These boots are made for walkin'...

...and that's just what they'll do.

Rautispitz hike. Almost a marathon: 35km, 2075m (!) elevation gain/loss, 10:30h walking time plus half an hour of breaks. The mountain tricked me an won this time. I did not reach either of the two proper summits (Wiggis 2282m, Rautispitz 2283m) but only the ridge (which my altimeter also gives with 2281m but which must be somewhat lower) and later the Längenegg pass at 1814m.

The weather forecast was very grim with thunderstorms and rain starting early in the day. So I left home at 5:50 in the morning, arriving at the trailhead at 7:15. 4.5 hours later I was on the ridge, having scrambled up there the last couple of hundred height meters without a trail. The idea was to hike the summits from there. However, just when I wanted to the clouds started moving in fast and you could hear it rumbling on the horizon. The ridge is 200m vertical/overhanging on one side and very steep grass on the other. Not a place to be trapped with high winds, zero visibility and exposed to lightning. So I got down again and donned my rain gear. 2 or 3 drops of rain later the clouds vanished and the day turned into a real scorcher. By that time I was already on my way down. A bit frustrated I decided to at least hike the pass and turned up again.

Lessons learned: don't trust the weatherman, bring a map.

The trail from Netstal to Wiggis is beautiful. Well maintained and sheltered by the forest. It is quite steep, but with a very constant inclination so you can find your rhythm, adjust your heart rate and hike it away ;-) The descend via Obersee and Arschwald (sic!) is another matter though. This is mostly a paved road giving stupid fat tourists access to the mountain. They'll drive their SUVs up and "camp" in cabins, huge house tents (with the creek damed up to a swimming pool!) and hotels. All very disgusting really.

I've encountered a marmot, several chamois, tons of cows and some large predatory birds doing their circling thing.

I'll be back.

(a note on the map: the GPS went a bit haywire in places, I did not really walk those strange loops in the beginning or jump over the gulch)

More fotos:

2011-06-05 Rautispitz Hike