Stanserhorn
8.5 km, 1,385m ascent, 3h:35m
This hike was by far the toughest group hike to-date. In fact it was probably tougher by a factor of 2 or more. It will probably be the toughest hike we do all season aside from our end-of-season goal of ascending Mt Pilatus from the bottom. Prior to this hike the most we had ascended was 650m. It was also the longest hike by an hour.
This hike was very difficult for me. I got dehydrated and low on salts and bonked near the end. I think I was also feeling the altitude. The last 10% was technically the easiest (not nearly as steep as the first 90%), but it was very difficult for me to finish. I was last out of our group of about 30 hikers, but I am proud that I finished. Also, despite my slow finish, I still did it well below the sign-posted Swiss time of 4h15m. If I ever did this again, I think I would like to take a good 5 hours and enjoy the route.
I set numerous records on my watch: most Move calories ever (out of > 500 days of meeting my Move goal), most Exercise minutes ever, 400% Move goal, most calories burned in a Hiking workout, etc. (I was disappointed to see there is not an award for 5x or 6x Move goal, which I also achieved.)
The hike began by following the funicular track up the mountain to the bottom cable car station. From there the trail became a series of switchbacks mostly through woods up until the intermediate cable car station. Past that it was switchbacks up a very steep alpine meadow but staying near the cable car line. The last section was a traverse across the mountain away from the cable car then switchbacks up onto the ridge and finally we followed the ridge up to the cable car station at the top. We ate lunch and enjoyed the views up top before taking the cable car and funicular back down to our cars. I would hate to have to hike back down.
More pics here.
Route map from my watch:
