A two day hike in a remote location was required in order to escape the Swiss national holiday festivities. The inspiration came from the Nollenhorn and Joderhorn descriptions in the SAC Alpinwandern/Gipfelziele Oberwallis guidebook, though in the end we didn't visit either summit. With bad weather on Saturday, we decided to limit...

Day 1: Arolla - Pas de Chèvres - Cabane des Dix(T4, 1050m ascent, 150m descent, 4 hours) The Val d'Hérens is not as peaceful as expected when we travel in by Postauto. There is an overwhelming police presence and we pass through several police checkpoints along the road. Apparently they were on the hunt for two burglars, who...

With its iconic trapezoidal summit snow field, Vrenelisgärtli is one of the most recognizable mountains in the Zürich "skyline". Though it misses out on being the highest summit of the Glärnisch massif by a couple of metres, it's certainly the most popular peak in the area. I'm always keen to avoid busy normal routes, and the...

Taking a day off to escape the heat wave, the goal had to be somewhere high up in order to find cooler temperatures. The Piz Mitgel via ferrata had been opened last week, with the Savognin website recommending ice axe and crampons for the summit ascent. Fully equipped, we drove to the Plang la Curvanera car park at 1844m. The...

The Niederbauen-Chulm was my first proper Swiss summit after I moved to Zürich in 2013. Two years later, I came back for the continuation of the mountain chain. ---- After taking the Niederbauen cable car, we head for the Oberbauenstock. There are no signposts at P. 1758, where the Oberbauenstock route leaves the main...

After having done the via ferrata of "the face" on Le Moléson last year, I went back for the via ferrata of "the pillar". The two routes run next to each other up the north face of the Moléson. Le Pilier is slightly easier (K4-) but the difference is not massive. The via ferrata du Pilier is a mix between rather mucky ledges and...

I've really come to enjoy my after work sunset hikes this spring. The time had come for another one: Grosser Mythen via Schafweg and Rot Grätli. It's hardly a secret route. There are tons of reports here on Hikr (excellent descriptions in German e.g. by Chrichen,Bergmuzz, أجنبيand HBT), some of which also at sunset. The...

After many cancelled plans due to different "personal circumstances" and the weather, I finally found a few dry hours to go out on Sunday afternoon. With David and Franziska I headed for the Vitznauerstock / Gersauerstock, on the border between Luzern and Schwyz. It is claimed as a "Hausberg" by both the Luzern village of Vitznau...

With a last minute change in the weather forecast predicting better weather in the afternoon, rather than in the morning, I allowed myself a lie-in and only started for the Murgtal relatively late. After some issues with navigation (the Murgtal is not signposted anywhere), financials (a rather heavy 10 CHF has to be paid at a...

I still had an account to settle with the Chüemettler. Already back in April, I wanted to climb the summit at sunset. I had come prepared for some snow, yet I had still expected much less snow than there actually was. I got stuck before the Furggli, but still managed to get high enough to see the sunset. The descent towards...

The Sibe Hängste is a mountain in the Entlebuch-Emmental region, an area that I've come to love for its selection of interesting, "day hike sized" mountains and for the great views on the transition from Mittelland into Berner Oberland. Though there are no official hiking paths on the Sibe Hängste, the traverse of the whole...

Throwing in the following three ingredients... 1) Anxiety to finally properly start the 2015 hiking season 2) A good weather forecast for the whole weekend in the south 3) My intention to do some treks with bivouacs this year ...an ambitious plan was created: a two day hike from near Lake Como in Italy over the...

The Stockberg (the one near Siebnen at the entrance to the Wägital) has been described about as often as can be expected here on Hikr. With a modest altitude of 1212m and no particularly interesting ascent routes, the alpine hiker rather looks higher up the valley where many fabulous mountains await. The Stockberg has two massive...

Wat Phu Tok is located in the Isan region in eastern Thailand, near the city of Bueng Khan. It is a sandstone outcrop that rises some 100m above the plains in a spectacular fashion. A temple was founded on the hill relatively recently, in 1968. Ever since, the monks have been building and maintaining a spectacular set of wooden...

On pages 92-93 in the SAC Alpinwandern/Gipfelziele Gotthard guide book, there is a collage titled"I (heart) Gotthard" with 16 pretty photos of different sights around the Gotthard pass in different seasons. When I first browsed trough the book, one of the small photos in particular immediately drew my attention. At there very...

This report has been lying around since the 21st of December. What should have been the first day of winter, turned out to be one of the last days of summer. Sunshine, hardly any snow, and even the forecasted strong wind was nowhere to be found. A great day for a solo hike across the Entlebuch summit Beichle. --- I've hardly...

The Wägital offers an unusually high concentration of exciting alpine hikes, and this just a stone's throw away from Zürich. As such, it's almost scandalous that I hadn't explored this valley much so far. The continued superb mountain weather this autumn and a confident hiking partner - Hikr's madu - provided an unexpected...

It's always satisfying to do a hike connecting two points, between which there are no roads whatsoever. This concept becomes even better when start and finish lie in two different countries. With this in mind, I planned this hike from Malbun in Liechtenstein to Gurtis in Austria. With the Galinaspitz, we could even include a nice...

With extremely mild and sunny mountain weather for the weekend, I immediately went looking for regions with little snow. The Alpstein seemed to offer best conditions for an unusual late-November alpine hike. The only thing worrying me about the weather forecast: it was just too warm. I was hoping for hard snow in the morning,...

Yorkshire was my home for almost four years. Nicknamed "God's own county", Yorkshire has some stunning landscapes on offer. It has become better known this year, being number three on Lonely Planet's top regions to visit in 2014 and successfully hosting the start of the Tour de France. Still, Yorkshire is a disgracefully empty...