From Amden to Quinten – an easy walk from winter to spring

The area on the northern side of the Walensee is blessed with an almost Mediterranean microclimate. Supposedly Quinten is the warmest place in the canton of St. Gallen and sometimes the northern side of the Walensee is referred to as the “Riviera der Ostschweiz”. Our walk started in Amden where the snow was still very close. When we arrived in Quinten, it was definitely almost T-shirt weather and the first signs of spring were quite obvious.

We started the hike in Amden (Post) and first walked down along the marked path towards Betlis. You walk by Geren and then into the interesting gorge of the Fallenbach. I think the bottom of this gorge probably never gets any sun even in the summer, and even though the other slopes below Amden don’t have any snow any more, in this gorge there where lots of icicles hanging from the rocks. There is also a little cave there.

As soon as we got out of this gorge it started to get warmer and warmer by the minute and at Schöpfsack after getting into the southern walls, we could definitely take of the winter clothes. The further we got the more we enjoyed the spring like day. We continued our way to Quinten via Hinter- and Vorderbetlis to Seerenbachfall (the tallest waterfall in Switzerland - which didn’t have much water at this time of the year), then up the Seerenwald above the Steinbruch, then via Platten and Steinlaui to Quinten.

Amden - Geren - Schöpfsack - Hinter- and Vorderbetlis - Seerenbachfall -Seeren - Platten - Steinlaui - Quinten.