Loop Hike in Braunwald above the Linthal Valley

Thursday October 24, 2024 -- At this time of year, the lowlands with lakes in the northern part of the country are covered in thick fog. Above the fog is usually sunny, but to escape to those altitudes means using the Post Buses (no longer running into the mountains) or cable cars, which are often already closed for revision at this time of year.

The Braunwald cableways in the Linthal Valley in Canton Glarus were still running until October 28th, and as the weather forecast was for sunny weather there, I decided to do another hike on my own. Even though we have been here many times already, it has been almost 10 years that we walked the Panorama Trail there, and so I figured it was time to walk there again.

As it turns out, I changed plans and walked new mountain trails which we had not done before, which was also a pretty nice walk, except that by the time I got there, the skies became very overcast, and now the prediction was even for possible rain. But I kept to the plan, and even sat in a mountain restaurant and ate French Fries while waiting for a possible clearing of the skies, which then did happen to some extent, but unfortunately the view of the Sardona peaks was marred by the low clouds there. 

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the walk, even if the final stretch was in the shadow of the mountains, and I missed the funicular for the descent into the valley bottom by only four minutes (I had to wait half an hour then). The fall colours were especially pretty, although hard to photograph. 

(When we had been here in 2015, the landscape was "browner", but the air was clearer. Those photos are HERE. That year we had a long Indian Summer and did the hike here on November 7th as the cable-cars were running longer due to the lovely weather, and even came back three days later to walk to the Oberblegisee).  

First you have to take the funicular from the valley bottom to the motor-vehicle-free mountain village of Braunwald. This view from the summit station of the funicular is up the Linth Valley (Linthal). Before I got here, there was high fog with pure sunshine above the fog, but now the fog has dissipated, and the sky is overcast. It is now 11:30 a.m.

First I had a 15-minute walk (840 meters) to the cable-car station. The main mountain here is called the Ortstock. (Side note, in July of 2022 we hiked over the pass between Mt.Ortstock and the cone-shaped peak to its right side. Those photos are worth looking at HERE, as we had much better weather then!)

There weren't very many people using the cable-car this day, so I had one of the cabins to myself, luckily! This one is called the Grotzenbühl cableway (runs ever 30 minutes), one of two popular cable-cars here, the other one being a gondola cable-car to Gumen, where I had something to eat at the restaurant there later. 

The Grotzenbühl summit station is where I started on my hike at 12:10. There is a restaurant here. It is also the start of the popular Panorama Loop Hike.

The view East to the Glarus Alps at 12:06 p.m. There is just the smallest amount of sunshine. 

And this was the view up the Linth Valley. There is a bit of sunshine on one of the clearings to the south. 

The popular Panorama Tour is the green-marked one with number 816. Originally I was going to walk that one again, but I decided to hike up a different way to the upper trail, and descend all the way back to the funicular station at Gumen, on a trail we had never done before. I started shortly after noon, and got back to the funicular at 16:35, having just missed the half-hourly run by five minutes. I spent almost an hour at the Gumen restaurant waiting for the weather to improve. Along with the 15 minutes I had to walk to the cable-car station, this was a 10+ kilometer hike, and about 3½ hours 

Heading up the mountain trail now, with views up the Linth Valley. Once in a while the sun came through, and it looked pretty nice, even with the overcast skies. 

Another beautiful mountain which we have rarely seen against blue skies is the distinctive table-top peak called Mt.Tödi, somewhat visible this day even with the overcast skies.  

There were three other people heading up the same trail I had chosen. I passed them along the way. 

Another look into the Glarus Alps (this is the UNESCO Sardona Region) as I head up to the ridge called Seeblengrat. There is a hiking trail up that valley and over a pass called the Richetlipass, where you then descend to Elm in the Sernf Valley. This hike is a bit too much for us, as there is no bus into this valley, so that we could start higher up. 

The mountain covered by the low, thick clouds is Mt. Hausstock, the dominant mountain at the back of the Sernf Valley, which we saw so well on a recent hike there (photos are HERE). Back in 2015 when we walked this Panorama Trail, we had a perfect view of Mt. Hausstock --> here is a photo from that 2015 album: HERE

I got to the ridge (Seeblengrat) at 12:50 (it took me only 40 minutes to hike up the 290 meters to the ridge) where I got this view on the other side to the north, to the Oberblegisee Lake (which we also walked to in autumn of 2015). 

More of a close-up look at Lake Oberblegisee and into the Linth Valley to the north of where I am standing on the ridge. 

A look down now at the mountainside which I just hiked up, and again into the south part of the Linth Valley. 

From here I joined the Panorama Trail which I followed to the restaurant and summit station of the Gumen cable-way. The trail goes through a long tunnel here. 

A section of tunnel along the trail

After exiting the tunnel, I could see that the sky to the northeast was clearing, although here it remained overcast. After studying maps later, we determined that the interesting peak on the right is called the Spitzmeilen. 

That unassuming building is the Gumen Restaurant, which fortunately was still open, so I could go in and warm up as it was getting quite cold without the sunshine here. (I assume it would remain open as long as the cableway is in operation, which is for another three days until Oct.28th). 

I got to the Gumen Restaurant at 13:20 and studied the mountain panorama for a bit. 

A close-up view of the Tschingelhorn mountains, which form the east side of the Sernf Valley at Elm to the east, but I can't see the Martin's Hole from here. At least I got a little bit of mountain view. 

After spending about an hour in the Gumen Restaurant with a plate of French Fries and coffee, the skies cleared up here so I continued on my walk at 2:20 p.m. 

Below toward the back of the Linth Valley, the sky is still overcast, but some sunshine is coming through!

When I am on my own, I have to find good places to set up a tripod! This is a nice view of the restaurant and the summit station of the gondola cable-way at Gumen, with the fascinating cliffs as the backdrop. From here the Panorama Trail actually continues as a high trail, but I descended onto lower trails from here. 

A look back above me to the Gumen summit station as I head down the mountain again. On this side, the sky is wonderfully blue. 

Heading down the mountain via a couple of small hamlets along the way. This set of farm buildings is called Eggböden Oberstafel. 

Looking back up to the Gumen Restaurant (upper right) past the buildings at the Oberstafel farm. These were nice dry trails to walk on. 

Now quite a bit further on, I reached a hostel called Ortstockhaus, and had another nice look northwards at the trail I descended from Gumen. 

From Ortstockhaus, the trail continues down the mountain to the south. 

To the south, the sun is just shining a bit on the high plateau called Rietalp, where we also once walked across in October 2018 (photos HERE) 

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Below the Ortstockhaus hostel is the other trail directly back to the Grotzenbühl station. This is the trail we took on our 2015 hike, as the Panorama Trail also passes through here. (See the photos HERE)

A look back at the Orstockhaus Hostel as I continue down the mountain. 

And in that little clearing down below is a farm with a restaurant called Nüssbühl, where we walked to twice on winter walks in 2014. 

Now I come to another set of farm buildings, also called Oberstafel (Bräch Oberstafel), but lower down on the mountain. We also passed through this farm on our October 2018 hike via Rietalp (having also started from the Grotzenbühl cable car, but hiking up to here directly). 

At this point I have shadow from Mount Ortstock to the south, and the rest of the hike back down to the funicular station was in shadow as well, but it was not cold at this point. 

Final flat stretch before I head down toward the funicular station. The late afternoon sun is shining nicely now on the mountains on the east side of the Linth Valley. 

From here I descended a steep zigzag trail, strewn with fallen leaves so I had to be careful not to slip, and all in shadow. But the view to the other side of the valley was increasingly beautiful, with sunshine making the fall colours stand out. 

The trail was full of leaves so I had to watch not to slip. Urs doesn't like this kind of trail so much!

I could make out the road that I was going to take to get back to the funicular station, but it was still a long way from there!

A close-up view of the two cable-car stations. On the right at the front is the gondola going up to the Gumen Restaurant (you can see the gondolas are still in operation). 

Heading back along the road to the Braunwald Funicular, with a final look at the cliffs behind the Gumen Alp. As it's already 16:20, the sun is behind Mt. Ortstock and here we are in the shadow of the mountain. (Also, there were clouds behind the mountain, also blocking the sunshine).

A single larch tree here, turning yellow. The yellow larches in some parts of Switzerland are a real spectacle to behold at this time of year, especially in Cantons Graubünden and Wallis in the south. 

Now that I am heading down from Braunwald (after having missed the 16:30 funicular and having to wait 30 minutes), the clouds have finally cleared from the mountain peaks to the East. 

These are all the hikes we have done in the Braunwald area. (Unfortunately the satellite images were taken when we had snow here, but long gone already). The light pink is the route I followed this day, and the two dark-pink trails are hikes we did in 2015. 

From the base station of the funicular we had to take a bus partway out of the valley to Schwanden (even though there is a train station there, but at this time there was no train connection). This is the view back down the valley from the bus window. 

The forests here are all nicely coloured now!

Passing the church in Betschwanden, which we don't usually see from the train. In the back the sun is shining on the Glärnisch Massif

Close-up of the Glärnisch Massif

And a final look to the back of the Linth Valley as we cross the Linth River in Haslen at 5:20 p.m. I was home by 7:15 p.m. 

Location of Braunwald within Switzerland. 

This is what the Webcam at Gumen was showing at 9 a.m. as I was leaving home to head out this way. The weather forecast was also showing pretty much pure sunshine for the whole day here. It takes 2½ hours from home by public transit to get here, and I was sure I'd have sunshine for the four hours I would be walking here this day. 

This is how I monitored the weather forecast as the day wore on! The sections between the moons show 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. / 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. / 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The evening before, it was showing all three suns with small clouds (this means "mainly sunny"). By the time I got to Braunwald at 11:30 a.m. it was overcast, so the "forecast" changed every half hour or so to match the actual weather, even indicating it might rain, which it fortunately did not.