Winter Walk on the Rigi Panorama Trail from Scheidegg to Kaltbad

Tuesday January 13, 2026 -- This day's walk left me with mixed feelings... Urs usually has Wednesdays off but this week he had to switch. And his wish for the day's outing was to have lunch in a favourite restaurant on Mt. Rigi called Berggasthaus Unterstetten, located at the half-way point of the Rigi Panorama Trail between Rigi Scheidegg and Rigi Kaltbad. We have had many opportunities on nice winter days to do this walk, but the restaurant is closed on Wednesdays. So this was an opportunity to do a winter walk on a prepared panorama trail just an hour's travel from home, AND have a well-priced lunch along the way.

Unfortunately though, the weather forecast was wrong again, and we didn't have the sunshine we expected, although the views were definitely very clear this day. And because of the warming weather in the past couple of days (and cold nights), the surface of the prepared walking (and cross-country skiing) trail was practically pure ice, which made the first part of the walk, which included a long down-hill section where you could practically skate on your boots (microspikes would have been helpful!) very difficult. The sun did come out for a short period, but that was while we were sitting in the restaurant, and then again at the very end of the hike. (One positive note: We were early in the restaurant at 11:30 with only three other couples there, and no one doing a lot of noisy talking.... compared to the December 2017 walk when the large room was jam-packed full!)

In all this is a 7-km walk, normally relatively easy, and much nicer when the sun shines and after a recent snow when all the trees are still blanketed. Our best winter hike here was on January 19, 2019.

At 9:20 a.m. I was waiting at the train station in Küssnacht. There is fog here, but the summit of Mt.Rigi to the south is fog-free. 

View of the Mythen mountains as my train heads to Arth Goldau. It's not looking very promising, as far as view and sunshine goes. 

This is where the trains head up to Rigi Kulm from the Arth-Goldau station. 

We will be riding the red train at 9:55 (I got here before Urs did, so I waited for him in the train). We are only traveling for two stations to the cable-car station at Kräbel. 

I'm the first in the train! This is a very old wagon, and the only train leaving at this time, as there were not very many passengers on this day.

We were the first out of the train into the Rigi Scheidegg cable-car, and were on our way up the mountain quite quickly. 

From our hiking website "Switzerland Mobility", this is the description of the Rigi Panorama trail that we are walking (which we have done many times). The trail follows the route of the former railway line here. 

We started at Rigi Scheidegg at 10:20, and got to the Unterstetten restaurant at 11:30. Continuing on at 12:40, we then got to Rigi Kaltbad at 13:45. So altogether, the 7½-kilometer walk took about 2 hours 15 minutes to walk, even with the very slippery first section.  

This is a combination of prepared cross-country and walking trail, but on this day the surface was smooth and frozen and difficult to walk. We were basically the only people on this trail at this time!

There are two trails here, we took the upper trail. The mountains of the Bernese Oberland look very close this day. 

A close-up view of the north face of Mt. Eiger, and Mt. Mönch on the left. These are the very popular peaks of the Jungfrau Region in the Bernese Oberland 

First view of Mount Pilatus and Lake Lucerne, plus the summit of Mt. Bürgenstock in the center. 

Very difficult on this downhill section as the surface was so slippery, you basically had to "skate" down and had no way to brake.... Side note: This stretch was much prettier on the December 2017 walk along this trail. (Photo HERE).  

Far to the northeast we can even see Mt.Säntis! (Zoomed view) 

There is a tunnel up here which was blasted for the Rigi-Scheidegg railway in 1874/75

To the east are the Mythen mountains. 

We were surprised to see two avid cross-country skiers braving the icy surface of the trail!

To the north is the summit of Mount Rigi, called Rigi Kulm. 

Huge masses of ice on the cliffs along the way. We are now walking along the former railway line. 

Up ahead is the original railway viaduct. Just to the left is the path down to the restaurant. The bridge is 50 meters long. 

Information about the Rigi-Scheidegg Railway: In 1872, permission was given to build the panorama railway from Rigi Kaltbad to Scheidegg. A lot of work was required to blast a tunnel, build up dikes, and the 50-meter iron bridge. By 1875 the entire stretch was completed, and at the time was the highest adhesion railway in Europe, and the second narrow-gauge railway in Switzerland. 

We could have taken the side trail down to the restaurant, but chose to walk over the 50-meter railway bridge first. 

View of Lake Lucerne and Mount Pilatus from the railway bridge. 

At 11:30 we made it to the Berggasthaus Unterstetten, a lovely restaurant with homemade meals and reasonable prices, plus the most fantastic views. It is unfortunately closed on Wednesdays, when we have the day off for hiking. That's why we did this walk today, as it was Tuesday. 

There is a lovely view terrace at the Unterstetten restaurant. 

This is the view from the Unterstetten terrace, of the west end of Lake Lucerne. 

Close-up view of Mount Pilatus.

View from our table inside the restaurant. We had about 30 minutes of sunshine while we were in the restaurant!

For most of our meal there were only four couples in the restaurant, so nice and peaceful. By noon more people started coming. Prices here are very reasonable, only 18 SFr. for a large plate of fries and two breaded pork Schnitzel. Urs also had an icecream sundae for dessert!

Some hardy hikers chose to have refreshments on the outside terrace!

Heading off again at 12:45, passing along the base of the former railway viaduct. 

The pink trail markers indicate the various prepared winter walking trails up here. To Rigi Kaltbad we still have over an hour to walk, so we aimed for the 14:18 train down. (as it is now 12:45). Walking in the opposite direction from here to Rigi Scheidegg takes longer (1:35) as it is uphill. 

This former railway wagon has been converted into a vacation home! From here on the trail was better to walk, less slippery. 

Another look to the east to the summit of Mt. Mythen and the Schwyzer Alps. 

More interesting information: Historical records show that farmers had already been using the mountain for grazing in the 12th Century. The mountain pastures were in high demand and there were border skirmishes in the 14th and 15th Centuries. In 1650 there were 2400 Swiss Brown cattle in the mountain pastures over the summer. By 1830 there were over 3000 cattle up here in the summer. (By 2010 there were fewer, about 2400, but also sheep and goats). 

We knew we had to wait quite a while for the 14:18 train down from Rigi Kaltbad to Vitznau on the lake, so we took a break on this view bench in the sunshine for about 10 minutes. 

View from our view bench of Mt. Bürgenstock as we are now directly north of it. Further south are Mts. Buochserhorn and Stanserhorn. And far in the back are the Bernese Alps.  

And another view of Mt.Pilatus. 

We have now reached the resort of Rigi Kaltbad, with many vacation homes and even a small church. Note that we now have sunshine at the end of our hike!

On the west side of the Vitznau railway station at Rigi Kaltbad (and on the way to the look-out point at Rigi Känzeli) is this narrow passage between two large boulders, and behind that is hidden a little church, called the St.Michael Felsenkapelle (Cliff Chapel). 

As we were still too early, we walked past the Kaltbad station to the hidden church called St.Michael Felsenkapelle, a building I had never known about even with the many times I have been up here! Although this building was built in 1779, the first chapel here was built in 1585.

Details of the little church, hidden behind a cleft in the cliffs. They named this location "Kaltbad" or "Cold bath" because the story goes that three nuns sought refuge behind this cleft and discovered a source of water which they claimed had healing properties. 

This is the mineral spa at Rigi Kaltbad, but the waters are warm, not cold! You can relax in the warm waters with this great view!

At 14:18 we took the cogwheel train back down the mountain to the town of Vitznau. Unfortunately we sat on the wrong side of the train and got no views at all. But I had had great views on a recent November 2025 hike when I took that same train UP the mountain (photos HERE). 

What this walk looks like on Google Satellite Maps, starting at Rigi Scheidegg and ending at Rigi Kaltbad, 7 km. 

This is where we had to change to the bus (in Vitznau) after reaching the base station of the Kaltbad-Vitznau cogwheel train station. From here the bus heads back to the train station in Küssnacht. 

As the bus heads along the lakeshore, we catch sight of one of the popular ships on the lake, and Mt. Pilatus as a backdrop. 

At the bus stop in the village of Weggis. The climate here is mild, and good for palm trees!

A look behind us toward the southwest along Lake Luzern (Vierwaldstättersee). On the left at the base of the mountain is the town of Vitznau, where we descended to. 

As the Rigi range is so close to where we live and easily accessible, we have had many opportunies for hiking here.