11 gays 1 hut

Back in mid-August something truly miraculous happened: we (mostly Matt) managed to coordinate 11 gays to all do an overnight at a mountain cabin with only two weeks notice.

By Swiss standards that's effectively last minute. By gay standards, it's also impossible to plan anything, especially with so many people, on a summer weekend. But somehow it all worked out with us getting the final headcount just two days before. 

Day 1

We would be staying at Sustlihütte in Sustenpass. The postbus only goes down this pass three times a day, and we had people coming from multiple cantons. In order to make it easier for everyone, we kept the first day pretty short, especially because it would have a decent amount of steep elevation gain, and some members of our horde were not the strongest hikers.

The weather was also not great. Due to the shitty light, I shot HP5+ at 800 with a yellow filter. Unfortunately, this was before I learned that the AP film spirals I was using could damage my negatives, especially film with thicker bases like HP5 Plus. This was actually the trigger for me finally posting on R*ddit about this issue and finding others who had suffered similarly.

Anyways here are the pics. I shot all of these on my "new" Leica M7 with the 28mm ultron

We finally made it up to the hütte and got settled in. After some food and games we all crashed pretty early.

Day 2

Nobody slept that well (quite a few snorers, definitely not me though!). The climb and the wet and the lack of sleep were paid off the next morning with the best possible weather.

After some breakfast, we got out and hiked all the way to Wassen. The route included a decent chunk of my favorite flavor of wanderweg: a high elevation, but mostly flat 'highway' with absolutely banger views.

The aesthetic light leaks came from Pierre's Canonet QL17 which he kept dropping and causing the back to pop open.

I had a roll of Lomo 800 in the Leica M7. Pretty much every shot hit, but how could it not?

We then had to leave the highway and make it down into the valley. Matt claimed we could stay at our current elevation via the routes across the bowl ahead of us, but we couldn't find anything documented and didn't want to take the risk.

A few people got injured on the way down to the valley, it was that steep.

We made it to Wassen without anyone getting more injured, and all made it back home to our various cantons.

My only regret was not bringing a flash. I think it could have worked well, especially on the really dim first day and in the hütte.

I don't know if we'll ever manage 11 people again, but I'm looking forward to trying next year! The two-day Greina tour is still at the top of my list, and would be easy enough for everyone who joined this round.