sense of the word) on their way in 1983. I’m only sorry for Hans, my long year business partner and manager of this tour. He has to do some extra travelling to pick up the photos. This means I can show him the wonderful landscape between Hindermenige and Seeberg. It’s beautiful above, incredible. I should camp here as well, so as to be fresh early tomorrow morning for the descent over the Meniggrat into the Diemtigtal. That is tricky. I’ll also have to abseil the lower part. The 83 crew had to leave the corridor for the first time here.Today I sweated buckets, and drank ten litres of water for sure! Once more this made me aware of how spoiled we are in Switzerland, with our wealth of natural resources. If you want to support Helvetas with their fund raising, I think that’s a great thing: clean drinking water for children.

Two community worthies receive me at the Jaunpass: Ernst Hodel (left), Zweisimmen, and Fred Stocker, Boltigen i.S.

Friday, 07.07.2017PAST FRUTIGEN IN THE REGIONAL EXPRESSThe descent from the Meniggrat was not as bad as I expected. I got down without abseiling, but man-oh-man, was it steep and crumbly. I kept to the animal tracks, that helped. Below waited Norbert Schmid, manager of the Diemtigtal Nature Park, who fed me sausage and cheese. Magnificent! Thanks a lot! Then my hunting friend Ruedi Wyss accompanied me as far as Chirel. It was super, not to be alone now and again. The climb up to the Schmelihore was moderately incinerating in the heat – there I just applauded my paraglider which picked me up and transported me, chop chop, straight out over Frutigen to the other side of the valley. I landed at 1300 metres, below the Gehrihorn! In your dreams!. Above all I could more or less stick to ‘my’ Kilometer 1160. Hats off to the performance of my predecessors who didn’t fly one meter! My goodness - these men were fit.Now I have packed an ice axe (for steep grass terrain, something different!) and support systems. Tomorrow it’s down to business: over the Dreispitz to the Schwalmere. I very much hope that my chamois plan comes off, otherwise I’m no good at this! Fingers crossed!

Because conditions are good I fly straight out over Frutigen.

The last landing of the day in the Kiental - rather sportive in the turbulent wind.

Direttissima feeling under foot: rugged descent from Meniggrat.

My thirst was almost unending…

Saturday, 08.07.2017SCHWALMERE ACCOMPLISHED!Cheating was a little difficult today; no shortcuts, no extra flights or Sunday strollers’ paths, only steep rock piles, slippery grass and an abundance of loose stones. A hard piece of work. I am very happy that I managed this difficult stage. In the early morning I fought my way out of the Keintal to the Höchst, having to claw my way up through a mixture of rock faces and steep grass. Under the Dreispitz the snaking line goes towards the Latrejefeld. I am happy that basically I did not feel too bad on this kind of sloping ground, despite the fact that my heart was in my mouth now and again. Bringing the ice axe along was a very good idea, by the way, and in the meantime I’ve been wondering how you would describe a grass tour requiring grass axe in the guidebook? In the afternoon I set about the brittle wall on the Schwalmere in good spirits - the anticipation of this had given me butterflies in the stomach. Watching the chamois for a long time had paid off. Only by following ing their virtually invisible paths could I come through this Labyrinth of rock ledges and loose rubble. Incredibly this had worked. The shower later on during the descent into the Soustal now seemed supremely irrelevant. What a day! Bring on the Eiger…

Which way is the road, please?

Grass Climbing – a new discipline!

Sunday, 09.07.2017VISIT TO CIVILISATION‘And, how did you get here today? From Interlaken? Grindelwald? From the Joch? What, over the Staubbach falls – ahh, interesting’… What should I explain to the people here at Camping Jungfrau? I felt like an extraterrestrial as I walked through the streets from Lauterbrunnen in my crumpled attire. Seven days pure outback lay behind me, pure Swiss outback! That’s how it still is: actually it’s wonderful!

Abseiling alongside the Staubbach in Lauterbrunnen.

In the morning I began to look for the rock face where my mountaineering career had its beginnings. That is to say somewhere near the hut on the Oberberg in the Soustal. As a child I was often there with the family. This time I actually had my father with me. I told him straight that I would find the wall in no time at all, but sadly we looked for it for quite a long time (and didn’t find it). The subsequent crawl over the Marchegg was tricky, everything wet and slippery. I again whacked my ice axe into the turf a few times. I next had to deal with the Staubbach falls wall - with the correct sort of rock. It was a very nice feeling to float down into the village from above. A highlight was also the visit of Jeannette Liechti and Toni Steiner, one of the four Direttissima 1983 men. A huge surprise! Thanks! And a big merci also to Hans Fuchs from the campsite for the hearty

welcome. Now I’m brooding with Mario Heller over how we can manage the Eiger stage in this volatile weather.

Here my mountaineering career began… my father Werner shares the blame…

A few years ago, in the same place. The Lobhörner in the background still looks the same.

Monday, 10.07.2017READY FOR THE EIGERToday in Wengen I crossed paths with an old colleague of mine. What a coincidence! I had already hoped that the jeep, a bit higher up on a forest road, would not stop. He hasn’t seen me, I thought. But the driver indicated otherwise when he saw this bloke stomping through the thicket. That can only be an Ulrich, he thought. Heinz von Allmen is grinning at me through the jeep window. I used to do ski-racing with him.Furthermore, I cross the Lauberhorn Downhill course and the Wengernalpbahn railway track; then the Direttissima goes up to the Lauberhorn.

Now I’m sitting with Mario Heller in the Hotel Eigerwand at Kleine Scheidegg. Luckily it sits very nicely in my corridor. Rucksacks are packed and we look out at the rainy wall. We will set off at 3 am. The weather spirits are beseeched yet again so that we can really get across tomorrow: diagonally across the Eiger wall and over the Mittellegi ridge, behind, over, under nature’s castles of the Lower Grindelwald glacier!

By chance I meet Heinz von Allmen in the middle of the woods, an old ski-racing colleague of mine.

The tourists in the train wave – they think they’ve seen a Yeti.

Tuesday, 11.07.2017EIGER, WE LOVE YOU!The Direttissima spirits have been really good to us: by 10 am this morning Mario and I had already reached the Mittellegi Ridge! It was very pleasant to sit in our balcony box on the edge of the ridge, dangling our legs while the clouds played around us, and look down on Grindelwald. We had special luck, the weather was with us, the portion of optimism from the previous evening had paid off, and we found the route which slanted across the north face relatively good. Quite crumbly, but all in all clear where we had to go. It went better than expected. Once again much was asked of us at the natural castles of the glacier debris on the way down to the Lower Grindelwald glacier. The name for this unfriendly crush of cracks and ice avalanches is well chosen, I can only say… As already done above on the ridge we help ourselves with an abseil to make ends meet. Fantastic! I am overwhelmed by this natural spectacle (and slowly my calves also…?!) – if they knew that the line now goes over the (little?) Schreck-Hörnchen…?!

A spectacle without equal: the climb to the Mittellegi Ridge.

Done it! On the Mittellegi Ridge with Mario.

Unavoidable: the descent on the «Far Side».

Wednesday, 12.07.2017INVOLUNTARY REST DAYI’m stuck fast! But its not really so bad, on the contrary… the business with the compulsory rest day began actually yesterday evening, because on our descent from the Mittellegi we did not cross the raging torrent by the Lower Glacier so couldn’t climb to our intended bivouac spot. To cross the stream was just too difficult. This morning we dared to get over because there was clearly less water coming down. But it also became clear that there was not enough time for Mario to continue with me. He wants to go on the Eiger Ultra Trail! Well why not? After our Extra training tour he is well prepared. Good luck, Mario!

Here I’m waiting for my rope partner: at Bänisegg, on the way to the Schreckhorn hut.

So I’ve spent the day in the tent at Bänisegg (on the way to the Schreckhorn hut). Lounging was not actually too bad, and it was entertaining to talk with the various people who came along the path; for example Nikolas Chisha from Zambia, who suggested that the next Direttissima could be in Zambia, or Matthias Wasem, an aspiring mountain guide, who brought me additional provisions. Splendid! Many thanks! I also tried to organise a new companion for the tour over the Schreckhorn. I would not like to do this alone, mainly because the descent on the Lauteraar glacier needs a rope partner. I’ve just found out that Kurt Knöri, an old acquaintance of mine, will climb up tomorrow, Thursday.

So I have some more hanging around here to do – unfortunately I can’t go to the Bäregg hut for a coffee, its outside my corridor. By the way: der Live Tracker had a brief hiatus yesterday. We hadn’t got stuck in a glacier crevasse. All the best!

Difficult to get over: the stream by the Lower Grindelwald Glacier.

Friday, 14.07.2017EXCURSION TO PATAGONIAHoliday over! I’m on the legs again - and how! Today I went with Kurt Knöri from the bivouac by the Kastenstein over the Schreckhorn. Wow! And that in real Patagonian conditions: lots of wind, more like storm, cloud, rain and sleet. It was wild. At times a torrent confronted us, then again we couldn't see half a meter away. We gave the Schreckhorn summit a miss, the descent from the Nässijoch on the Lauteraar glacier was difficult enough. We had to be creative to find a way through the pieces of breaking glacier. I’m proud of us both that we got down without going out of the corridor. By the way, my Live Tracker keeps losing the plot – for those who are wondering why I blunder around like a blind chamois from time to time. For some obscure reason the two trackers I carry in my rucksack are giving us the runaround. In Lauterbrunnen for example I allegedly reached a height of 6000 meters… ?! Apparently GPS data can be reflected in narrow valleys or when it’s wet in the woods, it was explained to me. As always, even the best technology is not infallible. In any case I keep to my line and remain with best greetings! See you soon!

Wind, Glacier and cold accompany us on the Schreckhorn.

Saturday, 15.07.2017HORNS WITHOUT ENDI do not know how many strange Hörner there are in the Hasli: Trifthoren, Hubelhoren, Chüetriftehoren, in between them the Hienderstock. Neither chickens nor cows did we come across in ‘our’ corridor, but all kinds of giant glacier crevasse in their place. Kurt and I had to permanently look for new routes in order to get round these widely yawning crevasses. Some of the time thick clouds covered us, which made orientation far from easy. After a steep climb up from the Lauteraar glacier up to the ridge (with precision, chamois paths again!), it lasted really long, until we had marched past all the Horns and at last, to the east, reached the Obri Bächlitallicken (upper little Bächli valley) and finally the Bächlital hut. Both lay conveniently on our track! So we came to enjoy some tasty cheese on toast, of which we hoovered two portions each, prior to go-to-bed supper. Now we lay with bulging stomachs in our tent on the hut’s helipad. What an end to a long day! It only remains to say: Good Night!

Small glacier, big crevasse: on the route between Trifthoren and Bächlistock.

Hidden beauty borders Kilometer 1160.

On the other hand Kurt and I seem rather pale.

Sunday, 16.07.2017THE ENCHANTED TABLEA picture in the Direttissima 1983 book has always especially pleased me. Then, the landlord of the Hotel Handeck surprised the Markus Liechti team with breakfast on the Räterichboden reservoir dam. The tousle-haired mountaineers breakfasted at a table with a pristine white table cloth. I’d dreamed about this a few times recently… and what did I see this morning, as Kurt and I came trotting down from the Bächlital?? A white covered table with a super-tasty breakfast in the middle of the dam! Ursula Monhart, head of KWO Grimsel hotels, had made it possible. Wow! Many thanks, that was heavenly!

I’ve approved the rest of today as a rest day. Kurt has said goodbye. We had some good days together! Sylvia came up the Grimsel pass road with the van and I could sort out all of my equipment afresh, dry the clothes and stretch the legs. Did me some good. Now I’m ready for the next stage. Tomorrow I will leave Kanton Bern and cross over to the Rhone glacier. Certainly the high Alps are now done, but numerous crests, peaks and scree rubble are waiting for me. Kilometer 1160, I’m right with you!

1983…

2017… the feeling may be the same: just brilliant!

Monday, 17.07.2017RHONE GLACIER AND FURKA PASSSomehow I have two left feet today… I don’t know why, but I’m staggering around as if I was making my first steps in the mountains. There was no one there to see me, I only met a small Steinbock. Perhaps I just need a bit more time to concentrate after the difficult stages across the Berner high Alps. Despite my stumbling I have two 1000 meter climbs behind me on my line, first from the Räterichsboden lake up to the Gärst ridge, and a second time from the Rhone glacier up to the Sidelen ridge. The last hour and a half I trudged comfortably downhill along the Furka steam train track, really relaxed. Hello Urnerland!

Always straight ahead… on the rails of the Furka steam train, exactly in my sector.

Tuesday, 18.07.2017BOMB HAPPYThe whole Direttissima has never been as dangerous as today! In the thick greenery of the climb to the Blauberg above the Gotthard pass I nearly stood on an unexploded bomb. To tell the truth I was so occupied with finding my way through the vegetation that I did not think of my feet. Today I happened to have an A&E (accident and emergency) doctor on hand - my brother-in-law Thomy von Wyl. So I was actually in good hands. Though if a grenade had sent me flying through the air, Thomy’s total Rega operations experience probably would not have been of much use. Never mind… all went well. We didn’t let this spoil the mood and found our way through the minefield and Alpenrose shrubbery. Now we’re camping a little below the Gitziälpetli gap. I hope we make it tomorrow as far as the Lukmanier!

Cross country through the Gotthard Massiv…

… Kilometer 1160 becomes a minefield.

Wednesday, 19.07.2017CROSSING STEINBOCKLANDKanton Graubünden Tourism have been really busy, actually arranging some steinbock for Route 1160! They’re there to welcome us at the border. We feel honoured. Today is the second day with my brother-in-law Thomy, Rega-10 team. Despite many more munitions, to be found in every possible corner, luck was with me and I didn’t have to call on his medical skills. Long and stalwartly we marched, traversing what seemed like 20 valleys and gaps. And there still was the Piz Borel, really taxing. Graubünden is so beautiful, but there’s plenty of scree rubble lying around and the climb down in our permitted zone was veeeery fragile. Finally there’s still a Direttissima Premiere to come at the Lukmanier pass: stand up paddling across the Lai da Sontga Maria.

Welcome to Graubünden: just like the marketing!

Unexpected meeting: school class at the Piz Borel.

It’s beautiful in Graubünden, no question. Desolate, picturesque, but also frighteningly vast!!

Thursday, 20.07.2017STOPOVER IN TESSINToday was creepier than anything I’ve experienced on the Direttissima – these Bündner mountains really are something else! Phew! On the last part of the climb up from the Lukmanier pass to Piz Vallatscha the horrors really went for me. It was muddy, crumbly, slimy, and steep! And exactly on cue the rain started. That was the limit! But I got over it, and could again continue in the endless and sparse landscape as the spirit took me. Over the Pass di Cristallina and the Cima di Garina I finally made a wild descent and reached Diagra, the small hamlet above Olivone. Today I met no people, but my first two deer instead!

Direttissima – in the truest sense of the word.

Phew! I don’t want to do that again!

Friday, 21.07.2017BATTERIES RECHARGEDToday I’ve gone underground – to enjoy a day of a camper’s life in the van. At a nice place above the feet can dangle in the river, the clothes and shoes dry out and calories shovelled in. Thanks Sylvia, wonderful support! The day has done me incredible good, the batteries are fully charged again and I’m ready for more challenging mountain stages. When I think of the original Direttissima team: madness, how they had struggled through, and how tough the four guys were! Hats off! Any other way and such a task on your own resources would never allow you to be underway for longer. After a certain time you burn out. I prefer to move in my 200 day Arctic mode, so I could carry on indefinitely…

Doing nothing! Sometimes nice… comfy day with Sylvia and Chula.

Saturday 22.07.2017VISITING THE SHEEP FARMERSOnce again met nobody, no hiking trail crossed. There is still a wild Switzerland! And yet, on the Alp Garzora I came across alpine dwellers Fiorenzo Scippo, Kurt and Renzo. Immediately I helped collect some sheep, and earned a coffee in the alp hut. Splendid! Funnily enough my Direttissima colleagues of 1983 had written about this alp; like many other Tessin high meadows they were abandoned then. No longer today! The huts have been rebuilt, sheep populate the alpine grassland. However, I continued on my way towards Fuorcla Darlun, Piz Scharboda and Zervraila lake. Even after several days on Bündner/Tessiner soil I can’t get over how shattered and split are the rocks of these mountains. Again I had the feeling in some places that they must be about to collapse. I hope not, as a stubborn straight line traveller hope the mountains collaborate! Otherwise I’d have a bit of a guilty conscience. Even so: good night and and viva la Grischa!

Alp Garzora in the 1983 book …

…and today: derelict then, today alive again.

Sheep and deer came with me today…

… met nobody, except the residents of Alp Garzora.

Sunday, 23.07.2017DIRETTISSIMA AT ITS BEST!At last I could fly early with the paraglider on this day and, towards evening I had a fantastic flight over the Rhinewald, which saved me a lot of hard walking up. I’d actually wanted land in in Sufers, but considered from above, it would have pained me a lot to throw away the 2000 meters of height below me. The wind was so good in my corridor that I risked carrying on to the east, high in the air and on the lookout for possible landing places (even though my map was stowed away). Finally the wind washed me to a little below the Alp Lambegn high above the Averstal. A wonderful conclusion of a wonderful day! Take all the ingredients, which meanwhile make me so fond of the Direttissima: an exceedingly tough climb to the Bärenhorn, lots of Edelweiss, a meeting with an unlikely pair - a deer and a chamois (at 2700 metres above sea level!), endless meadows and comical crags that stuck out of the landscape here and there. Incidentally I have found out that I can no longer take a correctly placed footpath. Today I found one that was exactly one my line for about a kilometre, but after a short while my feet were on fire and I was happy to be able to go cross country on the fields again.

Wonderful landscape in the Rheinwald.

A piece of hiking trail on my route.

Incredible, how effortlessly I can race over Sufers, the Rofla-Ravine and the Averts!

Monday, 24.07.2017IN DEER ELDORADOI don’t believe that one has to be a hunter in order to see deer in this region, and enjoy them. Unbelievable how many deer there are in the Avers-Savognin area! It was very beautiful. Apart from that I had some rain, the worst part of it was that I sat it out, in the truest sense of the word, in a quiet little place by the Alp Lambegn/Alp Tobe. The alp hut, near where I sat, was locked, but the thunder box not. It was brand spanking new and offered a stunning view. It was a good place to tarry a while. The catering contributed to my mood: gendarme sausage with spruce seeds from Rebecca Clopath, a young cook, who supplies incredible products from this gigantic mountain landscape. Truly tasty and perfectly suited to my extreme nature ramble. This evening in camp I got a visit from the Surse community. Mario Dosch from Tinizong explained to me the many field names which I had wandered through, the Val digls Morts, for example - Death Valley. And tomorrow I have to get over the Bleis Marscha, the slippery slope! Auweia, it can be bad! Bündner slate, I’ll soon be with you again!

Play of cloud, light and shade.

Hideout in a quiet little place.

Impressive encounters on the way…

Tuesday, 25.07.2017STUCKThings not going so well today. Stuck in my corridor. First I was a bit too bold. It just made no sense to take on the next stage in this weather. There’s snow down to around 2500 meters and to cap it all it is foggy. On the way over into Engadin I move relatively slowly at this height, have to get over numerous small crests and ridges, through difficult terrain, and it would be simply negligent to set off in zero visibility. It’s diffcult for me. I’m completely fidgety. So I’ve done very little moving around, a small patch uphill. Otherwise there’s very little to do in my small kilometre world, only check that the weather’s no better outside…

Camping in the rain…

It looks like Lord of the Rings in my sector.

Wednesday, 26.07.2017SECOND CAMPING DAYOnce again I stayed a day above Tinizong, this is getting difficult for me, but it’s wiser, for certain. I think that tomorrow, when the weather improves, I would get towards goal much faster. I need three days to be sure of reaching the eastern point of my Direttissima. Spent the day lazing and sitting around. I have also thought about how I can cross the Inn. In my section of it I can find no bridge; somehow I have to get over the 30 metres of fast flowing river. Can I can swim across in my drysuit? No idea… If anyone wants to hear how my Direttissima report sounds in Romansch here’s the article from Federico Belotti of RTR. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Another day in elfin wood…

…better rested than for a long time.

Thursday, 27.07.2017CROSSING THE INN BY AIR!I’ve crossed the Inn and did not get my feet wet! Ha! I hadn’t allowed myself to even dream this… at the end everything worked out, I could fly out from Val Bever then, just-like-that, I was on the other side of the river. Brilliant! I flew twice: on the first flight I didn’t get down beyond the rock faces. The landing between Arven and Lärchen was exciting, then I scrambled out of the valley, past the steep sides to find a new takeoff place for my Inn flight. With some good luck it all turned out well!The day had already begun well. On the Alp d'Err I could fortify myself for the climb to the Piz Bleis Marscha with a giant cup of coffee, and that helped a lot! Thanks Alp d'Err-Team! At the Lai Negr, a wonderful small lake, I met Stefano. He was probably more amazed than I at this meeting because he had sought out this specially remote lake as he liked fishing by himself. The way continued over numerous, unfortunately very loose and slippery scree slopes and ridges. Almost raising maximum fright factor was the sight of an adder, arranged across my path! Oh no! Because of this snake I could almost have jumped out of my corridor - honestly …

Mittellegi? Haven’t I been there already! But the Bündnerland had plenty of surprises for me.

Crossing the Inn with dry feet.

Ojeh! I had hoped not to meet a snake!!

Warm-hearted welcome for guests on the Alp d’Err.

Fisherman Stefano is very puzzled why anyone would come walking past.

Friday, 28.07.2017CLOSE SHAVE AT THE CORRIDOR LIMITI’m in Livigno! It’s hardly possible to believe that my Direttissima is slowly coming to an end. If I’m on the ball tomorrow and the weather plays along it will be my last day. Ojeh. I no longer know how normal life works…?! It was really nice to sit with Jeannette Liechti and Toni Steiner, one of the four Direttissima 1983 team, and exchange memories. They waited for me in Livigno. What a surprise! Toni cast a few envious glances at my glider as I landed right under his nose, so to speak. Of course this had not been possible in 1983. I’d saved a number of walking hours with it – though not the drudgery of the upward kind; like this morning up to the Pizz Mezzaun. My God! That’s one tough cookie. I was so preoccupied making my way through the Legeföhren that I didn’t notice that I was as good as out of my corridor! Oh no, that would have been frustrating. After all these days when I’d been able to keep to my line… I then changed the plan and climbed high up a gulley, knowing I would not get out at the top. Once again chamois tracks showed me the route. Later on I came to Vreni and Ludwig’s hut. They had to smile at this comical character crossing Switzerland in such a way. They could still remember the 1983 Direttissima original edition. Incidentally there’s not much Italian pizzazz in evidence; the stones look much the same over the boundary…Right then, Direttissima, here’s to a good finish!

Surprise at Livigno: Toni Steiner, one of the 1983 Direttissima team, and his partner Jeannette Liechti (left) made a wonderful reception committee with Sylvia.

Nobody noticed that I’m crossing the Italian border.

Again the paraglider saves me plenty of walk down.

My big goal is very close: last stopover in Livigno.

Saturday, 29.07.2017STILL A FEW KILOMETERS SHORT!Ojeh; it would have been great to have reached the goal today, but unfortunately it didn’t work. I am at the Umbrail Pass and have taken refuge in the van before a thunderstorm hits. After 13 hours on foot I found it anyhow not so advisable to finish my Direttissima in the torrential rain. It would have been a long and mega stressful day. Not that I need the scree-hiking practice, but today I found it worse than ever. Everything loose, everything slippery and eeeendless. An absolute highlight was my encounter with a large and small vulture. What proud creatures! I’m now really close to the goal. Tomorrow a few kilometres remain, and I’m going to enjoy them! To tomorrow!

Regal: a bearded vulture makes its rounds above my head.

At 13:55 there were still 11.9 kilometers to the goal.

Morning on Lago di Livigno.

Sunday, 30.07.2017Done it!I’ve actually arrived! This morning I reached the Cima piccola di Tarres, the most easterly point of my Direttissima. Wow! What a joy! I’ve really made it and didn’t go out of the corridor once. I can hardly believe it. Sylvia and Valentin greeted me at the border and enjoyed the same big view as me. What a unique time, what an experience-packed tour – it really showed me my homeland from a different angle. There are probably not many places in Switzerland where you could spend four weeks, and then, on the way back, get such a culture shock as in a tiny village like Santa Maria. That’s how it seemed to me! I was totally stunned by so many people, the noise and bustle. This prepared me a bit for the traffic jam on the A13. But auweia! Have I completely forgotten what this is like… I’m missing you already, Direttissima! Thank you for everything, thanks to everyone who cheered me on and supported me! It was superb!

Got there! The Direttissima goal at the Piccola Cima di Tarres on the Austrian border.

Then I go home… It was wonderful being with you, Direttissima!

Live Tracker

THE FACTSRepeat of 1983 TourOne Line, Kilometer 1160Corridor maximum 500 meters left and rightLength: 330 KilometersHeight difference: 45,000 Meters

The Idea of a Direttissima like this arose from a mountaineering group under the leadership of Markus Liechti, who had been planning the project for summer 1983.

They asked themselves where you would end up if you strictly followed a straight line directly across Switzerland. This simple Idea is captivating. What

can your home offer, when you consider it from a different perspective? On my repeat of this tour I am excited to find out how Switzerland has changed after all these years and am looking forward to all the possible adventures and experiences that will occur - all the way to kilometre 1160.

Read the 1983 report on srf.ch