Let's do some hiking!

--Route Summary at the bottom!--

During the last year I was doing an internship in Switzerland. As a nature-lover, Switzerland is paradise. Nature is everywhere, and can be easily accessed. Especially the easy way of travelling within Switzerland should be mentioned. Even though the somewhat bigger cities (Zurich, Basel, Geneva) are not right next to the mountains, it is still super easy to do daytrips.

I basically went hiking every weekend. My weekends were never really relaxing - waking up at 6 am to start the trip. SBB, the swiss federal railway, gets you everywhere - almost in no time!

So, let's start off with a moderate to somewhat hard hike in the northeast of Switzerland. The hike starts at the Säntis gondola station. To get there, it is approximately an 2 hour train ride from Zurich. This is almost nothing - even though in other countries this seems like a lot, it's very pleasant to travel with the trains in Switzerland. There is almost no changing time, making it a very pleasant ride!

So, we arrived at the gondola station....on a very nice mid october day.

... but where the hell is there a fucking hiking path up that mountain? Well...trust me, there is! The hike leads us up to the top of Säntis (where you could also go with the gondola). Then we will follow a ridge southeast, climb some other mountains and finally descend to Unterwasser. This route is approximately 18km long, starts at 1300 meters, goes up to 2400 meters and back down to 900 meters.

Enough talking...let's go! The first part starts off super steep, sorry for the bad picture - but it will get better!

Pretty early we are already facing snow, it's not too much, however, you still have to be a bit more cautious. And - if you don't have proper boots or Gaiters, you may end up getting wet feet!

We contine, and after a bit more than an hour we are halfway to the top!

The view is already amazing!

From there on we started walking towards the gondola mid station (it's not really a station, more of a mid tower where they could technically stop). We were walking underneath the gondola and crossed it. The way was mostly rocky, not that much snow on this side since it was the east side. You may see the gondola ropes a bit. We came from the other side (picture below).

Finally, the last part of the ascend was with metal stairs - steep as fuck, slippery as fuck. You better hold on with both your arms!

As you get closer to the top, you get more rewarded through the epic views. It's always the same - you're struggling the way up, waiting for the path to finally stop going up! But eventually, you will make it - and feel AWESOME!

After a short break on the top, we continued our way. We followed the ridge southeast. Looking back at the top of Säntis:

Now, the path mostly went down, only a few times we had to go up some stairs, which were usually protected with some metal wires, so you could hold on. It was still quite scary at some parts, since there was already quite some ice and snow! Also, you better focus on where you step, because here you can easily fall. So - watch out where you step and hold on to the wires!

Ok, it's starting to get late. So better hurry up and get down to Unterwasser!

Unterwasser is tiny - there was only a bus going back, and we almost didn't make the last bus for the day. It was a bit longer to go back to Zurich than to get to Säntis, but overall a very good day. With great ascends, superb views and a nice and slow (relaxing) descend.

From Säntis Gondola Station to Unterwasser:

Distance: 18 km
Starting altitude: 1350m
Finish altitude: 910m
Highest altitude: 2509m
Up: 1521m
Down: 1960m
Time total including breaks: ~8h