Packrafting River Glatt / Switzerland – Part 2

As promised in this blog post, we continued our mission to packraft the Glatt River from the Greifensee lake to the Rhine. This time, it didn’t snow fortunately but it was still bloody cold and the river was getting more challenging as can be seen in the video. Due to fact that we didn’t wear any helmet and are still in the “learning phase”, we circumvented some white water rapids which turned out to be right decision in most of the cases

However, again, it was an awesome trip we both totally enjoyed – watch out for some more stuff to come! Our Packrafting-TODO List for Switzerland is growing each and every day almost

Packrafting the Glatt River – Switzerland – March 2013 – Part 2 from Domber42 on Vimeo.

Winter Hiking in Maloja, Engadin, Switzerland

We spent only one weekend in Engadin, Switzerland, and did some walking on the frozen lake as well as a minor hike in the nearby mountains. St. Moritz is not a place normal people have to visit – not much special to see there except for rich and wonna-be rich people.

Packrafting River Glatt / Switzerland

Snow, degrees hardly above zero and from time to time some sun – what do you do then in Switzerland? Exactly – Skiing! Packrafting!

This time we focussed on the river Glatt – starting at the Greifensee lake, we had to get out of the river several times due to some dams. After various hours, we finished this trip near the town of Rümlang. However, we will continue from here the next time and follow the Glatt river until it meets the Rhein.

Packrafting the Glatt River – Switzerland – February 2013 from Domber42 on Vimeo.

Packrafting Vierwaldstättersee / Switzerland

Lefix and I “wasted” last Saturday hiking and packrafting the area around the Vierwaldstättersee near Luzern. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten my GPS clock but were able to draw an estimation of the trail we did by foot and raft.

Hell Yeah! 33km Trailrun on a Monday Afternoon

Knabenschiessen means in Zurich half a day off! Perfect time to run 33 km out of the box with the sun in your face.

One friend who joined me is in a much better shape than I am when it comes to running such distances. So this time I was pushed hard instead of pushing others which made the whole concept kind of interesting for me.  Anyway, we took the train to Siggenthal and tried to find the way back to Zurich. It took us about 4.5 hours to finish 33 km and approx. 1300 meters up and down. However, in the end we reached Zurich and really enjoyed this trip – the countryside is simply beautiful even in this area.

Map of the trail:

Some further pics I made during the trip:

Approaching the Rheinwaldhorn via Olivone – Tessin

The weather forecast was pretty bad but it was still an awesome trail, although it wasn’t possible to put our original plans into reality. We took the bus until Olivone and camped on the way to the Lago di Luzzone. On Saturday, we hiked via the Lago Di Luzzone towards Passo del Laghetto. From 2000m altitude onwards, heavy snowfall cloaked the trails so we decided not to pass the Laghetto pass. I still share the opinion that this was the right decision.

At the Capanna Adula UTOE about 40 persons made a reservation and none of the showed up due to bad weather forecast, according to the cottage owners. We were the only visitors this Saturday.

Conclusion: Another awesome trip – beautiful nature and views – weather was better than expected!

Trail: Züri Oberland-Höhenweg

I was totally aware of the fact that today’s weather forecast was bad – rain, rain, rain – however after weeks with heavy business as well as private workload I felt the need of going out there and check whether my old and wasted body is still working when I want him to do so.

On wanderland.ch (very helpful site btw.) I came across the following trail: Züri Oberland-Höhenweg
So my intention was clear – jump in fast and finish faster – at least a part since the complete trail is about 72Km

Unfortunately, I started pretty late in Turbenthal where my train arrived. Then I had some issues with my GPS – hence, the recording omitted the first few kilometers.

Here are some dates I extracted from my GPS-enabled clock:

Complete time for the trail: 4:34 hours (including only short stops)
Distance: 32,2 KM
Wasted Calories: 4265 Cal
Climb-up: 1209m
Climb-down: 1114m

Map of the trail:

Scale of Meters in Altitude:

Some further pics I made during the trip (sorry for the bad quality – mobile cam only):

 

Walensee Switzerland – Amden to Walenstadt via Leistkamm

Yesterday, Saturday 31st of June 2012, was one of the hottest days in Switzerland so far – this describes in detail why I was one of the few people who did some hiking at that day.

I started pretty late around 9am in Amden pushing forward to Arvenbuehl. From there I went up on the Leistkamm and continued towards Walenstadt. The view was amazing as was the weather (around 30 degrees – drank around 7 liters of water on the trip). I arrived in Walenstadt around 4pm so I had quite a good pace. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten my GPS tracker so I cannot provide any further information.

Rigimarsch 2012 – yes, we can!

The Rigimarsch is a yearly event taking place in May where people from all over Switzerland and even Germany come together in order to walk about 50 Km and fight against 1500 meters of altitude in the end in order to climb the Rigi mountain. Sounds strange, I know, but it was awesome. We, 5 people, started together but only 2 of us made it to the top of Rigi at about 7am in the morning.

Here are some dates I extracted from my GPS-enabled clock:

Complete time for the trail: 12:07 hours (including longer breaks)
Distance: 50,13 KM
Wasted Calories: 6823 Cal
Climb-up: 1830
Climb-down: 657

Map of the trail:

Scale of Meters in Altitude (not complete):

Some further pics I made during the trip:

Easter Trails Part 1: Mendrisio Region (Tessin)

Over Easter, some friends from Germany came down to Switzerland for enjoying the awesome swiss weather and countryside. Hence, we went to the Tessin region for hiking some mountains near Mendrisio. We started in Cabbio where we parked the car and did a nice 7 hours hike.

Some Numbers:

Lap time: 7 hours with some large breaks
Distance: 17,47 km
Climb-up: 1419 m
Climb-down: 1419 m

Large map of the region:

More detailed map of the trail:

Scale of Meters in Altitude:

Some impressions of the outstanding countryside:

First Trail of the Summer Season: Sihlbrugg – Zurich

Yesterday was the perfect date for starting the first trail of this summer season: Sihlbrugg Station to Zurich Trimli. The weather was sunny without any cloud in sky.

Here are some dates I extracted from my GPS-enabled clock:

Complete time for the trail: 3:37 hours (including short stops and one longer break)
Distance: 22.2 KM
Wasted Calories: 5002 Cal
Climb-up: 1204
Climb-down: 1308

Map of the trail:

Scale of Meters in Altitude:

Some further pics I made during the trip:

Brief Saturday Hiking Trip: Oetwil – Altberg – Oerlikon

Sunny saturday – perfect temperatures – this means hiking. Even directly around Zurich you can find beautiful places for hiking, relaxing and enjoying nature. This time, we did a 3 hour trip from Dietikon to Zurich Affoltern which is basically this trip here reversed.

Brief Hiking Trip: Gipswil – Bachtel – Hinwil

Again, the weather was amazing over this weekend motivating us to do yet another brief day trip: Gipswil to Bachtel (peak) down to Hinwil and back to Zurich. The countryside was amazing and the trails are pretty well prepared even in the winter. However, the temperature dropped to -13 degrees which could hardly be improved by the shining sun.

 

 

Brief Hiking Trip: Zurich Uetliberg

Over the weekend we had amazing good weather here in Switzerland and of course this has to be used for getting out and see some awesome swiss nature. This time, we just made a brief one-day hiking trip starting at the Zurich Uetliberg continuing until Buechenegg. Some pictures can be seen below:

Hiking Trip: Saentis – Appenzeller Land

The last weekend was astonishing sunny and in case you wouldn’t have known that it’s Mid November, you would have thought it’s May or June. Our trip was quite challenging for IT guys : We did approx. 2000 meters up and down at the first day and chilled at the second. This map shows our approximate route starting at Schwägalp, climbing up the Saentis Peak, continuing via Lisengrat which already had a lot of snow and descending to Fälenalp. Awesome!

Some further impressions:

Hiking Trip: Wildspitz – Aegeri Trip

This weekend, I made one of my first short trips here in Switzerland to the Wildspitze. Mainly, we followed this easy trail which takes you about 5 hours Sattel via Wildspitze to Unter-Aegeri. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

And here is a short video giving an impression of the amazing view: