Summary: an easy uphill accompanied by ultramarathoners.
Another fine day weatherwise, with sun and clouds until the end of the afternoon, and a short hike as well -- under 4.5 hours, all uphill, mostly gently, to the Kesch hut. We set off early nevertheless because of an unexpected event: the Swiss Mountain Ultramarathon was being held today and along part of its route it went from Bergün to Kesch just like us. Arrival time for the leaders at Kesch was projected to be aroun 11:20, so by setting off early I hoped to minimize the number of ultramarathoners we would inconvenience.
And this turned out to be a good decision -- something like 40 or 50 passed us on the trail, but in total I think that well over a thousand ran by the Kesch hut during the afternoon. Impressive... the total distance for the ultramarathon was over 70km and almost 3000m of altitude gained and lost along the round-trip route from/to Davos, and the Kesch hut was around km 54, yet most of them seemed to be in good shape when they arrived... and yes, now that you mention it, they did seem to be fitter than we are :-).
Millie again marched out ahead, complaining from time to time of various ailments (ankles, knees, hips) but walking faster than the rest of us despite these obviously unbearable pains ;-). Oliver's achilles tendon had recovered overnight, as had Russell's back, so it was a pleasant hike for us all.
The hut was a modern building with standard bunkrooms... fortunately we got a fairly small room, with just two other people, neither of whom snored particularly loudly. Around dinner time a violent thunderstorm swept through -- rapid-fire lightning bolts, sheets of rain, visibility near zero... very impressive and we were glad that we have thus far been lucky enough to not experience a mountain thunderstorm while on the trails. In fact, until that point we had been rained on for only about half an hour over the 9 days of hiking so far (you'll remember that we skipped the stage to Savognin because of thunderstorms... and would have been caught in one otherwise).
Morale was high (as were we -- the hut's at 2630m), we had congenial dinner table companions (Norbert and Elizabeth, Swiss, a chemist and a sports teacher from WInterthur), and the food, while not brilliant, was ample and hearty. Another good day.
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