Weissenstein

There are several mountains called Weissenstein. There is one in Austria, and another in Germany, but it is the Swiss one that is closest to me, and therefore of most interest. It is one of the higher summits in the eastern Jura at 1281m above sea level. It must be said that what is known as Weissenstein is perhaps not the true summit, with the nearby peak of Röti being about 100m higher.

There are many routes to the top of Weissenstein. It is possible to get there by road from both the southern and northern sides of the ridge. And close to the nearby town of Solothurn, there is a cable car that goes right to the top. But neither of those fit in with my style in terms of getting to the summits. Naturally, I chose to walk. There are even multiple routes for the walker, with Weissenstein being on the Jura Hohenweg, Swiss national walking route #5.

I chose a route that went from the nearby hamlet of Gänsbrunnen on the northern side. Gänsbrunnen is the site of a huge quarry that is upsetting to the viewer, like an ugly scar on an otherwise pretty face. However, such is the demand for building material that I suspect the quarry will not stop any time soon. From Gänsbrunnen, the route initially ascends through fields to reach the forest.

Once the trail reaches the forest, it turns westward. The ascent continues, though gently, along a forest road. There are rocky cliffs on one side and a precipice on the other. The road continues to hug the mountainside in this way until it can go no farther, and then a tunnel takes the walker through to the other side.

Once through the ridge, the forest trail turns eastwards. It is level at first, but then starts to ascend again. I continued through the forest in this way, with the ground frozen underfoot, and ice coating the pools here and there. Eventually, I emerged into patchy snow somewhere between 1100m and 1200m.

At this stage, I had joined the Jura Hohenweg, and all I would have to do would be to follow that route eastwards to the top. I was into the mist, and it was decidedly wintry at this height.

This section of the route is also a Planetenweg. There are many of these in Switzerland. Each Planetenweg is a scale model of the solar system, and this one has the sun, its centre, at the Weissenstein hotel. I was still half an hour from the hotel when I came to Saturn. Going further, I came across a set of wind chimes. Disturbing them made for interesting “music” in the frosty air.

Eventually, though it didn’t take too long, I reached Weissenstein itself, with the hotel in view. As I approached it, I passed the Planetenweg markers for Mars, earth, Venus and Mercury. It takes light about 8 minutes to reach earth from the sun. On the Planetenweg, it took me about 3 minutes to go from Earth to the sun. So relative to the scale of the model, I was moving at about twice the speed of light, which is an interesting thought. The fact that it took me about 25 minutes to get there from the Saturn marker gives some understanding of the scale of our solar system, never mind the scale of the entire cosmos.

Once at the hotel, I was please to come in out of the cold. On summer days, when I stop for refreshment, it is usually a cold beer, but on this occasion a coffee and a pastry was more appropriate. Back outside, I took a little time to vied the landscape to the south, though it seemed like all of Switzerland was under cloud

On leaving the hotel again, I went over the Weissenstein pass to the northeast, taking the regional route 478 towards Welschenrohr. Close to the pass, the forest had a fairy tale quality. The snow underfoot and resting on the trees seemed like something out of a tale by the Brothers Grimm.

Once over the pass, the trail descended rapidly. I didn’t go into Welschenrohr, but on reaching a junction turned westwards again, still going through the forest.

Eventually I came out of the forest just above the hamlet of Wirtshof, and Gänsbrunnen was soon in view. I would have liked to visit the small church there, but it was closed and locked.