Mutschen – a roundtrip from Wildhaus with a rewarding detour via Zwinglipasshütte

The Mutschen is a popular mountain in the summer but not visited very often in the winter, because it is not the best mountain for skiing: quite a long way from Wildhaus or Brülisau, the slopes are mostly quite flat and in addition the way down includes re-ascents. Sounds like a perfect tour for snowshoes. Since I don’t particularly like to go down the way I come up, I decided to make a detour via Zwinglipasshütte on the way up and from there walk up to Ruchbüel and then along Chreialpfirst and Roslenfirst to the Mutschen saddle.

I started in Wildhaus Post walking down to the cable car station of Gamplüt. Right behind the station is the starting point of the path for the way up the Flürentobel. There was enough snow and I put on the snowshoes here already. The walk up to P. 1389 to the beginning of Tesel is actually pretty steep but quite impressive as well. The way from P. 1389 to the huts of Alp Tesel is flat. Instead of going further up the Tesel valley to Grueb, I took the path to the Zwinglipasshütte. This is the steepest part of the whole snowshoe hike (>35°), needs safe conditions and is the reason why I rated this tour WT4 (SAC skiing guide: ZS).

From the SAC hut, I then went up to Ruchbüel and followed the wide ridge, first to Chreialpfirst then all the way to Roslen/Saxerfirst. The whole ridge is rather flat, slight inclines and declines alternate, so not really suited for skis. Anyway, the view on this ridge is very nice; to your right is the Tesel, the Rhine valley and then the Alps and on your left you have lots of different facets of the Alpstein. Roslen/Saxerfirst then probably reveals one of the nicest views on the Kreuzberge, especially on a clear sunny day where not only the Rhine valley can be seen, but also the Austrian Alps.

From Mutschensattel I then went up to Mutschen, which offers an excellent view down to Gams and the rest of the Rihne valley. From there I then took the way down to Wildhaus via Grueb and Tesel. At the beginning there are a few slopes which would allow some good skiing, but soon you reach the flat part of Tesel again. From P 1389 I went back down the Flürentobel and Wildhaus.


Wildhaus – Flürentobel – P. 1389 - Alp Tesel – Chreialp – Zwinglipasshütte SAC - Ruchbüel – Chreialpfirst – Roslenfirst – Mutschensattel – Mutschen – Grueb – Alp Tesel - P. 1389 - Flürentobel - Wildhaus