JÖRISEEN

August 2018

This hike to the Jöriseen, a group of lakes in a rather remote alpine valley, turned out to be yet another highlight of the summer. As it is pretty popular in the summer, I began hiking in the late afternoon when everyone was already on their way down again.

From the starting point on the Flüela Pass, the trail leads up the mountain for quite a while until you reach a pass which offers the first view over into the next valley where some small lakes are spread across the barren rocky landscape. As you make your way down into this valley, between the lakes and a little creek, you pass by the remains of the Jöri Glacier and finally reach a viewpoint that will take your breath away. I never knew a lake could actually be that turquoise and even though I saw it with my own two eyes it didn’t seem real. Just as we had reached this point, a mixture of sunset and cloud cover started developing and created an amazingly moody atmosphere. Running around taking photos and trying to make the most of this beautiful light, I came across this small lake fed by glacial runoff with a great reflection and the gloomy clouds behind it.

Since I still had quite a way to go to reach the other side of the big lake, I continued on down the trail, constantly accompanied by the everchanging colors of the clouds, which caught the light of the setting sun behind them. When I finally had my tent set up, it was already dark and some of the clouds had lowered themselves into the valley.

After a rather cold night, my alarm rung a good hour before sunset so that I could hike to a viewpoint above the valley opposite of where I had been for sunset the day before. The early wakeup call was certainly worth it as I watched the sun come up and fill the whole valley with a beautiful golden light. If you look closely, you might be able to spot the white blob that is my tent on the lower left shore of the big lake in these morning photos just to give you a sense of scale. It’s hard to believe how massive this place actually is until you’ve seen it with your own eyes. With a smile on my face I headed back down to my tent to pack up and make my way over yet another pass to circle back to the starting point.