Alp Vorsiez to Ampächli 1485 meters
Day total: 22.5 km

VA1 total: 40 km
I woke up at 6am and it was still raining hard. By the time breakfast was served at 8 (coffee, bread, croissants, nutella, cheese and yogurt made right here) the rain had stopped and it was nice out.  The bill was CHF 42 each for bed and breakfast… the US dollar and the Swiss franc (CHF) are almost equal.  The weather last night made it worth it. 

The yogurt was the best part.

Alp Vorsiez. We slept upstairs in the brown building on the left.

We are starting to call this the Money Trail. It might not be as easy to camp as we had hoped. Good thing it is a short trail.
The morning was spent climbing up our first pass. 

Pigs eating leftover noodles

Looking back

Climbing up

Just before the pass was a dairy farm, Fooalp. They had a nice honesty box with coffee, tea, fresh milk and beer. We had coffee.

At Foopass 2223 meters we talked to a Swiss couple who are finishing up the VA1 that they started last year. They said that the holiday season is over and we should not have any problem with crowds or booking lodging. The view ahead was awesome and has me excited about what is to come. 

Foopass

A long downhill led to the village of Elm where we stopped at a small grocery store.

So many waterfalls

Elm

And then we started climbing back up to the top of the gondola at Ampächli.

The little white dot below the arrow is a hole in the rock. According to the book “Martinsloch is a clearly visible hole in the rock, through which the sun shines on two days a year (12 or 13 March and 30 September or 1 October) to beam onto the tower of the 15th-century church.”

We found a great teepee to sleep in. Let it rain, as predicted.