Walking around Speer

My second weekend in Switzerland, and again I joined up with two other hikers through CouchSurfing. The initial idea was to do the Kletterweg on the north ridge of Speer, there was still a surprising amount of snow, and one of the fellow hikers would not have been able to make it up that route anyway. So in the end, it became a long walk from Ebnat-Kappel, with a stop at the Tanzboden hut, then through the pass between Speer and Speermürli, followed by a long descent though into the valley towards Stein.

Highlights of the day: the views towards Säntis and the Alpstein massif on the initial ascent towards Tanzboden, the quiet atmosphere around Elisalp, the panoramic view (including Säntis, the Churfirsten and the Mattstogg) when you reach the pass between Speer and Speermürli.

Not so exciting: the thunderstorm that hit us on the descent. Luckily when we got to Stein, we got a bus almost without waiting. And a few minutes later an even worse thunderstorm hit, with a bucketloads of hail falling down. But apart from a quick sprint from the bus to the sheltered railway platform in Neslau, we fortunately didn't suffer from that one.

All together a long day, which should not have been so long, but the pace of one of the other walkers was just too slow. As I saw him struggling, I had suggested to cut the route short and to descend towards Rieden. He had however a little stubbornly insisted that he was doing fine and that we should continue. He must have come to regret that decision, but there were no more shorter ways back afterwards. In hindsight, I probably should have been more insistent on taking the short way back.