Another Section of the Via Sbrinz Trail, from Jochpass to Engelberg

Friday August 14, 2026 -- Weather forecast shows that we are finally going to have some lower temperatures in the coming week, with hopefully some rain, and this Friday was a last spectacular, sunny and cloud-free day, and even though temperatures were expected into the 30's again, I didn't want to waste the opportunity to head back into the mountains.

There is a 115-km themed trail called "Via Sbrinz" which follows the medieval trade route from Inner Switzerland to northern Italy. Among other goods, the unique Swiss cheese called "Sbrinz" was a favourite of Pope Klemens the VIII, and is the highlight of this particular trail. 

We have done many sections of this trail, but one main missing part for me was at the start, the section between Engelberg and the Jochpass, a route that many people do hiking uphill, although I preferred to do it downhill. Which was my choice of hike for this day, and certainly better going downhill, as about 20 people passed me at various places going uphill and simply dripping sweat.

Surprisingly, it was warmer at the Pass when I got there at 9:30 a.m., than it was when I reached the lower parts of the trail (Trübsee and Engelberg), but often along the way I had a cool breeze. With lots of fantastic views (including the summit of Mt.Titlis), it was a successful outing, except that I only discovered later that had I taken a small detour, I would have come past a mountain dairy which produces this popular Sbrinz Cheese, which I had been planning to purchase along the way anyway, but missed out on making this themed walk pure perfection.

PART I: Early Morning Travel to Engelberg

For a few weeks in July and August, there was construction on the railway line between Küssnacht and Luzern, so the journey had to be done by bus, which was not bad at all. Especially as you get different views of Mt.Pilatus from the front seat of the bus than from the side window of the train!. 

Having left home early again (just before 6:30 a.m.) to beat the daily crowds, there is nice morning lighting on the Bernese Alps as the bus heads to Luzern. 

Morning sunshine on the summit of Mt.Pilatus

The bus drives along the lake promenade into Luzern. Note the palm trees!

The bus crosses the bridge toward the train station, where I take the 7:10 train to Engelberg. In all, it's a 90-minute trip for me to get there. The day is looking great!

Arriving in Engelberg just before 8 a.m.... (A 90-minute trip from home). The town and valley bottom are still in full shadow! (For now, there is only an hourly service from Luzern to Engelberg, but they are building a new "passing lane" so that the trains can run every half hour soon.) 

PART II: Getting to the Joch Pass via Lake Trüb (Trübsee).

It's about a 5-minute walk from the train station in Engelberg to the Titlis cable-way. I was wearing shorts as it was going to be another hot day, but here in the shadows it was quite cold! The first cable-car run is at 8:30, so I have plenty of time. 

The sun is just coming around the peaks to the east.... The parking lot is empty, but that will change soon!

I got to the Titlis station at just after 8 a.m., but operation for the public starts only at 8:30. Before that, they have to bring all the garbage down from the hotels higher up, so I and a handful of others watched the unloading. (Technically, I think we were supposed to wait in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, but somehow we made it up to the loading hall, and thus were the first to get onto the gondolas!

As the gondola cable-car starts on its way up toward Trübsee at exactly 8:30, nice morning views to the western end of the town, to the reservoir lake called Eugenisee. It was so nice to have only one other stranger in the gondola with me, and he didn't feel the need to chat!

In the meantime, there are already more cars in the parking lot!

The gondola crosses a large upper clearing, where the cows are grazing below. Straight ahead you can see the buildings at the Trübsee middle station. Tourists will continue from there to the Titlis cable-car, and hikers get out to hike up to the Jochpass (or head over the chairlift, as I did).

View across this lovely upper plateau. 

View back over the high plateau shortly before reaching the cable-car station. 

View from the top of the cable-car station / Hotel at Trübsee station. 

From here it is a 15-minute walk to the chairlift which goes up to the Joch Pass and Gasthaus up at about where the arrow is. To hike up to the Joch Pass from here is 90 minutes, and there were quite a few people doing that, but it would have been quite a hot ascent. 

Since I am hiking alone, I have to find places to put my small flexible tripod so I can be on a couple of my own photos! Heading out now to the trail along Lake Trübsee toward the chair lift which you can see at the far back with masts on the right on the other side of the lake. 

An easy 15-minute walk along the south side of Lake Trüb (Trübsee) to the place at the arrow. To my dismay, there was construction going on at the restaurant / Gasthaus there, and the sound of the drill/hammer was very loud. (I had to endure some of the noise on the hike back down to there as well). 

Looking north across Lake Trübsee as I make my way to the Jochpass chair lift. 

Following this canal, you can apparently do a round-tour hike to some waterfalls, which come down from the Titlis Glacier, which you can see from here to the south. 

I got to the chair lift station at exactly 9 a.m. when this one starts operation. There were six people already waiting, and they rode ahead of me in pairs, and then I got to ride all by myself. That's the best!

From the chair lift I can look down at one of the many mountain-bike trails in this region. 

Enjoying the chair lift ride to the Joch Pass. It's about a 10-minute ride. 

By 9:20 I was up at the summit station. (For some reason the lift stopped along the way for several minutes, probably because they had to load something at the bottom). It was surprisingly hot already up here this early in the morning. 

Before starting on my hike back down toward Lake Trübsee, I did a detour in the other direction, toward the Engstlenalp with a view onto Lake Engstlensee. In September 2016 we had done a hike starting here at Joch Pass (having also taken the chair lift up), down to Engstlenalp and then continuing over past two more lakes to Melchsee-Frutt to the west, all part of a popular hike called the "Four-Lakes Hike". 

Back near the station again I start on my hike at 9:40, with a three-hour descent to Engelberg ahead of me. (And an hour to Lake Trübsee). I am following the themed trail no.40: "ViaSbrinz"

From our hiking app, a description of the ViaSbrinz Trail, of which we have done several sections. (We have crossed the Grimsel Pass but have not done the Italian part over the Gries Pass). 

OK, so not starting right away. I was hungry and found this convenient view bench right at the start, and had a snack first... then started the actual hike at 10 a.m.! This is the view to the Trübsee. Once I reach it, I will walk past the north end and then down the hill to the left. 

From my bench I also see the summit station of the Jochpass chair lift, as well as the Jochpass Hotel. And a few remaining patches of glaciers that were definitely larger when we were here 10 years ago. 

There's not much left of the Joch Glacier.... 

PART III: Hike down from Joch Pass to Engelberg

Starting the actual hike at 10 a.m., it was a descent of 1300 meters to Engelberg. Including the walk from the train station to the cable-car, and from the Gondola to the Chair lift, this was a hike of at least 3½ hours and at least 11 km. I got back to the Engelberg train station at about 1:45 p.m.  

Still some colour up here. (Side note: I chose to do this hike now in August, before the entire landscape becomes brown, which might happen soon because of the unending heat...). 

Down below we can see the mid-station of the Titlisbahn, where I had walked from to the west side of Lake Trübsee. 

I was the only person who was doing this hike downhill. At least a dozen people (or more) passed me going uphill, and they were sweating... but that is part of the popular Four-Lakes Hike, to start at Lake Trübsee and to walk up, not to take the chairlift as I did. 

Views from the trail down to Lake Trübsee. 

On the left you can see the construction site at the hotel/restaurant. For at least half of the hour-long descent I had the noise of the construction, mixed with cow bells, and alphorn music being played somewhere. (I am not fond of Alphorn music, it is one of the most tedious melodies to listen to for longer periods, and honestly, I preferred the sounds of construction.....)

By 10:50 I was back down at the lake, so made it here faster than the way-markers stated. (I also stopped at the WC at the chairlift station to wash up, as even I was sweating from the downhill hike!)

Next section is this wider trail on the west side of the lake heading north, and surprisingly it was cooler here than at the pass, as a light breeze was blowing. 

It was such an idyllic scene, those boats on the lake!

And then there were these heifers, just coming down from somewhere.... 

I guess it was siesta time... 

Sharing the trail with the cows. At the far north end of the lake there were surprisingly many people coming my way, and I couldn't imagine they had walked up from Engelberg.... but then I discovered there is a cable car slightly further up ahead. 

The ViaSbrinz Trail is actually further down on the left on this stretch, but a higher detour is always better, and this footpath was much nicer. I will rejoin the ViaSbrinz after the cable-car station. 

A look behind me to Mt.Titlis

Close-up look at the Titlis Glacier and the current construction site up there. I have never been on that summit, and probably won't ever go, as there are masses of tourists that make that excursion part of their visit to Switzerland. (Which I understand for people who have never seen snow).

Up ahead now I can see the cable-car station, which I had not been aware of. In fact, I only realized it was a cable-car because I had seen the little blue cabin in the middle of the landscape.

This site is called Aelplerseil, and the little cable-car runs down to the Untertrübsee Alp. That's probably where all those people came up from, using this cable car! Another one we have yet to try out. 

From past the cable-car station, a look down the valley where I am headed next (luckily not along the road that you can see from here, but rather on this side of the river). 

Leaving the sound of the construction behind me at Lake Trübsee, the next annoying noise that I had to endure for about 30 minutes at least was a leaf blower. It took me a while to figure out where the sound was coming from..... amazing how the farmers mow and harvest the grass on these steep mountainsides, so the leaf-blower makes their work easier, which is more important than my comfort.... 

This was the only section I didn't like, a wide gravelly road with the most annoying slope... 

And way up above me, the Untertrübsee cable-car is making its way down again!

It's at this point where I should have taken a detour to the left. The sign advertises an offering of a variety of cheeses and cold beverages, which is what I was actually looking for, as I wanted to buy some Sbrinz Cheese. But the detour was on a paved road... and I thought this might be just a small honesty shop. Later I discovered it was an actual cheese dairy called Untertrübsee, which actually produces the cheese and you can have a look at where it's done! (We'll just have to come back). 

The direct trail down (i.e. not via the Untertrübsee Cheese Dairy) leads directly to the Untertrübsee Restaurant. After that, down toward the left. 

A look behind me to the Untertrübsee Restaurant. 

With 30 minutes to go to get to the train station at Engelberg, I found this bench at 12:40 (train leaves at 2 minutes past the hour) and took a long break here, as I wouldn't make the 13:02 train anyway. It was perfectly lovely here, cool and with views. (In retrospect, I would have had plenty of time for the detour to the Untertrübsee Cheese Dairy!)

In particular, from the bench I could see Mt. Titlis

Zoomed view of the Titlis Glacier and the tower. There has been construction going on up there for quite a while. 

After a 25-minute break, I continued on my way down towards Engelberg. First through forest, then with this spectacular view over the town. 

Zoomed view of the Engelberg Monastery, where they also originally produced cheese, but there is no longer an operation there. (The shop that sells local cheeses is still located there). 

Mountain farm above Engelberg. 

What a beautiful (new?) construction, with a "fish-scale" siding (a lot of work). I love the sliding window "shutters".

Final stretch now along this path down to the Titlis Cable Car station, and then returning the same way to the train station, as I had done first thing in the morning. 

Passing by the little reservoir lake called Eugenisee. 

Crossing the bridge over the Engelberger Aa River, heading toward the train station. The view is to the west, down-river. 

Far to the east loom the Spannort Peaks (Large and Small). At their base is the Surenen Valley leading up to the Surenen Pass, part of the popular Via Alpina Trail. 

And now at 1:45 p.m., the same view I had when I started here at 8 a.m., when all was still in shadow! (I had to wait 15 minutes at the Engelberg train station for the 14:02 train back to Luzern and ultimately a 90-minute trip back home). 

Having gotten to Engelberg at 8 a.m., first a walk to the Titlis Cable-car station, then a ride to Trübsee, 15-minute walk to the chair lift, I reached the Joch Pass at 9:20, started my hike downhill at 10 a.m. and getting back to the Engelberg train station at 1:45 p.m. 

These are all the hikes we have done in the region around Engelberg, Joch Pass and the Melch Valley. 

Location of Engelberg within Switzerland. 

And once again, the bus ride back to Küssnacht from Luzern, with a view I never get tired of (Küssnacht arm of Lake Luzern with the Nidwalden Alps in the background).