Carolyn's Various Travels: December 25

Christmas day was very different from home, but still quite nice. We had french toast for breakfast, but no egg casserole. We opened stocking gifts and then decided to go check out Mt Pilatus outside of Luzern. I had checked and double checked that it was open and that we could take public transit to get there.

We took the city bus to Kriens (basically a condo community at the foot of a ski slope - elevation 1694 ft) and then caught the gondola up the mountain. It was a two leg journey with a transition to another gondola midway up.

This was a lodge on the mountain slope with a super fun looking kids playground in front of it. There were hammock swings, a kids ropes course, a tunnel slide, etc.

This looking up the slope at Mt Pilatus. As you can tell, they are a little short of snow this year. The slopes were closed for skiing, but there were a number of people out hiking with their dogs on the trails below us.

This was the halfway point where we changed to another gondola. Elevation 4650 ft.

View of Mt Pilatus from mid mountain

Stunning views of Lake Luzern and surrounding mountains

Approaching the peak with a wall of cliffs to the right.

View of Luzern (around the lake on the right) and many many miles beyond. I think it's cool that this picture captured the full shadow of Mt Pilatus. This was about 3:00 pm.

View from the top of Mt Pilatus (elevation 7000 ft). This is looking to the southwest toward the Berner Oberland near Interlaken. The sun on the snow was blinding. We tried to find some of the 100 or so ibexes that live on the mountain, but didn't have any luck spotting them.

David says these small clouds above the mountain peaks are 'standing lenticulars' and are very dangerous for planes. They are created by winds blowing over the peaks. They don't move, they just stay above the peaks.

We saw a whole flock of what appeared to be crows zooming and soaring on the winds just above the terrace. Upon further research, these are Alpiine Chough (member of the crow family). I read an interview with Dr. Christiane Böhm, head of the bird department at Innsbruck Alpine Zoo. She said the birds are native to the alps and possibly the highest nesting birds in the world. They can dive at up to 200 km/hr and even have tiny feathers that protect their nostrils when then dive. They will follow hikers in the woods and enjoy food scraps. They are even capable of deceiving each other to get scraps. If one crumb is put in an enclosure with multiple birds and only one bird can see it, it will call out an "alarm" that will have the other birds look to the skies to discover the danger. Meanwhile that bird will swoop down and grab the crumb. Clever buggers.

You can try to match the skyline for yourself, but we are headed for Jungfrau in a few days. Its toward the right side of this image.

This is the view of Mt Pilatus from an angle that shows Luzern side to the right and the back side of the mountain on right. During the summer there is a cog railway that runs all the way up the back side. Its the steepest cog rail line in the world with a 48% grade! Even with the lack of snow the track was piled up with drifted snow when we visited.