This is a vlog-style YouTube transcript of Nate and Kara Buchanan visiting Switzerland (their 92nd country) to hike to a futuristic mountain hut near Zermatt. They take a scenic train, equip crampons, traverse a glacier with deep crevasses (encountering equipment issues and a guide injured), and after an unexpectedly long, strenuous hike (roughly six hours total versus posted 3.5), arrive at a spaceship-like hut where they stay overnight with half-board dinner.
Questions this video answers
Switzerland (their 92nd country).
The Glacier Express (eight hours from St. Moritz to Zermatt).
About 30 minutes into the mountains by train.
Initially 3.5 hours; a later sign showed an additional 3.5 hours.
About six hours into the hike when they arrived at the hut.
Chapters
I totally feel like they're girls right now. We used to watch him all the.
Time and he'd be like, technique bosses.
One, two, three.
If you missed our last video, we are currently in our 92nd country of Switzerland. Yesterday we rode the Glacier Express and eight hours from the town of St. Moritz to Zermatt, which is where we are this morning. We only have one full day here in Zermatt, and there are so many incredible things to do in the mountains around this city. But one thing really stuck out to us.
I found this futuristic looking mountain hut online that looked like an incredible place to spend the night. But as I started doing more research on how to get there, I realized it wasn't going to be so easy.
Which is why we are renting some grandpa.
This one.
Then you can tie.
It's not good at all.
But we're currently learning how to tie crampons onto boots that aren't necessarily made for crampons. And then you can come here.
Map isn't German. We'll be fine.
This blue line will be crossing that. Exactly. I feel better that we have a map now.
We may be in for a bigger adventure than we planned on today.
Hello.
Hi.
So in order to get to the hut that we're staying at tonight, we have to trek four hours and traverse a glacier alone, which I've never done before.
So just to get to the hiking trail, we have to take a train 30 minutes into the mountains.
This is crazy. The views from this train put the Glacier Express to shame. It doesn't get any better than this. You don't even need to go hiking for the views.
I cannot believe this weather that we are having today. It was supposed to be thunderstorming this morning and we didn't even know if we'd be able to do this trip.
I'm not good at these.
There are quite a few people up here. But we're hoping that as we start hiking, this isn't a very popular trail. So it'll just be us in the mountains. I'm so excited, excited, nervous. Just grateful to be surrounded by the beautiful, majestic, incredible Swiss Alps.
Unbelievable views.
We have been fortunate to do some incredible hiking over the last few years, but this has to be the most dramatic landscape that I've ever walked through. We're just surrounded by glaciers right now.
We just spotted our hut for tonight. It is perched on the side of a cliff surrounded by a glacier. It is insane. I cannot believe that's where we're going. It looks so close, but so far away. Like I don't feel like it's that far. Looks a little bit challenging to get over there. Just a little glacier in between us.
At the beginning of this trek, it said that it was going to take three and a half hours to get to the hut. And then when we got to the new trail, there was a sign that said it was going to take an additional three and a half hours.
We should be there before y'. All.
Who knows how long this is actually going to take, but I think we have plenty of daylight left. Just gonna put a little pep in our step because some giant clouds are rolling in.
This is intense. We are at the foot of the glacier. All of this, like, gray looking rock you see behind me is not rock. That's ice. That's. That's the glacier. Oh, you can see it. See, to get there, we have to go all the way up and around this glacier. This is going to be awesome.
Lead the way, boss. I'm very nervous.
All right. I'm wearing one crampon.
I think they feel pretty good. So the guy at the shop earlier this morning showed us how to tie these crampons, which is something I've never done before, and I'm pretty sure I did it right. But I guess we're about to find out how you feel.
We chose this. We wanted something that was gonna push us outside of our comfort zones because you grow as a person that way. So we intentionally chose something that was, like, felt doable, but also a little scary. I think a lot of times those are the best things to make yourself do in life. Glad we're doing this. First steps. Looks like mud, but we are on the ice. Oh. They seem to be working pretty well. First. Oh, my gosh. My crampon already fell apart.
Are you serious?
I don't think that's how it's supposed to work.
Oh, no.
I'm. Find a rock to sit down on.
We are literally steps onto the ice, and my grandpa just broke it out. I don't know if it was user error putting them together or if it's actually broken. Oh, geez. I was like. First steps on the.
All right, how's it feel?
Solid. Yeah. Yeah.
Not the most confident I've ever been.
Second pull. Second pull. So far, so good.
Already out of breath. The altitude.
Good work.
Ever since I was a little kid, I've gotten extreme satisfaction out of doing things myself. And so this, to me, is just so much more rewarding. The fact that we can come out here and we can figure out how to do it Ourselves and just be alone on this glacier. It's incredible.
That looks like a water slide.
That's terrifying.
I just thought this was a little stream we were walking beside, but back behind us, it just disappears into the abyss. It's great the fact that you can do this alone.
We're at about the 40 minute mark of walking straight up the glacier. The guy at the rental shop told us 20 minutes on the glacier, but I think that must have been the old path because there's.
There's no end in sight. I wouldn't have it any other way though.
This just got real quick.
Oh, just one scary step. Big step. Here you go. Nice.
Big step. Confidently keeps the momentum going forward.
Remember, you have your backpack on. You really need to keep your weight forward.
Big jump. One, two, three. Good work.
This just get real really fast. There's some really deep crevasses that we're having to make our way over. And one of the guides that works at the mountain hut is sitting on the ground over there because he tried to jump one of the crevasses and hurt his leg. And he's waiting for a helicopter now.
And like, he works.
It.
Oh, my gosh. I don't think I was breathing that whole time. We were on both sides. I can't even talk.
Both sides of us were really like, can't even see the bottom. Deep crevasses. And I think I held my breath the whole time. Like, I feel like I'm gonna throw up.
It's okay.
We did it.
We made it.
I'm gonna stop vlogging now.
The last fall.
The last fall. Woo. We'.
Solid ground.
We did it.
Nate, hold my hand.
We did it.
That was a blast. If we just came to Switzerland to do this, it would have been totally worth it. The guy at the store who rented these to us this morning was very concerned that these would not work with our flexible boots, but it was no problem. Wow. I just cannot get over how cool that was.
Me either.
Feels good to be back in the slow ground.
They're so fun.
We felt like we were pretty much there after we got off the glacier. And then we just passed the French couple and they told us we still had an hour and a half to go.
They were at least twice our age and got up at 2am, hiked to the very top of this mountain that I can't even see right now. And we're on their way back down through the whole thing we just did.
Just when you feel like you've done something cool, people go to the top of this. There's the hut. That's where they went.
This is the best, most intense hiking trail I've ever done. Just when you think you're almost there, throws you another curveball. Oh, my God.
Bounces. I gotta get off, gotta get off, gotta get off. Wow. This is awesome.
We don't know what to do.
Good work. Good work. Made it to the middle. We gotta make it to that big rock. I think I'm gonna go here. There, there.
Oh, no. Oh, no. I went down.
Yes.
Oh, how epic is that? We gotta be close now.
Oh. Six hours into our three and a half hour hike, we have arrived at the hut. And it looks like a spaceship.
It's even better than it looked online.
So we came in like the basement area and there are all these crocs. So I think we take off our shoes and put on whatever crocs are our size. There are these clotheslines you can hang your wet clothes.
Are they storing the right place? Yeah. I love that there are hundreds of pairs of crocs.
These crocs feel like little clouds on my feet right now.
Cute shoes.
No way.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Yep.
Perfect.
We made it in perfect time. Dinner starts in five minutes. So when you book this place, you can book half board, which is dinner in the evening and then breakfast tomorrow morning. And that's what we've done.
We can sleep in the same bed.
This is home for the night. Very, very cozy down here.
I like it.
Less than 10 other fence.
We each got a pretty thick duvet, two pillows, and someone else's bed is right here.
Time for a well deserved dinner.
The women's taking a turn for the worst. This is madness. Surrounded microvasis.
Oh, I'm so excited. So much energy is coursing doing.
Keep that energy flowing, Nate. We're gonna need it. It's a sign. Crampon sightings.
Yeah, I'm just like, where did the blue and white marks go at the most important time?
So we've only been still for about five minutes and I've already gone from my tank top.
Oh, sorry. I almost got my sand.
It's lunchtime. Whoa, baby. Look at that biggest.
Thought we were dad. There's a big stop hand on there. So I don't think this is the entrance.
