2011-03-06 47 9
| Sun 6 Mar 2011 in 47,9: 47.0356622, 9.0063962 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
in the snow next to klontalersee (dam) in a small set of hills
Participants
Plans
Try and get there as I drive from Switzerland to Germany
Expedition
After a great stay in the Swiss alps with Crox, coordinates were checked to see if any handy hashes were available, or if there was a point within reach on my way to Germany.
There was one! A slight detour for me by car (and quite hard to get to for Crox by train), but hardly out of reach, the point was only about 45km away, roughly due north... although on the other side of some mountains.
After driving somewhat more than 45km (although not much past the turning I would have taken anyway), i headed up one of the many valleys in Switzerland.
I had to dodge Carnival celebrations in a couple of towns (the police were very helpfully directing traffic around some detours). Soon enough I was approaching the turnoff that would take me up to the lake proper, in another side-valley. As I approached... there seemed to be nothing but cliffs looming out of the low cloud and I wondered how on earth I was going to get up to the hash lake!
Then an opening appeared, where the cliffs were merely steep hills, and a road was found leading up between them. This turned out to be a nice (and relatively civilised) mountain road. Reasonably steep, and thin in places, with snow banked up on the sides where there was space for it.
When I reached the top of the road I was delighted to see almost a meter of snow on each side of the road (although slightly worried about finding parking until I discovered the parking lot of a restaurant situated on the lake). The dam was quite frozen over, and everything was pretty. A number of people were walking around touristing as well.
After having a bit of a look around and a tourist myself, I set out to find the hash. I knew it was within a few hundred meters (and not in the lake!) so it was just a matter of finding the coordinates. My GPS pointed me to where there was supposed to be a path of some kind, leading to within a few meters of the point and it was just over there... In the middle of all that snow.
Being well beyond stupidity distance by now, I found somewhere to get off the road into the snow, and started wandering down where the path would (in theory) be if the snow wasn't. Fortunately, the snow had a nice crust to it, and was fairly easy to walk on without sinking in. After a bit of a GPS dance, I found the hash, and had a success!
Extremely happy with my little side trip, I then continued on towards Germany...
Photos
TODO
Achievements
- Land Geohash
