Have a free day ? Please Gemmirun
I eagerly hand my ticket to the ticket agent at the Leukerbad cable car station. I hear him say, "Sind Sie bereit?" and I quickly nod in agreement. I take my ticket and rush off, perhaps a little too fast to start. Fabio will soon appear behind me after going through the same ritual.
We are off for a 950m climb over a little more than 4km from Leukerbad to the Gemmipass, trying to do it in under an hour. The challenge? To prove to myself that I can do it, but above all to get free entry to the thermal baths on the way down with the funicular, which is also free if succeeded¹, on top of an amazing day with Fabio.
During the first kilometre, Fabio overtakes me and continues to increase the gap between us, or rather time. I ask myself "what time is it?" "Am I two minutes or six minutes behind him?" As usual, I go by feelings, without a watch or any other means of measuring my progress live. So my only option is to give it my best shot.
In a nutshell, it's hard. I'm halfway through, Fabio several switchbacks above me. At each step carved into the rockwall, I stick my poles forward and use my whole body like a spring to propel myself to the next level. I pass several people, but it's unsettling. Unlike in a normal road race, I'm overtaking them so slowly that I can't gauge my pace.
Eventually, the summit is close; a right-hand turn, the final stretch on a slight incline. My breathing sounds like an old steam train. With just 300 metres to go, a figure stands out against the sun. It's Fabio, who has finished and is coming back down to encourage me. A minute later, I slap the counter with my hand and the ticket in it. The man at the desk grabs it, does the maths in his head and congratulates us! We have succeeded and obtained our relaxation pass!
The sound of our high-five echoes throughout the station! Fabio finished in 48 minutes and I finished in 52. We weren't that far apart 🤗
On the website, we are delighted to see that we have claimed 2nd and 3rd place in the current ranking. However, our achievement should be tempered by the fact that most of the scores below us were achieved by older peers, to whom we owe respect and admiration.
It was a great race 🤩
It would have been a shame to end our journey here, as the region is breathtaking. After a well-deserved break, we set off for the second goal of the day, the Rinderhorn, with an additional 1,200 metres to climb. The mountain is sublime, appearing and disappearing in white puffs of cloud. The path is quite technical, having been out of use for years, we make our way through the limestone debris which make our steps slippery.
Photos are worth a thousand words here:
Back at the cable car, we rush to the baths for a short but relaxing session, because 4 p.m. is already the time to leave. I have a 4 hour 15 minute journey back to Jura, while Fabio, having realised that Zweisimmen is only 25 km away by feet, runs off towards Gemmi to catch the cable car.
As a conclusion, I'm now asking "Who's up for the next one?"
Each person gets to do the challenge three times¹ (and go to the baths three times, of course 😉).