Central Switzerland - Europe - walking guidebook – Kev Reynolds

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Reviews
• Further Reading

At the heart of Central Switzerland lies the Vierwaldstättersee, the Lake of the Four Forest Cantons - better known to English-speaking visitors as the Lake of Lucerne.

Not only does it form the heart of the region covered by this guidebook, it also lays claim, with some justification, to be the very heart of Switzerland itself, for it was on the banks of the Urnersee (the southern projecting finger of the lake) that the Swiss Confederation was born 700 years ago. The Rütli Meadow on the western shore, said to be the meeting place of the founding fathers of the Confederation, is virtually a place of pilgrimage, a green tilted site of unspoilt simplicity that has come to represent the Swiss spirit of independence, hard-won and jealously guarded.

From Rütli Meadow you gaze over a landscape of lake, forest, pasture and mountain. On the far side of the Urnersee villages dot the shoreline. Above them steep sloping alps are punctuated with chalets, haybarns and tiny hamlets. Wisps of cloud dust summit snows on mountains sliced here and there with valleys that tease; valleys in whose secret depths wind trails that help unravel the peace and splendour of this alpine heartland.

Irregular in shape, the Lake of Lucerne must be one of the most beautiful in all of Europe. Rising from its shores two particular mountains that have been known and loved for centuries reveal panoramas of unparalleled magnificence from their easily-accessible summits. The first is Pilatus which overlooks Lucerne itself. Immediately below lakes and soft pasturelands spread patterns of tranquillity, but off to the south stretches a long wall of snowpeaks, several of whose shapely individual summits are recognisable from afar; the chain of the Bernese Alps. Well to the east of Lucerne rises the Rigi, a long sloping wedge of mountain that forms a rough block between the Vierwaldstättersee and the Zugersee. This too gazes south to a lovely wall of mountains, but these are mountains of the Central Swiss Alps; not nearly so well-known as those of the Bernese Alps, perhaps, but certainly no less remarkable, no less scenically spectacular.

From Pilatus and from Rigi the rich diversity of Central Switzerland is laid out for inspection. There is something here for everyone who delights in scenic splendour: neat tended pastures, gentle lakeside paths, easy summits, raw crags, glaciers and snowfields, mountain-locked tarns, huge waterfalls, limestone pavements, trout-filled rivers, deep gorges, open flower-starred plateaux...There are attractive villages, culture-rich towns, historic sites. There are cableways, rack railways and lake steamers that reveal aspects of beauty without the effort of walking. There are challenging walks, opportunities for lazy lake-side days, hidden glens lost to all but the most adventurous of wanderers, high passes to cross, marmot, chamois and deer to stalk, long views to dream on...

Something, indeed, for everyone.

Geographically Central Switzerland is a complex region covering several cantons, but if we imagine it as a wheel, with Lucerne as its hub, much of the country to the south and east of the lake is that which is included in this guide. It’s a region in which the mountains and valleys are so many spokes in the wheel, with other spokes, or valleys, cutting away from them swastika-like into assorted mountain massifs.

Begin by heading clockwise from Lucerne. East of the Vierwaldstättersee the Rigi is the dominant mountain mass with the lakeside resorts of Weggis and Vitznau providing mechanized access to its upper slopes. To the north and east lie other lakes: Zugersee in the north, bordered by low green hills, and the smaller Lauerzersee from whose soft shores views are either to the Rigi or to the twin Mythen peaks that rise above Schwyz, a small town whose name was adopted and adapted to encompass the whole country.

Schwyz sits at a junction of roads, one of which snakes eastward to the Muotatal offering superb walking possibilities by way of the Pragel Pass, Bisistal and Hurital. From each of these tributary valleys streams flow down to join the Muota, whose alluvial deposits have formed a low-lying strand on which Brunnen sits facing across the narrow lake channel where the Urnersee projects fjord-like from the main body of the Vierwaldstättersee.

The eastern wall of the Urnersee is uncompromisingly steep, yet there are walks to be had along midheight shelves of pastureland with superb views across the lake, or down to the broad trench of the Reuss valley that narrows in the south as it climbs and is squeezed by a mass of lofty mountains. Flüelen squats near the end of the lake. Altdorf is its better-known neighbour a short distance away at the foot of the Schächental where a serpentine road writhes up to the Klausenpass. Both sides of the Klausenpass offer grand country to discover on foot. On the eastern side lies Urnerboden, a beautiful, broad, U-shaped valley walled by Dolomite-like cliffs to the north and by the snow and ice of Clariden and Gemsfairenstock to the south. To the west of the pass the Schächental boasts one of Switzerland’s finest waterfalls spraying from its head above the tiny village of Äsch. On both sides of the valley there are high belvedere trails. There are foot passes to cross on the northern side which lead into the Muotatal, while cutting south of Unterschächen another splendid tributary glen, the Brunnital, heads towards the Windgällen massif.

Windgällen itself is more often approached from the peaceful, back-country valley of the Maderanertal which drains into the narrows of the Reuss gorge at Amsteg, while the western side of the Reuss valley holds a tight cluster of peaks - and more challenging country for mountain walkers - between Altdorf and Engelberg. But before we look at that delightful corner, mention should be made of the Fellital, an amazing valley, quite uninhabited save for a few remote alp huts where goats’ cheese is made in summer; a glen of unsophisticated magic with an easy walker’s pass at its head that leads to the Oberalp Pass.

Andermatt lies at the confluence of major trans-alpine routes. The Oberalp Pass, by which the valley of the Vorder-Rhein is gained, rises above to the east. To the west of the town is the Furka Pass, which either descends on its far side through Goms to the valley of the Rhone dividing the southern Bernese Alps and the Pennine Alps of canton Valais, or gives access to the Grimsel, heading north by way of the Haslital to the mainstream resorts of the Bernese Oberland. But south of Andermatt is the Gotthard, one of the most important of pass routes linking northern Europe with Mediterranean Italy. Historically significant, it is a major transit route today with road and rail tunnels disappearing into the mountains that wall Ticino.

Downstream a short distance to the north of Andermatt stands Göschenen, with its own secretive valley probing westward. Head into the Göschener Tal and you come to an alpine wonderland. At the head of the main Göschener Tal there’s an unsung tributary glen, the Voralp, worth exploring a few short kilometres inside the valley. There’s a large dammed lake, and above that the ramparts of the Winterberg, whose highest summit is the Dammastock (3630m), topped with snow and draped with glaciers. Another inner glen, the Chelenalptal, is accessible from the end of the lake. Glaciers tail down into it from the Hinter Tierberg, but where these icefields have withdrawn alpenroses are now taking over and colour blazes among the ageing moraines. It’s all so uncouth yet magnificent; country to wander into with heart singing.

North again from Göschenen another major valley cuts back north-westward from the main valley of the Reuss. This is the Meiental through which traffic grinds on the way to the Susten Pass. Yet away from the road this too gives plenty of scope for walking, while the peaks that block the valley are as spiritually uplifting as any.

The irregular block of mountains between the Furka and Susten consists of big glaciated peaks with a challenging heartland, in effect an extension of the eastern Bernese Alps. But to the north of the Susten is another, larger area crossed by no roads at all between that of the Reuss on the eastern side and the Lucerne-Brünig Pass road on the west. The Vierwaldstättersee forms a natural boundary to the north, and there are only three routes of access that cut into these mountains - two from the north and one from the south. The two northerly access routes are those that lead to Engelberg, virtually in the centre of this large block, and the narrow seasonal road to Melchsee-Frutt. That which provides entry to motorists from the south is the quiet road leading from the Gadmental into the Gental with the gleaming tarn of Engstlensee a short distance from the road-head. Although road access is severely limited in this large mountainous area, the walker comes into his own here. It is very much a walker’s paradise, a land of great beauty and many contrasts.

The final spoke in our imaginary wheel is created by the valley of the Sarner Aa which drains north of the Brünig Pass and enters the Vierwaldstättersee by way of the Alpnachersee at the foot of Pilatus. It is from this valley that one gains access to the high pastures of the Melchtal and Melchsee-Frutt, but the valley itself has much to commend it without straying far. There are three lakes, green and pleasant meadowlands, patches of forest and enticing views south to the distant Wetterhorn which, of course, overlooks Grindelwald in the neighbouring Bernese Alps.

So, Central Switzerland may be geographically complicated, but it offers a magnificent choice of terrain for a walking holiday. Those who enjoy soft, seductive valleys in which to amble, who are happy to take advantage of mechanisation to gain high viewpoints and then to wander down, will find themselves spoilt for choice in the hills on either side of the northern Vierwaldstättersee, while those who prefer a more rugged landscape will be well content with the wild country accessed from the Göschener Tal in the south. In between there’s a middle course, and plenty of it too: a middle course of green but challenging hillsides; valleys full of alpine charm, with belvedere trails that link isolated summer-only hamlets; valleys with no proper road into them, just a dirt track used by farmers or maybe a mule-trail that has yet to bear the imprint of a motor vehicle’s wheel.

Here in the very heart of Switzerland, just a short distance from some of Europe’s major transit routes, a modest few kilometres from tourist-thronged resorts, it is possible to wander for days at a time even in mid-summer and see but a tiny handful of people. In this respect Central Switzerland is something of a conundrum. This guidebook offers an opportunity to explore some of the very best it has to offer. None who love mountain scenery on a grand scale need ever be disappointed.