The Schwalmere Southwest Ridge

We found the description of this on the SAC Tourenportal earlier this summer, yesterday was the day to do it.

We got a super early start (train at 5:20 from Basel) and did train-train-bus to Kiental. Amazing how many people were on that train from Bern (standing-room-only between Spiez and Reichenbach) and how many of them wanted to go to Griesalp (glad we weren't on either of those two buses). Anyway, we were underway shortly before 8.

along the Spiggebach

The route starts gently up out of town, then a lovely stretch along the Spiggebach (sooooo nice!). Up, up, through the woods (we're taking it slow today) and the first food-and-view break shortly before the Schindlere. It's super quiet, we see a few trail runners headed to the Schwalmere, but otherwise no other hikers. Now along the forest road a bit until the path turns steeply uphill (the normal route to the Schwalmere continues straight). Up, up through the forest until we run out of trees. Past the alp at the p1952 and another food/view break (the views are soooo good, the conditions are soooo good) and then further along the path until it meets the end of the SW ridge of the Schwalmere. Here (after 8 km and about 1000m of vertical) we leave the marked path and start the ridge itself.

views

At first it's easy hiking up through the grass, past two other people finishing up a break at p2228 (they end up continuing into the face and traversing to the normal path), and then the first scrambling followed by some steep grass to get to the Britterehöreli. The rock isn't really great (slate, pretty loose in a lot of places), so the scrambling requires quite some concentration, but the grass is nicely stepped. From the peak we have a nice view further along the ridge (and all around... this is really a fantastic ridge for views; of course it's also a T5 ridge, so enjoying those views means stopping!) and are comforted by the description telling us that the intimidating next tower is a lot easier than it looks. 

quick break before the crux

The descent from the Britterehöreli is normally the crux of the tour - quite steep grass, really exposed - but someone has outfitted it with a rope (which is even in good shape) and that takes a lot of the scary out of it. Onwards we go, mostly staying directly on the ridge, until the Glütschhöreli, which we first go around (there's a long overhanging rock section) and then climb up the side to regain the ridge. 

views along the long ridge to the Schwalmere

Onwards we go over p2511, and then we're on the final bit of ridge up to the Schwalmere. Up, up, with some good scrambling mixed in, until we reach the peak. We've been taking it slow all day (7.5 hours to the peak with breaks, the description calls for 6.5) and have a deadline to catch the last gondola/bus back, so we keep the food break and view enjoyment (the panorama really is spectacular) pretty short. We've got 2.5 hours and the description says 3 hours, so we switch into fast-descent mode and head down along the red-white trail. 

descent on the red-white trail

It's a nice descent through a lovely landscape (it's weird to be totally alone on a red-white path in a landscape like this!) and we make good time. Past the lovely Lobhörner, past the first other people we see below Sousegg, and down to the buildings at Suls. Here we take a short break to refill a water bottle and cool off hands and heads before continuing down, down, to the gondola at Sulwald. We're there 15 minutes before we need to be... we made good time.

past the Lobhörner

This was a great (though quite long) ridge tour. It's a bit surprising that we didn't know about it until this year, but I suspect this won't be the last time we do it. :-)

Track (this is drawn by hand, not clear what happened with the track from my watch):

Stats: 19.6km, 2090m up, 1519m down, 9:45 total