Haldigrat and Lesser-Known Cable-ways in the Engelberg Valley

Wednesday September 17, 2025 -- The weather forecast played a trick on us this day! First we had planned another trip south of the Gotthard region as it would have been sunny there for sure. But as we got up in the morning, the prognosis for our local regions was for good weather as well, so why head south when we can do a mountain hike nearby!

So off we went to the Engelberg Valley (which is a short trip for us, so we don't have to spend a lot of time traveling) to hike down from Haldigrat toward Wolfenschiessen, another hike that was of interest to us. To get to the starting point of the hike, we first have to take a cable-car to Niederrickenbach (a mountain village on the south flank of Mt. Buochserhorn), then walk 30 minutes to the Haldigrat chair-lift station. A 13-minute ride on this chair-lift (a ride we have done a couple of times before, but this time in the cargo box!) brings us to the Haldigrat ridge where you get superb views over all the mountains of Central Switzerland....

.....but although we had sunshine on this first stretch, the skies then became overcast and the wind was VERY cold up there! We waited it out with a light lunch in the restaurant there (the only people far and wide!) and headed out with the shortest sunny window, before cloud cover returned.

We were not sad that it was only a two-hour walk to the small Brändlen cable car which we rode down to Wolfenschiessen. We should have picked a day where the weather would have been "secure", to make the most of the fantastic views you get up there. 

Leaving home at about 9 a.m., we got to the Niederrickenbach cable-car station at 10:30, for the short ride up to the little mountain village. This is a location just south of Lake Lucerne in the Engelberg Valley. (The mountain at the back is called Musenalp, which you access with another small cable-car). 

The other cable-car (transports 30 people at a time) passes us on its way down. The cliffs are very steep here! The cable-car saves us a climb of 650 meters.

Heading into the village of Niederrickenbach at just before 11 a.m. Up ahead of us is the mountain where we will be headed up to with another cable-car (chair lift) to start our hike.

A look behind us at the Maria-Rickenbach Abbey. I had a good look inside the buildings when I walked back down into the Engelberg Valley from here in July of 2024. 

This view is to the west to Mt. Stanserhorn. Far at the back on the right is Mt.Pilatus. 

Walking along to the sound of the cowbells, we are being watched as usual! At this point the day is looking very promising for our hike up on the Haldigrat Ridge ahead of us!

A look behind us and we can see the tower formations of the south side of Musenalp. The ride up there with the tiny Musenalp cable-car (from the summit of the Niederrickenbach cable-car station) is an exciting experience. (We rode this in September 2018)

To get to the Haldigrat cable-car station, we first had to walk along a level road for two kilometers (25 minutes). This is a walk we have done several times already!

We got to the base station at 11:25, hoping that there is not a line-up of people waiting for the chair lifts on the far side! They can only transport 55 people every hour. The whole line runs with only four sets of two chair-seats and two cargo boxes. 

There was no one else here! But the two regular "seats" in this group of four were past the platform and we could not get on. We phoned up to the top station to let the operator know we needed a ride. He said they were doing some work at the top, and if we didn't want to wait, we could ride in this cargo car!

Each of the four groups of attachments consists of two chairs and two cargo boxes! The chairs are ahead of the platform and we could not get up on them. But it was fun riding in the cargo box!

Heading up now in our little cargo box at about 11:30 for the lovely and peaceful 15-minute ride!

At about the half-way point we cross the "red group"! The mountains in the back are Mt. Buochserhorn on the left and Musenalp directly behind it. (We have been on the top of both of those before. In fact, one time we walked from the summit of Musenalp to the summit of Buochserhorn via Bleikigrat). 

The view to our east: The highest peak here is Mt.Brisen, and we have hiked to that summit before as well in August 2022, also starting at the top of this cable-car line. (photos HERE). 

At the 3/4 mark, the yellow group passes us! (Blue group had passed us at the 1/4 mark, but I hadn't noticed it!!!)

From here we can see all the way to Luzern, past Mt.Bürgenstock on the left. 

Far in the back are the peaks of the Mythen mountains. 

Here's our green group at the summit! We got here at 11:45, and there was a very cold wind blowing up here! Side note: We spoke with the operator of the cable-car for a while, he has been running this for 23 years and says it is very popular in winter with snow-shoers and free-riders, who sometimes will wait for an hour below to ride up again. I guess many other people must ride in the cargo boxes as well!

Looking north past the cable-car platform...the fellow working on the cable-car lines had to wait for us to reach the top before he could board the cargo box and be edged down to where he'd left off his work at the time we called up! Lucky for him there were no other people wanting to ride up at this time!

This was the view we had across the Obwalden Alps at 11:50. (Down below is the village of Oberrickenbach, where you can ride four different cable-cars to the surrounding hills. We have been there often!). There was a cold wind blowing, so we went into the restaurant next to the cable car for a light lunch. We were the only customers. 

After waiting for about an hour in the restaurant, we started on our hike at 12:40. To walk to the Brändlen cable-car station takes about two hours. But with the 25-minute walk to the Haldigrat chair lift, and another 7 minutes or so to the Wolfenschiessen train station, this ended up to be a 2½-hour hike. 

At 12:40 the skies cleared and we had sunshine, and high hopes for a warmer hike, so we left the restaurant to start on our hike. This is the ridge we plan to walk, to the west of the restaurant and cable-car. Our hike takes us through those cliffs called "Giri".

And here, what Oberrickenbach looks like in the sunshine! From there you can take two different cable-cars up to a beautiful lake called Bannalpsee, tucked away about halfway up on the left. (From there is a very popular hiking trail called the Walenpfad, which we have walked three times already!). Further back is the Engelberg Valley. 

We could just make out the dam end of Lake Bannalpsee from here. 

I wasn't even dressed warmly enough for the wind up here! (Behind me is the ridge trail which we followed to Giri). 

On the right is a hand-carved sign describing exactly the hike we have planned for this day: It is described as a "panorama ridge hike to the Brändlen mountain farm via Gigi-Sack, approximately two hours"..... (which is what it took us, although we did a slight variation). 

Down below to the north is the city of Stans at the foot of Mt.Bürgenstock. The lake you see here is the westernmost part of Lake Lucerne at the foot of Mt.Pilatus, with the towns of Hergiswil and Horw. Luzern itself is at the far back on the right. 

Heading along the ridge toward those cliffs, which are called Giri, and from there we head over to the peak on the right, called Gigichrüz.

Still very cold!

Urs looking back at where we started, at the Haldigrat cable-way station (with the restaurant next to it), and the peak of Mt. Brisen at the back. We hiked up that whole ridge in August 2022!

These are the rocky formations (Giri) we saw at the west end of the crest. It was fun to walk up through them. 

View north with Mt.Pilatus on the left, Mt.Bürgenstock in the center, and Mt.Buochserhorn on the right. Below the summit of Mt.Buochserhorn is the little village of Niederrickenbach, where we started our hike by following the road to the right, toward the Haldigrat chair-lift. 

We are now at the summit called Gigichrüz with this fabulous view. We are headed down to the pastures below, then following the road on the left into the forest to head down to the Brändlen farm. On the far right in the circle is the little mountain village of Niederrickenbach, where we started on this hike. We could have hiked back to there, but we had done that trail once before. 

A somewhat better view of the Mythen mountains to the northeast. On the left is a plateau called Klewenalp (popular winter recreation area), accessed by a cable-car from Beckenried on the south shore of Lake Lucerne. 

Fabulous view. Sunshine would have been even better!

Close-up look at the summit of Mt.Pilatus 

After a bit of a steep descent on a partly wet trail (ripped up somewhat by the cows, which is common here), we got to the farm at Ober Hütti, which we had seen from above. Lots of cows here in the pastures. 

The farmer here was busy mowing the grass and actually raking it up by hand! (Usually this activity is accompanied by leaf-blowers, to my chagrin.... but this time it was nice and quiet!). Directly to the west is Mt.Stanserhorn. 

We are always impressed by these mountain farmers. This cutting and harvesting of grass/hay is such hard work. 

After a 20-minute walk (roughly one kilometer) along this wide and gravelly road (not an official hiking trail, and not comfortable for walking downhill), we reach this cross, a familiar sight as we had walked past this on a hike we did between Brändlen and Niederrickenbach in July 2019.

Now we have joined the trail which we already walked back in July 2019. This trail is part of both Trail no.88: "Nidwaldner Höhenweg", and Trail no. 569: "Benedictusweg". From here we could have returned to Niederrickenbach (90 minutes on mostly gravel road and not so great) or back to Brändlen (20 minutes through the forest, a stretch we have done twice before). 

Back in July 2019 (having started in Brändlen), we continued along this road for 90 minutes to the Niederrickenbach station. 

A lovely place to fill up my water bottle!

The short section through the forest is quite lovely. 

This hillside near the Brändlen Farm is very popular with paragliders. In fact, most of the people who use the little Brändlen cable-way are paragliders. This view is up the Engelberg Valley.

Below us now is the Brändlen farm. On the short section of trail down to the farm, about five people with their paragliding packs huffed up past us!

When we got down to the farm, we were pleasantly surprised by this model cable-way featuring a mini cargo cable-car like the ones we love to ride on, possibly based on the nearby cable-car from Oberrickenbach (which we have ridden three times already, i.e. in June 2018)

Brändlen farm. Someone built a really cute model of a tiny cargo cable car! 

At 15:20 we reached the cable-car station. This is one of many such small cable-cars in Cantons Niedwalden/Obwalden which are actually privately owned but registered for public use. The farming family here is dependent on this cable-car for access to the valley 650 meters below (no road up here). When we were here last time, they told us their kids use this cable-car to get to school in the valley, and they can operate it themselves.  

At 3:30 p.m. we rode the little Brändlen cable-car to Wolfenschiessen in the valley bottom. 

View down the Engelberg Valley from the Brändlen cable-car 

At the half-way point, the other cabin passes us, with yet another paragliding fan on his way up to the take-off pasture!

Bottom station of the Brändlen cable-way. After we got there, it was another about 7 minutes to walk to the train station. 

As we watch the next run of the cable-car, the height it covers is pretty impressive!

The lovely Baroque church in Wolfenschiessen. I visited this church earlier this year when I did a walk down the valley from here to Stans. (Those photos are HERE). 

We got to the Wolfenschiessen railway station about 10 minutes early for the 4 p.m. trip to Luzern, for the 90-minute trip home. 

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps. We rode three cable-ways this day! First from Dallenwil to Niederrickenbach, then a 2-km walk to the Haldigrat chair lift, and after a 15-minute ride, walked down the ridge to Brändlen farm, for a steep ride back down to Wolfenschiessen with the small farmer's cable-car. 

We have done very, very many hikes in this region! So many cable-cars give us access into these beautiful mountains, and it only takes us at the most 90 minutes to get here!

(Side note: Two days earlier I was here in the valley in the most beautiful weather, warm, clear blue skies, with the intention of riding the cable-ways from Engelberg to the Jochpass and walking back down. But when I got there, there were too many tourists heading up to Mt.Titlis, so I returned here to Wolfenschiessen with the an alternate plan to ride the bus to Oberrickenbach and take the cable-car to Lake Bannalpsee. Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances (cable-car not running during the noon-hour and my thinking my telephone had died... i.e. no access to maps), I just headed home. What a wasted day!)

Engelberg two days earlier, September 15, 2025. This would have been a much nicer day for a hike in this valley!