I wouldn't have my birthday weekend ruined by another rainy forecast for Switzerland. So I just planned a weekend away over on the Italian side of the Alps. CouchSurfer Mayeul hosted me in the village of Cadrezzate, and both on Saturday and Sunday we drove to the other side of Lago Maggiore to go walking. On Saturday we hiked...

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...

Having just moved to Zürich, I met up with two CouchSurfers for my first ever hike in the Swiss Alps. A perfect day for it as well, with impeccable weather. We took the train to Brunnen, a quick yet stunning ferry across the Vierwaldstättersee, and the Treib-Seelisbergbahn to gain 300 meters of altitude before the start. The...