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Hiking in Switzerland #4: Engelberger Rotstock

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Yes! We're back at it. Once again it's time to go hiking! Today, we will be heading to a place you may already know - Engelberg. You are asking yourself: "No, I haven't heard about this place yet?" Then maybe you might want to start here!

Engelberg is a small town with roughly 4300 inhabitants located in the very center of switzerland. It can be reached by train from Zurich (via Luzern) in less than two hours. This is one reason why it is a popular touristic place not only in the winter, but also in the summer. With as many as a million visitors per year, Engelberg and the Titlis mountain is one of the main attractions in Switzerland. Already in the beginning of the last century, in 1913, the first gondola was opened in the region. Due to continously increasing tourism, the Engelberg area developed into a skiing area with roughly 80km of slopes. Furthermore, in the summer you may start marvelous hikes on the more than 500 kilometres of trails.

Today we will climb up to the Engelberger Rotstock, a peak located slightly northwest of Engelberg.

It may look like a short route, but it is about 23km and we have about 2000 metres to climb, and another 2000 to go down! Unfortunately, this is somewhat of a one-way hike. So we will have to go down the same way we came up. But hey - it's still gonna be a good hike!

We start early in the morning at 9 o'clock from the Engelberg train station and make our way over to the northwest side of the valley, close to the Ristis/Brunni gondola station. Of course we are not going up with the gondola, but instead pass underneath and start making our way up the mountain!

We keep to the right of the gondola route and simply continue to follow that mountain ridge up. It's rather simple and not much of thinking needed: keep going straight, keep going up! Two hours and 900 meters in altitude later, we take a short break while already having a great view over the valley.

We have some company, too! And yet again, the weather is great. For a early November hike, it's very warm and the sun is shining strong. We were prepared for much worse (and colder) weather!

We continue our way up the rocky path. Another 1000 meters (in altitude) to go. The way is sometimes rocky, sometimes just made of dirt or gras.

At almost 2 pm, after 4 1/2 hours of hiking, we arrive at the top. The last few hundred metres were quite hard and steep, but it was worth the hassle! Looking at the route from the top, Engelberg surely seems quite a bit away!

Of course there's already snow at the top, as it is the beginning of November!

After an extended lunch break with this sweet panorama, we start our way back down. It's always a bit boring to go down the same way you came, as it is nothing new and no real goal in sight. Except maybe getting home ;) After a total of 8 1/2 hours we arrived back at the train station at 6pm. Another well spent Saturday with waking up at 6am and returning home after a 23km hike at 8pm. I could do this every Saturday!

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From Engelberg train station to Engelberger Rotstock and back:

Distance: 32 km
Starting altitude: 894m
Finish altitude: 894m
Highest altitude: 2817m
Up & Down: 2044m
Time total including breaks: ~8h

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Make sure to check out my other posts in this series:

• Hiking in Switzerland #1 - Saentis
  
  
• Hiking in Switzerland #2 - Surenenpass
  
  
• Hiking in Switzerland #3 - The Eiger Trail

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Stay tuned for more awesome shit,

-Steffen