Hike to the Summit of Mt. Stanserhorn (Starting at Diegisbalm/Oberalp Farm)

Wednesday November 18, 2020 -- More nice weather, another chance to get into the mountains! We decided to walk up Mt. Stanserhorn near Lake Lucerne (Canton Nidwalden) on its "shorter side", namely from the populated upper plateau around Wirzweli, which saves us about 800m ascent as Wirzweli can be reached by cable car from Dallenwil in the Engelberg Valley. (NOTE: Real hikers ascend this mountain from the North side, a 1400-m ascent which is too much for me!). 

Now, the problem was that the cable car to Wirzweli is currently in overhaul, pretty common for cable cars in the month of November. But, a lesser-known combination of two private cable-cars serving two farms nearby would take us to 900m above the valley bottom, and these are part of the inventory of farmers' cable cars which we still had yet to try out, so we got up in a round-about way. Furthermore, these cable cars run all year round and you operate them yourself and pay into a cash box at the top: So much more fun that way!

The drawback was, that we had to walk 30 minutes from Wolfenschiessen in the shade of valley bottom as there is no closer public transport. Advantage: No other people far and wide doing this! (Full packed train of people all headed onwards to Engelberg!!). And we soon reached the sunshine on the upper hillside, where we encountered almost nobody for the first two hours of the 3 hours and 30 minutes it took until we reached the restaurant at the top of Mt. Stanserhorn! The final stretch, the 350m steep uphill climb on a wet clay trail (with surprisingly many people descending....) was a tough one. Our plan was to order our signature Panaché at the restaurant and enjoy the sun and the view.... until we saw the masses of people on the terrace and all those already waiting to descend with the CabriO Cable Car! Oh horror, we weren't staying here. We lucked out that we could move ahead for a spot on the descent because we promised to walk the final 40 minutes to Stans from the mid-station, as there is not enough room on the funicular for all the people descending on the world's only double-decker open-topped cable car....

Heading by train along the Engelberg Valley Bottom toward Wolfenschiessen, from where we have to walk 30 minutes to the cable car. Still very shady here, although there is sunshine where we are going along this hillside

After crossing the Engelberg Aa River, some welcome sunshine before it gets cold again! We are headed down this road.

Still, some nice farm houses to look at.

At this time of year, it's cold in the shade. We walked quickly!

This little "shed" is the resting spot of the Diegisbalm cable car. Mostly it services the farm up on the hillside to the right. Paragliders are the main customers here!

Reading the instructions: We can get in the cabin, press the "go up" button, and pay at the top. There are actually two cableways; another one starts at the farm where this one ends.

Down below is the little shed. Far and wide only farms. No bus nearby, so it's a 30-minute walk to the nearest train station. The river is called the "Engelberg Aa"

Heading up to the Diegisbalm Farm, with a look up the Engelberg Valley. Maybe about 30 minutes later there might be sunshine below.

At the top of the first cable car. Someone came up behind us, and I barely had time to pose for my photo before our cabin started back down!

On the other side of the Diegisbalm farm is the second cable car, takes us to the next farm higher up called "Oberalp". Altogether 900m above the valley bottom

We think the farmers who live here came up directly behind us. The signal for the cabin descent went off before we had even fully exited the cable car!

Oberalp cable car heading back down to Diegisbalm farm

At the top there is the price list, and you drop your money into the cash box. Then you step out of the "shed" right into the "vehicle garage"!

A nice look across into the side valley where it goes to Oberrickenbach. There are several cable cars in there, some small private ones as well. Lots of sunshine here!

After riding the two cable cars to Oberalp, we still had a steep 30-minute climb, and then a comfortable walk to the crest at Aecherli, then an easy uphill before the final, one-hour climb to the restaurant on Mt. Stanserhorn. (The Wirzweli cable car was closed for revision, otherwise we would have come up with that one, plus Gummenalp. That would have been the least amount of ascent.)

Heading steep uphill above the Oberalp Farm. The second private cable car belongs to these people, who farm up here, and possibly live here year-round.

A look to the South along the mountain flank. There is a trail along the ridge, called the Obwaldner/Nidwaldner Höhenweg. (We walked a section a few weeks ago, just to the South of here)

First steep section is over, and now it's pretty easy-going for a while, with good views!

Arriving at the road on the high alp called "Egg". We're going to head down that road to the right. It was warm enough on this side for bare legs!

And now, ahead of us to the North, we can see the summit of Mt.Stanserhorn, and can see approximately where we are going to walk.

A view down to the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake Lucerne) and behind it: Mt. Rigi. On the right is Mt. Buochserhorn, and we have been to that summit once before.

There is a cheese dairy along the trail, so we bought some cheese again (self-serve on honor principle)

Part of the hard work for the mountain farmers here is removing large boulders from the pastures, to make it easier to harvest the hay. They had to bring in a tractors and ropes to secure the boulder so it wouldn't roll on the dairy below!

Up ahead on the steep flank is a chapel overlooking the valley to the West. We've planned a short detour to see the view from there.

Route 88 is the "Nidwaldner Höhenweg", and Route 57 is the "Obwaldner Höhenweg" (The trail is along the border of the two Cantons). And the sign tells us we still have 1 hour 40 minutes to get to the Stanserhorn cableway!

Walking along the crest between the two valleys, this is a look westward to the Sarner Aa Valley and the flanks of Mt. Pilatus

Detour to the chapel

A view up the Sarner Aa Valley and Lake Sarnersee, from the chapel, perched on a steep mountainside.

Zoomed view into the Bernese Alps, although I don't know what this peak is. 

A wonderful view past the village of Wirzweli to Mt. Titlis above Engelberg.

What a surprise to discover a meadow flower still in bloom

Behind that little house starts the final steep ascent to the top of Mt. Stanserhorn.

The first half hour of the ascent was in the shadow of the mountain, and the trail was wet clay, rather slippery. (We were surprised at the number of people that were actually making their way DOWN this trail). Later, at the saddle, we had lots of sunshine again.

Making our way up the slippery trail

Once we reached the saddle and the sunshine, we had another superb view up the Sarner Aa Valley.

The last stretch was lovely, on dry trails and in the sunshine. (Town of Wirzweli in the center of the photo)

From here we can see the place where we came over from the cable cars, and the open clearing below where we passed before ascending.

A set of stairs takes you to the loop trail around the summit of Mt. Stanserhorn, a nice walk for people who come up from the North side with the popular Cabrio Cable Car, and who just want to enjoy the sunshine and the views, and an easy stroll.

We had planned a relaxing drink on the view terrace, but were overwhelmed by the crowd up here, so we walked around the restaurant to see the view, and then headed down with the Cabrio.

Can't blame the crowds for wanting to come up here to enjoy the sunshine and view on a beautiful mid-November Wednesday

On the North side of the restaurant is this spectacular view over the entire Luzern area, with the town of Stans below in the shadow of the mountain. The world-famous Cabrio Cable Car is making its way up with another load of people.

Cabrio: The world's first and only open-air double-decker cable car. The cabin carries 48 people, but the connecting funicular (section at the bottom which takes you into Stans) can only carry 36. So we were allowed to pass the queued throngs and take the next car down, because we promised to walk instead of riding the funicular (another 40 minutes of walking).

At the base station of the Cabrio Cable-way, 36 people got on the funicular, and the rest of us walked the 2.5-km down into the town of Stans.

The nostalgic funicular commutes between Stans and the Cable-Car station. They were running every 15 minutes with these crowds. Our trail down was mostly along this railway line. 

Our final section was mostly in the shadow of Mt. Stanserhorn, but with a nice view of Lake Luzern and the town of Stansstad... lots of sunshine there still!

Including the two sections we had to walk at the start and the end (before and after the cable cars), it was a total of 4.5 hours of walking.

Our tour as viewed on Google Earth Satellite Map

We  love this area for hiking. There are lots of small private cable cars that take you up high in the mountains. It's also relatively close to where we live.