Hiking in Switzerland – Gabrielle and Urs

October 27, 2022

Glaubenberg Pass to Flühli (Sörenberg) via Summit of Mt. Fürstein

(Blog post published on November 25, 2022)

Thursday October 27, 2022 -- Usually Wednesday is the weekday where we do a hike, but this week the weather forecast for Thursday was to be the best day this week, another fabulous day in this warmest month of October ever.... so Urs swapped his day off. It was a good choice, as it truly was one of the most fantastic days.

We did a hike we have wanted to do for a long time, a very long hike not far from home, starting at the Glaubenberg Pass in Canton Nidwalden just south of Luzern, and hiking over the border into the Entlebuch (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) region of Canton Luzern, near Sörenberg. The hike was over five hours of walking, and included a hike to the summit of the local view mountain Fürstein (and WHAT a view!!!) as well as a bit of a tricky descent down its steep west side: Shady, cold and slippery at this time of year, something we didn't anticipate.

After the successful albeit time-consuming descent off the mountain, the rest of the downhill portion was easy, although the trail through the forest toward what is called the Chessiloch seemed neverending. Chessiloch is Swiss-German for "Kessel Loch" or "Kettle Hole", a magnificent huge pit created over thousands of years by the waterfall dropping here. It was well worth the ca. 20-minute detour in the otherwise already lengthy hike. But the weather was balmy and there was so much variety that we considered this one of our more successful hikes among so many.

The final section out of the Kragen Valley to the village of Flühli passed through the area that was once the original glass-manufacturing region of Switzerland, the art of glass-blowing having been brought here by two brothers from the Black Forest in 1723. "Glass huts" were built in heavily forested regions, and once the woods had totally been decimated for heating material, the huts were moved to other locations.

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This day was like two separate hikes / excursions. The first part was the climb to the top of Mt.Fürstein and down the other side:

After a long bus ride through the lovely Entlebuch Region of Luzern, we reached the Glaubenberg Pass at 9 a.m., very early in the day for October! The 570m ascent to the summit of Mt. Fürstein took two hours.

The first fantastic views of the Bernese Alps to the south as we ascend toward the first hill called Rickhubel.

A zoomed view of the Eiger North Face in the Bernese Alps to the south

Approaching the peak called Rickhubel, 400m higher than where we started. This section took just a little over an hour. Much of the trail up was wet and peaty.

The view into the Entlebuch (specifically the Schrattenfluh Massif in the center) from Rickhubel.

From Rickhubel we had a long level stretch, but at many places soft and wet, as this is a moor landscape. The summit of Mt. Fürstein is there at the arrow.

A look back as we climb the final steep section. In the background center is Mt. Pilatus

I had to make lots of stops on this last steep section!

Finally made it to the top! Air quality is superb, we can see all the way to Germany to the north!

Looking south along the ridge to the Bernese Alps, and the Entlebuch region on the right. This ridge is the Canton border between Nidwalden on the left and Luzern on the right. Later we will be descending the valley on the right.

A well-deserved break!

The eastern Alps! Most of the people who make this ascend descend back to the Glaubenberg Pass via that lake below. But we are descending to the west.

Another closer-up view of the mountains to the South.

And this view is to the west. That massif is called the Schwändiliflue. Our trail took us past the little lake directly below, just showing out of the shadow of the mountain.

Time to continue on down the mountain to the west! It is now 11:30, relatively early in the day, so we knew we had lots of time to do the rest of this 5-hour hike!

The stile was steep, as was the mountainside, so we had to be very careful crossing the fence here.

In all this was a hike of more than 5 hours. Starting at the Glaubenberg Pass, it took us about two hours to get to the summit of Mt. Fürstein, another 2.5 hours to descend to the suspension bridge at the Chessiloch, and then another hour to the bus stop in Flühli. Total 5-1/2 hours.

The slope on this side was steeper than we expected, so we had to go slowly and carefully.

Making our way slowly down the steep, shady and cold west side of Mt. Fürstein!

Warming up in a bit of sunshine and the fantastic view below!

The descent is now behind us, and here is a good place for a 20-minute break for lunch! (Mt.Fürstein in the background)

The view from our picnic bench at the cross. We still have a long descent from here, past the two buildings below.

Another zoomed view of the fabulour peaks of the Bernese Alps.

A final look up the "valley" which we came down, before continuing into the forest and ravine below.

The second part of our long hike was a seemingly never-ending 330-m (40 minutes) descent to the suspension bridge in the ravine, from where we did a 20-minute detour to the waterfall in the "Chessiloch" or "Kettle Hole". This has been an attraction for a long time, and to make the waterfall more accessible, a bridge was built over the river at the very back of the ravine, a bridge that had to be replaced several times due to flooding.

A 40-minute descent through the forest into the ravine

Suspension bridge over the ravine

Heading to the back of the ravine, to see the "Chessiloch"

It's 4:30 p.m. by now and pretty shady in the ravine

A bridge was specially built over the river at the back of the ravine so that people can get closer to the waterfall.

VIDEO:

Making his way to the waterfall

The waterfall which carved out this deep ravine called "Chessiloch"

VIDEO:

The waterfall at the back of the Chessiloch

The photo doesn't capture how high the walls of the "hole" were.

Heading back out of the ravine

Heading out of the ravine

The final hour of the hike was out of the Kragen Valley and southwards to the village of Flühli, the end of our hike. This whole region is where the art/science of glass-manufacture began in Switzerland, having been brought here in 1723 by two brothers from the Black Forest in Germany. After all the forests here were decimated for the wood required to manufacture the glass, the industry was moved to Hergiswil on Lake Luzern, where there is still a glass factory.

Heading along the hillside now toward the village of Flühli

A final sunny section along a good mountain trail

A look up the valley toward Sörenberg and the Brienzer Rothorn ridge. This region is part of the beautiful Unesco Biosphere Entlebuch.

End of October and the farmers are still hard at work harvesting the grass for winter feed.

The village of Flühli, end of our 5.5-hour hike.

Those peaks are part of the Schwändiliflue massif. We descended the valley on the other side of that massif

What a nice way to make a pig farm more attractive!

The "Hotel & Kurhaus Flühli", which used to be a wellness center

What our 14-km hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps, starting at the Glaubenberg Pass and ending in Flühli.

And the scenery for the bus ride back out of the valley was quite impressive as well:

The long stretched-out "Flue" to the east as the bus makes its way out the valley to Schüpfheim

Location of this part of the Entlebuch in Switzerland

All the hikes we have done in the Entlebuch and Nidwalden region to date

October 23, 2022

Hiking along the Schwyzer Höhenweg on the East side of Mt. Mythen

Sunday October 23, 2022 -- Not wanting to travel far today, we settled on a 3.5-hour hike along the "Schwyzer Höhenweg" (Schwyz High Trail), covering a small section of Stage No.5 between Mythen Mountains and Einsiedeln. (The entire panorama trail is 65 kilometers long encompassing the regions of Mt. Rigi and the Mythen Mountains in Canton Schwyz.)

The section of trail between the summit station of the Rotenflue Gondola and the city of Einsiedeln takes about 6 hours to walk, something we are not able to do in one stretch. Our main plan was to get to the summit of Mt. Furggelenstock from where you can look into the Alptal Valley to the West and the Hoch-Ybrig mountains to the East. From there, most people descend to the village of Brunni in the Alptal Valley, but we wanted a longer hike, so we continued along the ridge and descended to the village of Alpthal, which gives the valley its name.

Unfortunately we had little sunshine but the air was clear so we had some nice views, although not nearly as nice as if the sky had been blue. Furthermore, the area is a boreal "rain forest" region with lots of peat bogs, and so the ground was pretty muddy and wet. Along the ridge past the Furggelenstock, we didn't get much of a view any more.

Upside is that we did get another 3.5-hour hike done, and were home pretty early, as the trip back took only 90 minutes. AND we spotted a chamois, confidently grazing on the hillside, observing us but not afraid!

On the way by bus from Schwyz Train Station to the Rotenflue cableway. It looks like the clouds might be lifting at this point.

These are the two Mythen mountains seen from the West side. They are the distinctive peaks in this area, recognized from afar

Heading up to the Rotenflue summit station with the gondola cableway. The city of Schwyz (capital city of Canton Schwyz), is on the right.

To the west is Lake Luzern (Vierwaldstättersee), the Rigi Massif on the right, and Mt. Pilatus in the very back.

To our south on the other side of the Muotathal Valley is the upper alpine pasture called Stoos, a popular local skiing area, and the location of the equally popular Fronalpstock/Klingenstock ridge hike. Also, the line that you see on the photo here at the red arrow, that is the Stoos Funicular, completed in 2017 and the steepest funicular in the world.

From the summit station of the Rotenflue gondola cableway (completed in Dec.2014), we first walked down to the Rotenfluh Restaurant to get a better look into the valley

The region north of Schwyz (i.e. where we live!!!) is still covered by fog. Even though we didn't have a lot of sunshine, at least we weren't in the fog.

Panorama view including the south side of the Gross Mythen

The interesting thing about the Gross Mythen is that the red rock on the upper section is older than the rock beneath it, another proof of the earth's thrust millions of years ago. This summit is popular with hikers (you can see the zigzag trail and the restaurant at the top). We did that hike in 2014, unfortunately it was totally in the fog at the time.

Down below on the meadow is a single chamois

The chamois watched us, but knew we were no danger. Plus this whole area is a non-hunting zone, so the animals feel safe.

Taking the longer way to Müsliegg from the Rotenflue station, we rejoined Trail no.63 "Schwyzer Höhenweg" near Müsliegg. From here it's an hour to the summit of Mt. Furggelenstock, the main goal of this hike.

Our 3-1/2 hour hike (11 km) along the "Schwyzer Höhenweg" from Rotenflue. A popular loop hike starts and ends at Brunni, but we didn't want the uphill climb, but needed a longer hike... that's why we descended to Alpthal

A look south at Stoos in the middle and Rotenflue on the right as we hike up to Mt. Furggelenstock

An interesting view to the West, past the pyramid of Righ Hoflue (part of the Rigi Massif) to Mt. Pilatus in the background

We have a fairly clear view of the mountains to the east, but blue skies would be better. Below is the village of Oberiberg, from where we also started a hike once.

We didn't stay long at the summit of the Furggelenstock, as there was no sunshine, and only a cold wind blowing. All the way at the back we could see the peaks of the Uri Alps

Continuing north along the ridge to descend from Mt. Furggelenstock

A popular little mountain restaurant at the Furggelen Alp. Most people descend back into the Alptal Valley from here. We had lunch on the red bench near the barn, and then continued along the ridge

From our lunch bench at the barn (protected from the wind), this is the view we had of the Mythen mountains from the east side. We have hiked along those peaks several times already, including descending to the other side between them.

That's the summit of Mt. Fuggelenstock, from where we descended. On the right is the barn where we sat and had our picnic lunch.

The rest of the hike along the ridge was either full of roots or wet and soggy, without a lot of view

First glimpse of the village of Alpthal below, the end of our hike.

Starting on our 500-m descent to the valley bottom, we had a good laugh at the arrow on the tree indicating that we should follow the trail to the right. Going straight ahead meant a vertical drop.... who would do that?