Tag: Hiking

Weggis to Rigi Kaltbad

4 December 2018

Today we were planning to hike up to Rigi Kaltbad (where there’s a spa) from Weggis, which is a town on Lake Luzern. I’ve taken the cable car down from Rigi Kaltbad to Weggis several times, but I’ve never done the walk in either direction. This hike is supposed to be about 6km long but with 1km ascent, so it’s quite steep. This would make it the second most difficult hike of the season so far after the Stanserhorn. It was canceled due to rain and thunderstorms. We’ll try again next week if the weather improves.

Immensee Hike

27 November 2018
7km, 190m ascent, 1h:30m
This was one of the shortest hikes we’ve done: a double loop hike around a wooded peninsula on Lake Zug. The outer loop was at lake level, and then we ascended to make a smaller inner loop higher up on the hill that occupies the peninsula.

The weather was not good (2°C and rainy), and consequently we had fewer hikers than normal. Still it was a pretty hike, and the distance was right for the weather, especially considering the slippery roots on the trail.

More pics here.

Route map from my watch:

On the drive home my car GPS decided to route me through 20 km of tiny one-lane farmer roads up and over the Zugerberg. Up on the mountains it was snowing and not always plowed. I think I must have accidentally told the GPS to avoid highways. Thank goodness for winter tires and 4wd. It was very pretty though.

Sihl River Loop

20 November 2018
11.3km, 190m ascent, 2h:30m
This was a very pretty, mostly flat hike. We made sort of an elongated figure-eight by walking along both sides of the Sihl River and crossing three different bridges.

The weather was literally freezing (0°C), but I never felt cold during the hike. We only saw a dusting of snow in a few places.

More pics here.

Apple Watch with the hiking workout continues to be a good hiking companion.

Route map from my watch:

Ägerital Panoramaweg

13 November 2018
13.7 km, 320m ascent, 2h:50m
This was my first hike in over a month, so I was glad that it was close to home and that it was relatively easy (compared to say, the Stanserhorn). I walked to and from the meeting point for the hike, which added another 2.6 km of walking to my day, although I must admit that at the end I half-regretted my decision not to drive.

There was not a lot of ascending, but there was more than enough to make me sweat. The day was gray and chilly, around 9°C, but I was soon down to shorts and a t-shirt regardless. It was a pretty hike despite the gray skies: farm fields then up the hill and along part of the Panorama trail with views of the lake before descending to the lake and heading back along the shore.

I think this was the longest hike we’ve done thus far (even before adding in the extra walking to/from the start point). My legs were definitely tired and my feet were sore by the end of it.

Route map from my watch:

My hiking group took two weeks off in October for Fall break, but since the hikes resumed I have missed two weeks. I missed the first hike because I was busy with work coming back after vacation (and to be honest, I was not getting enough sleep and was just too tired), and I missed the second hike because I needed to be home to let a serviceperson into our apartment.

Now it’s been a month since the last time I hiked, and I’m feeling out of shape again. But on the bright side, I went on this morning’s hike, so yay! (More on that in a separate post…)

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: