Hiking along the Schwyzer Höhenweg on the East side of Mt. Mythen

Sunday October 23, 2022 -- Not wanting to travel far today, we settled on a 3.5-hour hike along the "Schwyzer Höhenweg" (Schwyz High Trail), covering a small section of Stage No.5 between Mythen Mountains and Einsiedeln. (The entire panorama trail is 65 kilometers long encompassing the regions of Mt. Rigi and the Mythen Mountains in Canton Schwyz.)

The section of trail between the summit station of the Rotenflue Gondola and the city of Einsiedeln takes about 6 hours to walk, something we are not able to do in one stretch. Our main plan was to get to the summit of Mt. Furggelenstock from where you can look into the Alptal Valley to the West and the Hoch-Ybrig mountains to the East. From there, most people descend to the village of Brunni in the Alptal Valley, but we wanted a longer hike, so we continued along the ridge and descended to the village of Alpthal, which gives the valley its name.

Unfortunately we had little sunshine but the air was clear so we had some nice views, although not nearly as nice as if the sky had been blue. Furthermore, the area is a boreal "rain forest" region with lots of peat bogs, and so the ground was pretty muddy and wet. Along the ridge past the Furggelenstock, we didn't get much of a view any more.

Upside is that we did get another 3.5-hour hike done, and were home pretty early, as the trip back took only 90 minutes. AND we spotted a chamois, confidently grazing on the hillside, observing us but not afraid!

On the way by bus from Schwyz Train Station to the Rotenflue cableway. It looks like the clouds might be lifting at this point.

These are the two Mythen mountains seen from the West side. They are the distinctive peaks in this area, recognized from afar

Heading up to the Rotenflue summit station with the gondola cableway. The city of Schwyz (capital city of Canton Schwyz), is on the right.

To the west is Lake Luzern (Vierwaldstättersee), the Rigi Massif on the right, and Mt. Pilatus in the very back.

To our south on the other side of the Muotathal Valley is the upper alpine pasture called Stoos, a popular local skiing area, and the location of the equally popular Fronalpstock/Klingenstock ridge hike. Also, the line that you see on the photo here at the red arrow, that is the Stoos Funicular, completed in 2017 and the steepest funicular in the world.

From the summit station of the Rotenflue gondola cableway (completed in Dec.2014), we first walked down to the Rotenfluh Restaurant to get a better look into the valley

The region north of Schwyz (i.e. where we live!!!) is still covered by fog. Even though we didn't have a lot of sunshine, at least we weren't in the fog.

Panorama view including the south side of the Gross Mythen

The interesting thing about the Gross Mythen is that the red rock on the upper section is older than the rock beneath it, another proof of the earth's thrust millions of years ago. This summit is popular with hikers (you can see the zigzag trail and the restaurant at the top). We did that hike in 2014, unfortunately it was totally in the fog at the time.

Down below on the meadow is a single chamois

The chamois watched us, but knew we were no danger. Plus this whole area is a non-hunting zone, so the animals feel safe.

Taking the longer way to Müsliegg from the Rotenflue station, we rejoined Trail no.63 "Schwyzer Höhenweg" near Müsliegg. From here it's an hour to the summit of Mt. Furggelenstock, the main goal of this hike.

Our 3-1/2 hour hike (11 km) along the "Schwyzer Höhenweg" from Rotenflue. A popular loop hike starts and ends at Brunni, but we didn't want the uphill climb, but needed a longer hike... that's why we descended to Alpthal

A look south at Stoos in the middle and Rotenflue on the right as we hike up to Mt. Furggelenstock

An interesting view to the West, past the pyramid of Righ Hoflue (part of the Rigi Massif) to Mt. Pilatus in the background

We have a fairly clear view of the mountains to the east, but blue skies would be better. Below is the village of Oberiberg, from where we also started a hike once.

We didn't stay long at the summit of the Furggelenstock, as there was no sunshine, and only a cold wind blowing. All the way at the back we could see the peaks of the Uri Alps

Continuing north along the ridge to descend from Mt. Furggelenstock

A popular little mountain restaurant at the Furggelen Alp. Most people descend back into the Alptal Valley from here. We had lunch on the red bench near the barn, and then continued along the ridge

From our lunch bench at the barn (protected from the wind), this is the view we had of the Mythen mountains from the east side. We have hiked along those peaks several times already, including descending to the other side between them.

That's the summit of Mt. Fuggelenstock, from where we descended. On the right is the barn where we sat and had our picnic lunch.

The rest of the hike along the ridge was either full of roots or wet and soggy, without a lot of view

First glimpse of the village of Alpthal below, the end of our hike.

Starting on our 500-m descent to the valley bottom, we had a good laugh at the arrow on the tree indicating that we should follow the trail to the right. Going straight ahead meant a vertical drop.... who would do that?