Switzerland!! (Day 2 - A Day of Hiking)

So hiking solo is often a very refreshing feeling - maybe not the smartest, but a great way to relax, do what you want, reflect, etc. Anyway, that was plan for Saturday - to do a day hike somewhere in the Alps nearby. After minimal research, I settled on a hike that involved a 900-meter ascent (about 2800 feet) to a peak called Le Dent de Jaman, an intimidating piece of rock that is one of the highest in the area. This area is not truly the big Alps (like Matterhorn or Mont Blanc), which are much higher, but this was closer and therefore had to do for now.
So I left the house around 9:30 to catch a train to Montreux and then Montreux to Les Avants, a quaint little town in a valley just below Dent de Jaman. The hike started out on a road and then quickly transitioned to a steep, steep climb through the trees up to the Col de Jaman (Col = mountain pass), which is about 1600 meters high. This was by far the hardest part and I was definitely out of breath and felt out of shape after doing it.
But something about seeing a nice view gives you energy, so when I broke out of the trees at the Col, I felt ready to conquer anything. And thus I took off for Dent de Jaman, only accessible from the opposite side - so I walked about 3/4 mile to the other end, where I crossed some train tracks. I sat down for lunch with a view of the mountain...
...and then ten minutes later, without me moving an inch, the view of the mountain entirely disappeared in a massive white cloud of fog. The fog became so incredibly thick that you could only see about 20 meters in front of you. A crazy sight.
But I continued all the same, and after some crazy rock scrambling, arrived at the top of the mountain - 1875 meters high - and had the summit all to myself. The fog was still all consuming, unfortunately - until about 15 minutes later, when I finally got a peak of Lake Geneva, the surrounding mountains, and the valleys below. But again, after 5 minutes, it was gone again - my cue to head down.
After a nice rest, I decided I wasn't done - what else could I do? Descend and go somewhere else? Keep walking some other direction? After walking down to the Jaman train station (which is up 1500 meters high), I decided to walk over to another Col, this one much smaller and very close to a series of awesome jagged spires that were calling my name. The hike was short and pretty easy as I was fed and motivated, though it was starting to get a bit chilly.
Then I decided to descend the opposite direction, continuing past the Jaman station and down to Les Cases, what I believed to be a small little town and turned out to actually be nothing but a train station. The walk down was long and seemed never-ending - and it was beginning to rain and thus got very cold. To add to the troubles, my left shoe managed to break a bit - the sole was coming apart - nothing a bit of Duct tape couldn't fix, but I obviously didn't have that on hand.
After passing a ton of semi-wild sheep, then cows, then goats, and then Germans :) , I made it to the bottom - Les Cases turns out to be nothing but two houses and an empty train station. I was exhausted by this time, as I had probably walked around 7 miles and had gained and then lost over 2500 feet in elevation. So it came as a bit of a bummer to see that the next train (or at least the next one that stopped here) was not due for another hour.
And so I sat in the rain, thinking and shivering, for an hour, before boarding the train back to Montreux and from there, back to Lutry. Oh boy - what a day.
After a lovely shower and even lovelier dinner with some great wine, me, MT, and our hosts (the Christiansens) played a bit of Taboo, which quickly became way too competitive. After the guys unfortunately lost, Anna's father and I had a semi-heated discussion about Africa, in which he tried to convince me that all academicians are wrong on the subject. Hmmm, it was interesting I suppose, to say the least.
After I played a couple games of billiards, it was bed time - one more half-day here tomorrow before heading back!