This Fall I have joined a hiking group. They hike every week on Tuesday mornings. The hikes are located within an hour’s drive of Zug, start at 9:30am sharp, and usually take 2 to 2.5 hours. I’m hoping to get in better shape, spend quality time walking outdoors, learn some new hiking routes, and maybe make a few friends while I’m at it.
While I feel that I am living a healthier lifestyle since moving to Switzerland, I still spend far too much time parked in front of a computer. Finding the energy and motivation to exercise has been a challenge for me. (It doesn’t help that the cheese and chocolate here are so delicious.)
This week was week 4 of the hiking club (they start with the school year), and I have done all four hikes. In theory the hiking season starts off easy and then ramps up the difficulty level as the season progresses. The end-of-season goal next Spring is to hike Mt Pilatus, which involves something like 1,600m of ascending. That’s about 1 mile straight up!
After the first hike I realized that I was going to have to up my game if I wanted to keep up with the other members and make it to Pilatus. So I’ve been trying to do at least 1 additional hike each week to get in better shape (and also for the sheer pleasure of it). The hike I did this morning to Wirzweli and the hike I did last Sunday to Sattel-Hochstuckli were both “training” hikes.
I plan to write how each week’s hike goes. I wanted to do this from the beginning but got behind on blogging.
So here’s how the first three weeks went. I’ll write a separate post for this week’s hike.
Week 1: Neuheim-Hollgrotten Loop
11 km, 330m ascent, 2.5h
This hike was tough on me. I was carrying too much water, which made it worse. I found the pace very fast. According to my GPS we had < 4 minutes of stoppage time, and 2h35m of walking time. I felt like we were walking so fast that I barely had time to get a drink of water much less take any photos. There were about 40 hikers.
Training hike: Zugerberg, 9.5 km, 450m ascent, 3h
I did this one with my son, so the pace was a little slower. Still this was probably the most ascending I’ve done in the past year (or more). Very pretty hike. We did this early in the morning and I was glad that the sun was behind the mountain while we did the ascent.
Week 2: Gubel
8 km, 200m ascent, 1.5h
This hike was clearly easier. The pace was gentler as well. We did a nice break at the top before returning to our starting point.
No training hike. I was feeling a bit under the weather that week.
Week 3: Albishorn
8 km, 450m ascent, 2h
The toughest hike yet in terms of ascending, but I felt pretty strong. (Which doesn’t mean I wasn’t huffing and puffing like crazy — I was!). The group split in two at the top, with about half electing to stop for a coffee at the mountaintop restaurant.
Training hike: Sattel-Hochstuckli, 8 km, 450m ascent, 2.5h
Very nice hike with great views, but more difficult than the Zugerberg hike. I also did this with my son, but I felt like we made pretty good time. (Any time we meet or beat the posted Swiss hiking times I feel pretty good.)
