Hiking season is over...

This is October 12th 2009, and is definitely the end of the hiking season.

We woke up to a brand new Engelberg valley. The Thursday before it was 21 degrees and mountainbiking weather, but suddenly everything wass covered in perfect, pristine, pre-season powder. Over night it had rained really hard outside our windows, but 200 metres up everything was just white, white, white.

The lifts haven't opened for skiers yet, but the girl in the lift let us up to do a couple of photos. So we hiked up from the lift, clicked in and...well let's say we don't miss summer anymore. Super light powder, and amazing views over Engelberg. And with no base whatsoever to comfort our skis...

We'll see you next summer with more hiking updates. In the meantime, we hope you come by Ski Lodge to enjoy the valley in a snow cover!

Cheers/Eric, Niklas, Johan & Ursula

Hiking: Engelberg - Jochpass

The first weekend of October we decided to do a shorter hike from the village up to Jochpass. Since we are now longing for the upcoming winter we decided to hike up where we usually have the most amazing powder runs during the winter, Laub and Sürzli. After passing Gershnialphütte where the local cheese we serve for breakfast is produced, a steep hike up Laub followed. Well, to be honest we were actually walking skiers left (hiker’s right) of Laub, right under the cable car. After one and a half hour of high speed hiking, we arrived exhausted to Trübsee where the rest of the Ski Lodge team met up (the lazy ones who took the lift up).

After a short break we continued with some off track hiking up in Sürzli, a nice and open offpiste area in the winter with a cool icefall and some nice drops. On our way up we were stunned by the amazing nature and the view over the Engelberg valley. We also took the opportunity to check out some nice lines and realized that the cliffs we dropped during last winter looked slightly scarier without a comforting layer of snow underneath.

Our hike ended up at Jochpass and it took us three hours to get there from the village. At Jochpass we met some downhill bikers enjoying the new downhill tracks. In a couple of weeks the snow will be deep up there so they, like us, had decided to take the opportunity to experience one of the last days of summer activities this season. Eventually we took the lift down to the village again and ended our day with a bath in the hot tub with our new neighbours, the alpcows, keeping us company.

Now we are starting to get ready for a new season with lots and lots of snow!

The four lakes' hike

On the last weekend of September, a group comprising a Central African resident, three Peruvians and three Swedes set off on the beautiful hike that starts at Trubsee (1800m.a.s.) and continues via Engstlensee and ends in the nearby ski resort Melchsee-Frutt. The hike is relatively easy, with the most challenging part being in the beginning (Trubsee to Jochpass, around 400 vertical). From Jochpass it is more distance than steep climbing. The hike itself is about 4 hours, but we took it nice and slow, with a celebratory champagne stop, some eagle spotting and a short pic-nic. All in all the hike took us 5 hours. From Melchsee-Frutt, you take the cable car down, then a bus to Sarnen and from there a train to Hergiswil, and then change trains to the Engelberg train. This makes the roundtrip closer to 5 hours. There is a pre-packaged ticket from SBB for around CHF 40, but with the Halbtax-card you get a 50% discount. This is a beautiful hike, with restaurants at Jochpass, Engstlensee and one closer to Melchsee-Frutt as well. On the road, we also found Marmots, Gems (mountain goats) and two large birds of prey (most likely eagles).