This is more or less a repeat of a trip
we've done before, but this time we started in Stansstad instead of Hergiswil.
This is a very nice hike. Today things were a bit overcast, and we were actually in a cloud from about the Windhorn to the Steiglihorn, but that just made things more dramatic. :-)
We didn't end up doing the scramble up the Esel since the ground was just a bit too soft. Instead we followed the (non-marked) path around the front of the Esel and joined the main hiking path up to the Kulm. The top was as crazy and packed as one would expect it to be, but the views were just fantastic: we were above the clouds and had an awesome panorama of the alps. The Matthorn, lightly sprinkled with snow, was really, really, cool looking. We need to do one of the ridges up to that peak.
The track:
And stats: 9.8km, 1885m up, 196m down. It took us almost exactly 4.5 hours to get to the Kulm, including breaks, so we weren't moving slow. :-)
