As many hikrs know, the south and southwest walls of the mountains around the Gonzen are snow free very early in the season. When I looked at them a week ago when riding by in the train, I saw, that most of the snow was gone already. Since the weather forecast promised really warm weather again for this day I decided to explore...

Two weeks ago I had plans to walk to Hinterfallenchopf from Hemberg, but for several reasons I had to cancel the undertaking. On this day I wanted to make up for the missed peak and in addition add some more summits close by. This time I approached Hinterfallenchopf from Ausserrhoden, more precisely from Urnäsch and also...

My plan for this day was to go south again to Ticino, but when I got up this morning and listened to the news, I had to find out that there were no trains to Ticino until noon due to a precarious avalanche situation in the Gotthard area. Now what? With all the snow we got, the avalanche situation in northern Switzerland was at 4...

I actually didn’t plan on going to Wildhaus on this day, because I just spent all weekend there on its surrounding mountains. However, since I forgot my jacket there, I had to go back and pick it up. After all I was glad and it was definitely worth the trip!   There aren’t very many mountains in this area which...

On this day I had an appointment to be in Arvenbüel shortly after 2 PM to walk to the Vorder Höhi and back. I didn’t only want to be in sunny Amden in the afternoon, but all day. Since I was on Gulmen and Stock a few days ago and in the SAC guide they discourage to go on Mattstock or Leistchamm at this time of the year due to...

As Delta already wrote in his reports (here and there), Stock is the not so well known little brother of the Gulmen. It is definitely less crowded than Gulmen but offers very nice slopes which are rather steep and therefore require safe avalanche conditions. For my approach on this day I decided to take the cable car from Amden...

I have been on the Gulmen numerous times already, both starting from the Toggenburg in Stein or Starkenbach and starting in Amden or Arvenbüel. By now I would probably find the summit even if I was blindfolded :-) This time I went up to the Gulmen very early in the morning and enjoyed a colorful and impressive sunrise on the...

Most of the people start in Vermol in order to get up to the Hüenerchopf. If there’s enough snow you can start the ski tour all the way down in Mels Plons – if you do so you get 1700 meters in altitude difference which you can ski down, but you have to walk it all up too... For a season opener it was kind of a lot...

So far I have only visited Raaberg West (P.1779 on the 25K Map), once in spring and once in fall, but not the actual Raaberg (P. 1723) as described in the SAC guide. The description in there is not really all that “appetizing”: “Der Berg wird selten bestiegen, denn jähe Rasenhänge und ein Legföhrengürtel erschweren den...

After Alpin_Rise published the route up to Gonzen via the Follaplatten and Gletschergrube in his report last fall, there was a big run in spring this year for this route by many hikr VIPs (like Delta: click, Fenek and Zaza: clack, and 3614adrian cluck). They all repeated this route in more or less similar ways. Of course I was...

After my failed attempt to climb Gamschopf a few weeks ago, I wanted to make sure I would succeed this time. For slippery steep grass, I even carried crampons with me, just in case… However, I didn’t need any aids at all and even found a new (?) relatively easy access (as compared to the east-ridge from Lauchwis) to...

The tours recently published on hikr about Gamschopf inspired me to give it a try as well. Unlike Delta or Alpin_Rise I don’t feel comfortable to climb a III up and down without any safeguards so I decided to approach Gamschopf from the Lauchwissattel via N ridge. Both Delta and Alpin_Rise said in their reports here and here...

I’ve been on all three Leistchamm before but never on all of them on the same day. For this day it was my main goal and then afterwards I wanted to decide what to do depending on the weather and mood. As so often before I started my hike in Arvenbüel going up to (Hinter- or Amdener-) Leistchamm on the marked route...

Ever since I bought the SAC guide “Säntis – Churfirsten” I wanted to climb the Öhrli. Those of you who own this book probably know why. On the cover of the guide there is a beautiful picture of the Öhrli which really invites you to go up there: But how should I go up to the Öhrli? About a month ago Omega3...

I have been on Federispitz and Speer numerous times. Since a work related event happened to be on Speer on this day, I wanted to explore a few uneasy “paths” up to these well-known. My plans for the day were rather ambitious – too ambitious as it turned out. I intended to go up to Federispitz from...

If you like easy flat hikes which don’t have big inclines, the Linth plane should be perfect for you. Walking along the Linth channel is almost completely flat. We walked from Ziegelbrücke to Bollingen, almost 20 km and the altitude difference we made was about 20 meters… There’s not much else to say,...

Western Raaberg is not well known amongst the mountains surrounding Amden. After Mattstock, Gulmen, Flügenspitz, Leistchamm and Chapf it only plays the second fiddle. The SAC guide (Säntis und Churfirsten) only describes the eastern most peak (1723 as Raaberg) and doesn’t even mention the highest point with the summit cross...

The weather forecast for the Toggenburg promised a short ridge of high pressure for the afternoon; a short window of more or less blue sky. With all the snow we got in the past days the avalanche safe short ski tour from Stein to Stockberg seemed like the perfect thing to do in the afternoon. When I changed trains in Wattwil it...

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...

Nägeliberg and Schären are not your typical ski-mountains. The way to their peaks from Strichboden is rather lengthy and the steepness of both mountains is not very homogeneous. In addition you need safe conditions, Schären is rated (S-) and Nägeliberg (ZS) in the SAC guide. However, if you choose to make the...