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A raw account of solo hiking in the Swiss Alps that trades Instagram perfection for reality: bleeding elbows, shattered phone screens, and the messy but meaningful practice of annual solo trips for self-reconnection.
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TLDR
• Annual solo trips as intentional practice (4+ years running)—not for content, but for reconnecting with yourself away from daily life
• Adapting to reality: choosing easier trails when you've lost your "hiking legs," pivoting when weather kills visibility, listening to your body's soreness
• The honest middle ground between adventure and disaster: celebrating a work promotion in the Alps while also slipping on rocks and breaking your phone screen
• Why she went: missing Seattle's mountains/lakes while living in flat London, plus marking a career milestone with something meaningful
In Detail
This is a video diary of a spontaneous three-day hiking trip to Appenzell, Switzerland, motivated by homesickness for Pacific Northwest landscapes and celebrating a work promotion. The creator has maintained an annual solo trip practice for four years, viewing it as essential self-reconnection time. She's explicit about the practical constraints: living in flat London makes it hard to maintain hiking fitness, so she deliberately chooses descent-focused trails on day one to rebuild stamina for the full three days.
The trip unfolds with both beauty and mishaps. Day one delivers the postcard moments—ridge lines, a famous mountain hut, swimming in Seealpsee lake. Day two brings thick cloud cover, forcing a pivot from planned hiking to wandering Zurich instead. The trip's defining moment comes when she slips on rocks, bleeding heavily and shattering her phone screen through the protector, landing on an elbow she's had surgery on before. Her response is remarkably measured: check for serious injury, bandage up, acknowledge the deep bruise coming, and continue the day because "life happens."
What makes this notable is the anti-highlight-reel honesty. She shows the decision-making process of solo travel: checking webcams for cloud cover at 1pm, wandering aimlessly because there's nowhere to sit and read in town, booking an Apple Store appointment in Zurich because screen repairs are cheaper there than London. The value isn't in perfect execution or Instagram moments—it's in the practice of showing up for yourself annually, adapting to conditions, and finding meaning even when your phone is cracked and your elbow is bleeding.