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Category: Switzerland

Climbing in Melchsee Frutt

This past Sunday we went to Melchsee Frutt for some climbing. They have a big climbing wall just a few minutes walk from the car park and cable car station. The wall is not high but long, most routes are one pitch only but there are a few 2 pitch routes around. Totally there are about 130 routes ranging from grade 3 to 8 on the UIAA scale. So there is plenty to choose from although this easy to reach place attracts a lot of climbers.
Having a break at the climbing wall.

As well as on Saturday it was cloudy below 1500 meter but we had beautiful weather. Today it was also 10 Franken day which means it only costs 10 Franken to take the cable car up to Melchsee Frutt. Due to this there were loads of hikers around and you can see the ant trail along the lake which had no end. Fortunately though there were not too many climbers.
The view from the climbing wall. This is the difference between climbing in the Alps and in Stockholm area…

Autumn hike in Switzerland

This past Saturday we did the Four Lake Hike (Vier Seen Wanderung) between Melchsee Frutt and Engelberg. The SBB (Swiss Railway) has a special ticket for this hike which includes train, bus and cable cars on both ends which makes it quite worth its price. Otherwise the trains and cable cars in Switzerland are very pricey.

In the valleys the fog was thick the entire day but above 1500 meters or so the sky was blue and the sun was shining. The perfect day for an autumn hike on high altitude.
Hiking along the rigde from Bonistock towards Tannensee. Below us on the right side there is a climbing wall with more than 130 routes in all ranges. Actually we came back on Sunday to do some climbing there.
Tannensee.
Having lunch at Engstlensee. This was the lowest point on the hike and after this we had to climb about 400 meters to Jochpass and then down again to reach the cable car on the other side. On Jochpass we did get a well deserved beer before we walked down the last bit. The hike took about 4 hours. With breaks we spent about 6 hours on the track.
All pictures were taken by Michael Wicki who brought us on this hike. Thanks for a great day, Quicky!

Good things about hiking in the Alps

There are several reasons why I like hiking in the Alps. I like rock so the dramatic exposed peaks in the Alps suites me just perfectly. Other good things are that the season is a bit longer (than in Sweden at least) and there are no mosquitoes. Also if you don’t have a lot of time or don’t feel like hiking through the forest on low altitude or have problems with your knees you can in many places take the cable car. This way you can do cool hiking on high altitude even if you just want to do a day hike. But my favourite is that after a steep hike up to a hut somewhere you can always get something cold to drink.

Here, at the Weissmies Hütte in Saastal, we found a sofa where we spent the afternoon with a beer until the guy who worked in the hut came and told us that dinner was served. What a great place!

Via Ferrata (klettersteig) on Jegihorn


The weather made it! It was a beautiful day when we went out to climb the Via Ferrata on Jegihorn in Saastal. We had spent the night in Weissmies Hütte about 1 hour from the start of the Via Ferrata.

The first part of the the route was easy climbing with a few ladders. After an hour or so we reached the ridge. Once on the ridge we had to climb down a little to reach the rope bridge we had to cross to get to the top of Jegihorn.


It was a fairly long rope bridge where you definately had time to think about what could happen if you slipped…


The small dots in the center of the photo are our shadows when we are on the rope bridge.


Immediately after the rope bridge we had to climb up this thing.

After the rope ladder there was a fairly vertical wall we had to climb before reaching the top. They had added some grips to make it easier. This was my favourite part, very exposed and with a fantastic view. Nice!

After about 2 hours on the Via Ferrata we reach the top of Jegihorn on 3206 m. We were hanging around the top for more than an hour talking to other climbers before we headed down to the Weissmies Hütte again for some lunch and a beer. For those who like Via Ferratas I can definately recommend this one, I was climbing it with a smile on my face.