Ken Baldry's Alpine Pages

Crossing Switzerland on Foot


Original route start from Gargellen

North East start from Kappl

North East start from Ischgl

Joining & leaving sections by public transport

Ken in 1973 at 30, just after starting the walk.

Ken in 1995 at 52, just before completing the original walk.

Introduction

This was not originally an objective but when my Father died in 1993, it occurred to me that I should get some things finished. By that time, I had done about 60% of the trip in bits and pieces over the years and only three more trips were needed to complete it. It took 22 years to do 22 days walking but some of those were half days and it would take four weeks to reproduce it, with a sensible scattering of rest days. It is not Kev Reynolds 'Alpine Passes Tour' although it co-incides in many places, nor is it necessarily the 'best' tour. This account is made up of slightly edited diary entries and excerpts from notes from before I kept a diary. I have included notes of other parts of the individual trips in italics to show the context of the stages in the tour. Most of it was done alone and I have indicated where I was accompanied. But every inch was on foot.

Since completing the tour and before in some cases, I have done some alternatives, which were originally included as appendices. However, I have now included them in context to make this more guide-book-like.

Additions over the years.

July 2nd 2001 - Two of the sections were done in the 'wrong' direction, West to East. In June 2001, I corrected this anomaly & also improved the 16th section from Grindelwald to Wengen. If you have hit this site before then, you will now find many improvements.

In September 2005, I did a trip to add two new alternatives in the Western Bernese Oberland & to add many more route photos to this site,hoping this will be helpful.

In September 2009, I added the start from the far North-Easterly corner of Switzerland, which is a hill called the Grübelekopf & just next to it (West) is a pass from the Visnitztal, which comes up from Kappl in the Austrian Paznauntal. An alternative start from Ischgl was included in July 2011.

Ken has an illustrated lecture about this tour, which he is willing to give to societies.

This is how it broke down in days but new alternatives have muddied the pattern!:-

North-East Start from the Paznauntal

NE1. Kappl to Laret - Cuolm dAlp Bella

NE2. Laret to the Heidelberger Hut - Zeblasjoch &
Fuorcla da Val Gronda

NE3. Heidelberger Hut to Jamtal Hut - Kronenjoch

NE4. Alternative start. Ischgl to Heidelberger Hut &
Fuorcla da Tasna to Ardez

NE6. Ardez to Susch & Vereina or Fluela Passes

Alternative routes

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NE5. Galtur - St Gallenkirch - Zeinisjoch

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Original Route from Gargellen

1. Gargellen to Davos - Schlappiner Joch

2. to Arosa - Maierfelder Furka

3. to Chur - Carmenna Pass

4. to Tamins (half day)

5. to Bad Ragaz - Künkels Pass

6. to Walenstadt

7. to Weesen

7a. To Muotatal (Pragel Pass)

7b. To Burglen (Suvorovweg over Chinzig Pass)

8. to Schlattberg

9. to Braunwald (half day)

10. to Unterschächen or Burglen - Klausen Pass

10a. By Susten Pass

11. to Attinghausen (half day)

12. to Engelberg - Surenen Pass

13. to Trübsee (half day)

14. to Meiringen - Joch Pass

15. to Grindelwald - Grosse Scheidegg

16. to Wengen

17. to Mürren

18. to Kiental - Sefinenfurka

19. to Kandersteg - Hohturli Pass

20. to Adelboden - Bunderchrinde

21. to Lenk (half day) - Hahnenmoos

22. to Gsteig - Trüttlisberg and Krinnen Passes

23. to Col des Mosses - Blatti Pass

24. to Villeneuve - Col de Chaud

25. to St Gingolph (half day)

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1. Gargellen to the Lindauer Hut

2. to the Schesaplana Hut

3. to Liechtenstein

4. To Weisstannen

5. to Elm via Weisstannen

6. To Linthal - Richetli Pass

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7. to Braunwald (half day)

8. to Schwarzenbach - Bärentritt Pass

9. to Burglen - Chinzig Pass

10. to Brüsti above Attinghausen (half day)

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20. To Lenk or Iffigenalp from Kandersteg

22. To Gsteig from Iffigenalp

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A sensible East - West plan....

This is bearing in mind my original route had
'wrong way' sections & takes the easier options.

1. Gargellen to Davos - Schlappiner Joch

2. to Arosa - Maierfelder Furka

3. to Chur - Carmenna Pass

4. to Tamins (half day)

5. to Bad Ragaz - Künkels Pass

6. to Walenstadt

7. to Weesen

8. to Schlattberg

9. to Braunwald (half day)

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10. to Unterschächen - Klausen Pass

11. to Brüsti (half day)

12. to Engelberg - Surenen Pass
- unavoidable long day

13. to Trübsee (half day)

14. to Meiringen - Joch Pass

15. to Grindelwald - Grosse Scheidegg
- unavoidable tough day

16. to Wengen

Hint. Only go as far as Wengen & enjoy the views.
This makes the next day easy, if you do the shortest
way, before two unavoidable toughies in succession.

17. to Mürren

18. to Kiental - Sefinenfurka

19. to Kandersteg - Hohturli Pass
- unavoidable toughest day

20. to Adelboden - Bunderchrinde

21. to Lenk (half day) - Hahnenmoos or
on to Iffigenalp

22. to Gsteig - Trüttlisberg and Krinnen Passes

23. to Col des Mosses - Blatti Pass

24. to Villeneuve - Col de Chaud
- unavoidable tough day

25. to St Gingolph (half day)

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The tougher options

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1. Gargellen to the Lindauer Hut

2. to the Schesaplana Hut

3. to Liechtenstein

A day, which I have not done, to get from
Steeg in Liechtenstein to Weisstannen

5. To Weisstannen

6. to Elm via Weisstannen

7. To Linthal - Richetli Pass

8. to Braunwald (half day)

9. to Schwarzenbach - Bärentritt Pass

10. to Burglen - Chinzig Pass

11. to Brüsti (half day)

12. to Engelberg - Surenen Pass

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13. to Engstlenalp - Joch Pass

14. to Meiringen high level route

15. to Grindelwald - Grosse Scheidegg

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20. To Lenk or Iffigenalp from Kandersteg

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22. To Gsteig from Iffigenalp

It is the same from now on.

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The bold line is the frontier & the thinner line, the original walk.

To make it more useful, I have included the numbers of the Swiss National Survey 1:50,000 maps for each days walk as 'LKxxx' for Landeskarte and the map number. I have also added maps to every page but taken from the Official Map of the Automobil-Club der Schweiz, (with their permission) which is on this link. Heights are included in the form '1234m' where 'm' is metres above sea level.

Some of the photos have the route marked, using the Bill Poucher convention of dashes for the visible bits but dots for the bits behind the hill are not always practical on the scale of a web page.

Original route start from Gargellen

North East start from Kappl

North East start from Ischgl

Joining & leaving sections by public transport

Contact: Ken Baldry, 17 Gerrard Road, Islington, London N1 8AY +44(0)20 7359 6294 or e-mail him
URL: http://www.art-science.com/Ken/Alpine/XSwiss/index.html Last revised 13/7/2011 © 1998-2011 Ken Baldry. All rights reserved.