Above the Clouds near Langenthal
Above the clouds near Langenthal:
Over the Christmas weekend, Langenthal was cloudy, rainy, overcast. We discovered, by accident, those clouds were actually pretty low. On three consecutive days, we randomly picked hilly look-out points on the map, all within about 30 miles of our apartment. Each location, we drove under dreary cloudy skies, light rain, up into the clouds and eventually just above the clouds, bright and sunny, Each location, you could drive only so far, single lane roads, with shear drops, sometimes on both sides of the car. We met cars occasionally, and had to back up to a wider spot or a switchback. The rest of the way was on foot, hiking on roads and trails, steeply upward. It looks like an ocean of clouds below about 2000 feet.
Vogelberg Dec 23.
This is located north of Langenthal. It requires about a 1.5 mile steep hike, on a nearly drive-able road. No parking up there. At the peak, you hike up a fenced pasture to get the highest point.
We parked our car down there, in the clouds:
To the north, you can see France to the left, and Germany to the right:
This is the view from the peak (looking south). Those are the Alps in the distance, our apartment is somewhere between the Alps and that hill poking up in the clouds:
Napf Dec 24.
Located south of Langenthal, about 30 miles if you had a helicopter, but 1.5 hour drive. The road up is very narrow and many locations with zero room on the sides. If you stopped and stepped out of your car you could tumble to oblivion.
This shows the road we hiked up:
You can see the fog we drove though to get up there:
Hasenmatt Dec 25.
Located west of Langenthal. Pretty close, but again a narrow drive. The hike was almost 3 miles above where we parked. The last 1/2 mile was steep trail.
The fog was frosting the trees in the valley below:
Here we are, at the peak of Hazenmatt:
Over the Christmas weekend, Langenthal was cloudy, rainy, overcast. We discovered, by accident, those clouds were actually pretty low. On three consecutive days, we randomly picked hilly look-out points on the map, all within about 30 miles of our apartment. Each location, we drove under dreary cloudy skies, light rain, up into the clouds and eventually just above the clouds, bright and sunny, Each location, you could drive only so far, single lane roads, with shear drops, sometimes on both sides of the car. We met cars occasionally, and had to back up to a wider spot or a switchback. The rest of the way was on foot, hiking on roads and trails, steeply upward. It looks like an ocean of clouds below about 2000 feet.
Vogelberg Dec 23.
This is located north of Langenthal. It requires about a 1.5 mile steep hike, on a nearly drive-able road. No parking up there. At the peak, you hike up a fenced pasture to get the highest point.
We parked our car down there, in the clouds:
To the north, you can see France to the left, and Germany to the right:
This is the view from the peak (looking south). Those are the Alps in the distance, our apartment is somewhere between the Alps and that hill poking up in the clouds:
Napf Dec 24.
Located south of Langenthal, about 30 miles if you had a helicopter, but 1.5 hour drive. The road up is very narrow and many locations with zero room on the sides. If you stopped and stepped out of your car you could tumble to oblivion.
This shows the road we hiked up:
We could see Pilotus peak, including the lift
Hasenmatt Dec 25.
Located west of Langenthal. Pretty close, but again a narrow drive. The hike was almost 3 miles above where we parked. The last 1/2 mile was steep trail.
The fog was frosting the trees in the valley below:
Here we are, at the peak of Hazenmatt:
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