And then it was my birthday! 

And after such a beautiful weekend at the Doldenhornhutte, as well as way too much of Lyells terrific carrot cake, we decided to head for the hills above Lenk and Gstaad for a double overnight hut-to-hut trip.  It all started off innocently enough with a nice walk up from Lenk to the Wildhornhutte.

We got there right in time for dinner, had a great sleep...

...and headed off for the Geltenhutte the next morning.

We had only started off, and the weather was already coming in.

Then the rain, which we had been hiking in for several hours, turned to snow.

And by the time we got to the sign listing 1Std. 20Min. more to the Geltenhutte (this means it takes your average Swiss grandmother 1 hour and 20 minutes to walk the path - for us, add another hour!), we were soaked through, cold, tired, hungry...doesnt Lyells expression say it all?

But after a couple more hours of icy climbing, we arrived at the Geltenhutte.  Or should I say the glorious Geltenhutte?  It is possible that Lyell's expression again captures it all.

Except that this particular hutte has a little micro-hydro generator that makes power from the river that runs through the valley.  And they use this power to run a dehumidifier. So what you do is take off all that clothes that youve soaked through, your pack, your boots, hang it all up in their front room, switch on the dehumifier, and...well...you get an expression like Teris below.

It continued to flurry throughout the evening, and so in addition to waking up to find a good dusting, we also were greeted by some local yaks. The fence in the foreground is right at the edge of the hutte!

But armed with freshly dried clothes, Lyell was ready to go!

The snow made for a very picturesque, and a very slippery hike out of the Gelten and back down to Gstaad.

Teri, as usual, was brought to "Sound of Music".  The hills are definitely alive!

There was a waterfall that cascaded over the trail at one point. The only upside of the cold and the snow was that we didnt need to stop for an hour while the boys dammed the resulting river.  Just a quick photo.

And when its done - all is well that ends with a smile.

Which is good.  And that fact that you can get a smile even after a climbing weekend in the sleet/snow means...that it was good?  That we are crazy?  You decide.

Oh - by the way - if you have a) gotten this far, and b) gotten our Christmas card, it should be pretty evident where the 2011 Read family photo was taken.  Merry merry!