There are unusual amounts of snow around, so we go for a local hike in the snow. The idea is to start in Arlesheim, walk up past the Schartenflue and then enjoy the sun on the Gempen plateau.
Starting in Arlesheim we walk up, up through town, past the Goetheanum (in snow now, on a trail that's clearly also been used as a sledding track), take a shortcut through the woods (also used as a sledding track, plenty of ducking under trees weighted down by snow here), then up, up, past greg's favorite bench, more woods, then some forest road (starting to see plenty of people sledding here), past the buildings at Im Baumgarten, then across the fields and the usual way up to the Schartenflue. No views from here because we are in the fog. Damn! Further along the path through the woods, across the road near the bus stop then more following a track through woods until we hit another road, through houses and then further along to the farm road across the plateau. Still in the fog here, damn damn! Cross the plateau and then down into the woods, where we have a quickish food break (it's not warm) before continuing on and up onto the trail along the edge through the woods. The first bit of this has plenty of ducking under trees and branches, but it clears up after a bit and turns into a lovely walk through the snowy forest. We continue along until getting to Hochwald, decide not to take the bus from here (it's not a particularly efficient way home), and continue up out of town, past the campground, down past Herrenmatt, down to the trail we take to get up to the climbing area at Bärenfels, and then down down to Aesch and the train back home.
Would have been nice to have had the sun, but this was still quite a nice walk through the snow.
Track:
Stats: 4:30, 16.3km, ~680m up
