St. Karl Winter Loop Trail near Ibergeregg in Canton Schwyz

Saturday February 15, 2025 -- A fresh snowfall on Friday means lovely landscapes of snow-covered trees, and weather forecast for sunshine means it's a good day for a winter walk in the mountains.

We didn't want to do a three-hour trip each way into popular ski areas (where there would be no fog, but many people!), but when we got up in the morning, there was surprisingly no fog in our region, so we headed into the Schwyzer Alps close to home, just 90 minutes of travel time for us, to the mountains in the Hoch Ybrig region where there is also "usually" no fog. 

A year earlier we had done two numbered winter trails near the Ibergeregg Pass (No.564 near the pass and no.565 from the Pass to Oberiberg on the north side...those photos are HERE), so our intention was to do a 7-km loop trail on the south side of the pass--called the St.Karl Circuit Trail--on the side of the Muota Valley. The loop was listed as a 2½-hour winter walk with about 300 meters of ascent, so somewhat of a challenge after we hadn't been out for a while. 

The newly snow-covered trees were magnificent, and even though the fresh snow meant the prepared walking trail (which we had difficulties following, as it didn't match with our map and was criss-crossed with several snow-shoe trails) was somewhat soft yet, in all, the conditions were quite good for a winter walk. The most disappointing part is that after only an hour of fabulous clear skies, sunshine and good visibility, the fog moved in. As a result, we didn't complete the loop as planned, and didn't even manage a full 5 kilometers on this day. Nevertheless, we were outside for about three hours, and didn't have to go far to enjoy this. And even though we did have to cross popular ski pistes a couple of times, this is a smaller family-oriented ski hill, and we didn't meet altogether too many people. 

Heading along Lake Zug by train into Arth-Goldau... This is Mout Rigi, looking lovely with fresh snow all the way down to lake level. We actually could have done a walk here at lake level, as there was sunshine and no fog for a change!

At the train station in Schwyz, we changed to a bus, which headed up to the hills in the East. Even though there seem to be wisps of fog, we can even see Lake Luzern and the town of Brunnen at the bend of the lake. This kind of visibility has been rare this winter. 

Looking down to the large valley basin between the city of Schwyz and Mt. Rigi as the bus continues winding up the road toward the Ibergeregg Pass.

The landscape is beautiful

The best part of winter is after a fresh snowfall!

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Gorgeous snow-covered trees

From the bus headed to the Ibergeregg Pass

Views from the bus window

On the way up, we passed two parking lots jam-packed full of cars because there are chair lifts nearby, which skiers can ride up toward the pass, where there are several pistes quite popular with families. 

We got off at the bus stop called Oberberg (a nearby restaurant) from where it is a short walk to join the prepared winter walking trail. The bus was standing room only all the way from Schwyz, because a large group of snow-shoers also came here to the start of this trail. 

A short section of a side road heads toward the Oberberg restaurant and the junction of the walking trail. 

Behind me is the summit of the Great Mythen (Grosser Mythen), with a single restaurant at the very summit. 

Summit of the Grosser Mythen. The red rock here is much older than the lower part of the mountain, indicating that there was a thrust or flip of the Earth's crust at some point in history. 

At about 10:50 we reached the junction of Trail no.561: "St.Karl - Ibergeregg Loop Trail", which we ascended toward the pass. That's when the fog met up with us. On the other side of the pass there was no fog, but we walked that winter trail a year earlier, and didn't want to walk it again. So we descended back to the St.Karl Chapel through thick fog. Had the fog lifted, our plan was to continue to the chair lift in Vorder Oberberg, where we would have ridden down to Illgau. We also tried to follow the pink trail via GPS, but the actual prepared trail was different. 

These are the signs that indicate where the walking trails or the snow-shoe trails head out from. (As it turns out, these were not the same trails on our map, so we just had to figure it out as we went along! Usually there are pink posts along the way, which you can follow).

Several skiers came down what we thought was the walking trail, so we were confused! But we figure they were headed to the Oberberg Restaurant. 

Just behind us we can see the Oberberg Restaurant, and we figured several of the skiers who passed us were headed there for lunch. 

The snow-shoers have caught up to us, after putting on their snow-shoes at the bus stop!

Our map showed that the walking trail went through here, but this didn't look like a walking trail. At this point we realized we cannot go according to the map!

When we reached this trail (coming up from the left), we realized this must be the prepared walking trail, and we just had to follow this from now on!

Great visibility of the mountains to the south! And there is that group of snow-shoers who had traveled on the same bus as we did. 

We really enjoyed the first part of this walk with the new snow and clear visibility. 

Far to the west we look down at the valley basin where the town of Schwyz is located, and we can see the winding road that we came up on by bus. The wisps of fog didn't concern us at this point. 

Far on the right is the mountain resort village of Stoos on the other side of the Muota Valley. It is accessed by the steepest Funicular in the world and is also very popular for both cross-country and downhill skiing. (We tried cross-country skiing there in February of 2020, those photos are HERE). 

Absolutely gorgeous

A look behind us at the trail heads into a forested section. 

Perfect conditions for a winter walk, although we did sink into the new snow a bit. 

Above us we can see the bus heading back down from the the Ibergeregg Pass 

At 11:30, after only 45 minutes on the trail, the fog moved in quickly below us, and we can no longer see to Stoos on the other side of the Muota Valley.

The trail on the left was showing as the walking trail, but it was quite obviously used only by some snow-shoers. On the right was the very obvious walking trail, but it was a detour, so we had decided to try the snow-show trail, which wasn't the best idea as we did sink into the snow a few times and even slipped and fell! We should have stayed on the obvious walking trail. 

Although we are still in the sunshine, the fog is climbing toward us now! We still had hope we could stay above the fog level. 

The best kind of winter walking conditions. 

Still heading uphill in the direction of the Ibergeregg Pass. 

At 11:50, the fog caught up to us. So we had just an hour of walking in the lovely sunshine. If the fog isn't too thick, though, the effect is kind of interesting. 

The fog has its own charm, if some sunshine still filters through. 

When we reached the top part of the St.Karl loop trail (no. 561), it would only have been another 10 minutes to the Ibergeregg Pass, and webcams were showing NO FOG on the other side of the pass. But as we had walked this stretch and down the other side almost exactly a year earlier (those photos are HERE), we decided to head back down along the other side of the loop, even if it meant walking through the fog.  

From here on the west side of the loop we had to cross a couple of ski pistes. There weren't as many people here as on the more popular ski regions.

At this point, only a small amount of fog for the skiers. 

When visibility becomes only a few meters, it's not that fun to walk any more. At least the snow was firm and "squeaky"! It was just about noon as we headed back down the mountain and into the thick fog. 

I can't imagine this must be any fun any more for the skiers. You can't even see where the piste is anymore, and we had a hard time figuring out where the walking trail was. 

We had been looking for a bench or a fallen tree in a snow-free part of the forest, where we could sit and eat our picnic lunch. At 12:25 we reached a small eating establishment called the "Schnapshütte" where there was a public toilet (to my relief, as I can't just squat on the side of the trail to pee in the snow) and a few convenient snow-free picnic tables and benches. From here it would be less than 20 minutes to get back to the main road where we could catch the 13:28 bus. (If the fog had lifted, we would have walked to St.Karl chair lift, 40 minutes from here). 

We sat at one of the picnic tables for about 10 minutes to "enjoy" our sandwiches in the thick fog.

The walking trail was hard to find, but we continued on our way at 12:40.

Nearing the road now, we were bestowed with the smallest amount of sunshine again! Our original plan was to continue southward to the St.Karl chair lift to ride down to Illgau (where I had been only once before), but we saw no point in that, as the fog wasn't showing any signs of lifting. The next bus from here wasn't till 1:30 p.m. (there are buses only every 2-3 hours), and as it was now only 12:55, we decided to walk to the Gründel Chapel, which you can see along the road on the left side of this photo. 

We had plenty of time until the 1:30 p.m. bus, so we detoured over to the Gründel Chapel. 

At this point we were still able to enjoy the snow-covered trees and a lifting of the fog. 

And we even had some sunshine to enjoy for about 20 minutes before returning to the bus stop!

The Gründel Chapel sits on a small hill with a fantastic view into the Schwyzer Valley Basin. It was built in 1875 and belongs to Illgau. 

Details of the little Gründel Chapel. The crucifix mounted on the front side beneath the roof is from the end of the 18th Century. The items inside the chapel are apparently older than the chapel itself. 

Across from the chapel was this really pretty alleyway of trees heading toward a private property. 

Back at the bus stop now at 13:24, a final bit of sunshine before the fog envelops us again. 

By the time the bus came at 1:30 p.m., the fog had moved in again, and I was glad we didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes here!

As the bus heads back into the city of Schwyz (Capital City of Canton Schwyz), we can see the former Capuchin Monastery which is now a High School for grades 10-12.

In the heart of the city of Schwyz is the fabulous Late Baroque St.Martin's church, which we had a close look at after a hike we did nearby in August 2020 (Those photos are HERE). 

From the train station in Schwyz, we take a train to Arth Goldau where we change to the next train to Zug. This is what the summit of Mt. Rigi looked at this point, at 2:10 p.m. The whole trip home was 1 hour and 15 minutes. AND once we got home, there was no fog at all in our city, so I sat on a nearby bench to enjoy another hour of sunshine. 

The dark-blue line is the 6-km walk we did this day . We have done many hikes in this region, most of them in summer. 

Location of Ibergeregg within Switzerland.