Hiking with altitude

With only a few weeks to go before the Jungfrau Marathon, Hilary wanted to hike at altitude. So we met up on a chilly summer morning in Andermatt (1436m), fuelled up with coffees, and set off, following an easy trail up through the Unteralp valley towards the Vermigel Hütte, at 2047m. We'd done this part last year, but then we went left up a crazy mountain biking trail and over to Oberalppass - Hils was in training for the Jungfrau last year too!
This time though, after a quick stop for an apple juice  at the hut, we continued right, following the steep trail up towards the Sella Pass. With Hilary setting her usual cracking pace, we were above the tree line in no time at all, crossing patches of sticky snow still trapped, even at summer's end, in the high reaches of the schisty slopes. The trail, though difficult, was superb, marker rocks freshly painted with their red and white stripes and, at times, carefully laid rocks defining the trail across the schist. It's a bleak landscape up there though, made even bleaker by the damp clouds rolling in over the top of the pass. But we reached the top at last, clambering the last few metres to the Giübin lookout at 2776m. We couldn't see much through the cloud, but we were famished, so huddled under rocks to eat our meagre lunch of bread, cheese and ham.
And then it was all downhill, skirting the Sella lake, where cows were gathering for milking, and back down to Gotthardhöhe, the top of the Gotthard Pass, where James was waiting to return us to civilisation - and beers in the sun while waiting for the train home.