A hike to the Trift Suspension Bridge

Thursday August 25, 2016 -- My sister came to visit for a week in August, and the apartment was pretty full, at times up to 8 people in here! It was pretty chaotic, but we managed to organize ourselves enough for a couple of hikes/excursions (and one 13-hour train ride, that's still to come!)

This one hike we did was to a very popular suspension bridge, so popular in fact that you get assigned time slots for the 8-man cable car and have to wait up to an hour for your turn up! The cable car takes you only part-way. The hike to the bridge is about 1.5 hours uncomfortably uphill (I think it took us over 2 hours, but mainly because of me. It was too too hot).

The bridge and the glacier lake below it were worth the exertion and the crowds. The story is that years ago, the Alpine Hostel above the Trift Glacier could be accessed by walking across the glacier, but as recently as 2004, the glacier had receded so much that they had to build a bridge across the gulf. The bridge was modeled after the three-rope Tibetan bridges, but became so popular with tourists, that they had to replace it with a much sturdier one in 2009. At 100 meters in length and 170m in height, the pedestrian suspension bridge is one of the longest and highest in the Alps. 

On the way back we took a long, but beautiful car ride over the Susten Pass.

The excursion started with a 12-minute gondola cable car ride partway up the valley.

Look at that hiking trail over there! We'll have to try that some time....

If we were willing to split up as a group, we could get extra spots in the cable car, and didn't have to wait as long to ride up. I was the last one of the group to go up.

Rest of the group is waiting for me on the third trip up.

Start of our hike: Trift Bridge, 1.5 hours.

Start of our hike. Joshua says, "what's the point of hiking", but I think he enjoyed it!

On a very hot day, this uphill climb was rather strenuous (for me....)

Something more exciting than hiking...

Taking a break in the shade of some boulders.

Looking North back down the Trift Valley.

Our hike to the Trift suspension bridge.

And finally we are rewarded with a view of this fantastic bridge.

The boys are the first to cross the Bridge.

Jeffrey​ and Josh​ loving this excursion to one of the longest pedestrian suspension bridges in the Alps.

This bridge is a very popular attraction.

Trift suspension bridge.

Now it's the girls' turn.

There is Jeffrey, our photographer.

On the Trift Suspension Bridge.

On the Trift Suspension Bridge.

On the far side of the suspension bridge, this is where we decided to have our picnic lunch.

On the far side of the suspension bridge, this is where we decided to have our picnic lunch overlooking the Trift Glacier and glacier lake.

The glacier at the back filled this entire basin about 20 years ago. Before the original bridge was built in 2004, you could cross by walking over the glacier.

Time to head back down to the cable car. The return hike was much quicker.

Another look northwards down the Trift Valley

Again, I get to be the last one to get a place in the cable gondola.

 To return back home to Zug, we drove over the Susten Pass. The scenery is beautiful up here.

A view down the Gadmer Valley on our way up to the Susten Pass

This is called the Stein Glacier

On the West side of the Susten Pass is the Meien Valley, where we recently also did a fantastic hike right about in the center of this photo.

A Hike with Relatives (Sister, Niece and Nephews) in the Leventina Valley

In August my sister came to visit (from Toronto) with a few of her kids, and we had wanted to do a spectacular hike somewhere high in the Alps, but Sunday August 21st dawned cold, foggy and rainy in the mountains, so we went for Plan B, a trip through the Gotthard Tunnel to just south of the main Alpine Range into the Leventina Valley, where the weather often is sunnier and warmer. Our hike was a relatively non-strenuous 7.5-km walk through some typical villages and chestnut forests in the Italian part of Switzerland. I'm sure all participants thought it was just great! At least it was warm...

Our visitors parked their rental car in Lavorgo and we set off on a climb up to the village of Chironico, which is a mixture of Valais-inspired wood-beam homes and the typical Ticinese Rustico Stone structures. 

Walking through the alleys of Chironico. 

This tower is called Torre Pedrino and probably dates from mid-13th century

After viewing the medieval church San Ambrogio with its frescoed interior (the church was first mentioned in literature in 1223), we headed to the ravine for a picnic lunch, and from there descended a steep path to the power plant. 

Interior of San Ambrogio, dates from mid-13th Century

Interior of San Ambrogio, dates from mid-13th Century

Parish Church San Maurizio, on the outskirts of Chironico

At the Ravine for a picnic lunch

Sister Selfie.

At the Ravine for a picnic lunch

At the power plant after a steep descent

At the power plant after a steep descent

From the Power Plant it was a long walk through chestnut forests, past another old church right in the forest (San Pellegrino, whose interior is full of mural art by a famous Italian Painer, Giovanni Battista Tarilli), past vineyards and old stone cellars, and then on to Giornico.

San Pellegrino Church in the middle of the Chestnut Forest.

Walking past the vineyards in Altirolo, heading to Giornico.

Family photo in Altirolo, near the stone cellars.

Stone Cellars built right into the rocks

Approaching Giornico.

In Giornico there are several churches of note, the first you come to is called Santa Maria del Castello because it was built on the ruins of the Castello di Santa Maria. We walked up to the ruins to get a view of the other two churches in the village below, but we ran out of time to see those. One is the "younger" parish church (first mentioned in 1210), and the other, San Nicolao, built in the later 1100's is considered the most impressive example of Lombard Romanesque architecture in Switzerland.

Santa Maria del Castello in Giornico

Jeffrey on the walls of the castle ruins. 

On the right is the parish church San Michele, and on the left, the older San Nicolao.

The village of Giornico in the Leventina Valley. (Part of the village is on an island in the middle of the Ticino River, and you have to cross two old roman arched stone bridges to get to the bus on the main road). 

From Giornico we all took the bus back to the car in Lavorgo, and while Urs and I headed home by train, the rest of the group drove OVER the Gotthard pass (too much traffic backed up at the tunnel) for a one-of-a-kind experience along the old Tremola Road.

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps.