The Spittelmatte
Monday 18.6.18
A misty, murky start to the day. The plan was to take a ride in the cable car up to Sunnbuel and spend the day photographing flowers around the Spittelmatte.
The Spittelmatte is an alp pasture at 1875m and we knew from many previous visits that it was an area rich in alpine flowers.
The Eggeschwand-Sunnbuel cable car station is around a mile and a half from the village. It is one of 3 mountain cable cars in Kandersteg going up the mountainside to Sunnbuel at 1936m. Sunnbuel is the start of the historic Gemmi-Pass trail.... but that is another story for another day. Today we were concentrating on the flowers.
The cable car trip is always thrilling, as it spans several hundred meters and affords some glorious views down the valley to Kandersteg, into the Gasterntal and Uschinental.......that's if you are able to keep your eyes open!
From Sunnbuel we took the well made track away from the cable car station and out on to
beautiful alpine pastures. There are several tracks, all well signposted.....ours this day was out to the right to Arvenseeli, a collection of small lakes and back via the Altels Memorial.
The Altels memorial commemorates the events of September11th 1895 when at 5 in the morning, a huge mass of ice, reckoned to be around 4.5 million cubic meters in size, detached itself from the glacier on the Altels mountain and devastated 2 square kilometres of the Spittelmatte. Six men and 169 cattle were killed instantly.
But back to sunnier themes. The weather cleared as we walked and made a beautiful day. A bit of a Primula day really with a good measure of alpine anemone and globe flower thrown into the mix.
A misty, murky start to the day. The plan was to take a ride in the cable car up to Sunnbuel and spend the day photographing flowers around the Spittelmatte.
The Spittelmatte is an alp pasture at 1875m and we knew from many previous visits that it was an area rich in alpine flowers.
The Eggeschwand-Sunnbuel cable car station is around a mile and a half from the village. It is one of 3 mountain cable cars in Kandersteg going up the mountainside to Sunnbuel at 1936m. Sunnbuel is the start of the historic Gemmi-Pass trail.... but that is another story for another day. Today we were concentrating on the flowers.
The cable car trip is always thrilling, as it spans several hundred meters and affords some glorious views down the valley to Kandersteg, into the Gasterntal and Uschinental.......that's if you are able to keep your eyes open!
From Sunnbuel we took the well made track away from the cable car station and out on to
beautiful alpine pastures. There are several tracks, all well signposted.....ours this day was out to the right to Arvenseeli, a collection of small lakes and back via the Altels Memorial.
The Altels memorial commemorates the events of September11th 1895 when at 5 in the morning, a huge mass of ice, reckoned to be around 4.5 million cubic meters in size, detached itself from the glacier on the Altels mountain and devastated 2 square kilometres of the Spittelmatte. Six men and 169 cattle were killed instantly.
But back to sunnier themes. The weather cleared as we walked and made a beautiful day. A bit of a Primula day really with a good measure of alpine anemone and globe flower thrown into the mix.
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| Cardamine pratensis, Lady's smock |
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| Soldonella alpina, Alpine snowbell |
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| Polygala chamaebuxus, Bastard box |
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| Dryas octopetala, Mountain avens |
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| Viola calcarata |
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| Primula farinosa, Bird's eye primrose |
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| Primula auricula |
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| Primula elatior, Oxlip |
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| Anemone narcissiflora, Narcissus flowered anemone |
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| Pulsatilla alpina, Alpine anemone |
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| Gentiana acaulis |
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| Gentiana and Primula |
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| Arvensee |
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| Trollius europaeus, Globe flower |
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