In the words of travel writer Rick Steves, “If Heaven isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, send me back to Gimmelwald.” I spent four days in this area last summer hiking and sketching; it felt like an isolated paradise floating above the rest of the world. One always had a sense of the height of the place, always a glimpse of the drop off to the valley below.
One of my favorite aspects of the visit was that we would hike miles up into the Alps and then come across a working farm that also served food and beverages to hikers. It was my own little alpine Starbucks nestled into the green hills. The little cheese farm that we had coffee at the morning I worked on this sketch is located just behind me in the photo. The day before, we hiked to Rotstockhutte, a hostel-type place that also served food to day hikers, and had some coffee, tea, and fresh pie. As we walked away, we were debating how they got their supplies, and just then we saw a helicopter flying in supplies-looked to be kegs of beer from where we were standing!