My last Swiss walk of 2024 was in the snow, walking the Tüfelschlucht and on to the Belchenflue. It seemed perfectly natural then, that my first Swiss walk of 2025 should also be in the snow.
When I arrived back in Basel just after New Year, there was snow on the ground in places in the city. I reckoned that there must also be snow on the mountains. But where to go? I decided on Weissenstein. I wasn’t exactly sure what I would do there, but it seemed like a good place to go. There is a cable car that goes from the train station at Oberdorf, and if I took that to the summit, then there were many trails from there.
But the cable car from Oberdorf was not in operation. A sign at the entrance told me that due to recent storm damage, it was out of operation. That meant I would have to walk to Weissenstein. And so, I set off on my way. Very soon I was slipping on glatteis on the roadway. There was no point in taking out the snowshoes on the roadway, with no snow cover on the ice, so I gingerly made my way to where the snow began, and once there, I put on the snowshoes. After that, it was a steady walk along the trail through the forest.
The route goes northwards initially to get through the Steinenbruch, and then turns eastwards, following the Wildbach stream. It is a slow steady ascent up to Nesselboden, where there is the intermediate station for the cable car, idle as passed. From there, there is a short steep ascent to Wesissenstein, but I chose the more circular route through the forest. It is not so steep, but approaching Lischenloch, it seems to cling to the side of the mountain, with a steep rise on the right and a steep drop to the left. The route drops slightly into the Lischenloch and then ascends again to come out of the forest to the west of Weissenstein. I went on up to the crest of the ridge before turning eastwards towards the summit and the hotel-restaurant.
Needless to say, the hotel-restaurant was closed but that didn’t matter. On the way up, I had decided that my objective for the day should be Röti. I passed the farm and the hotel at Weissenstein, once again keeping to the top of the ridge. Once past Weissenstein, I had very little protection from the wind. The trees were not so plentiful, just a light treeline on the initial ascent towards Röti and didn’t offer the protection that I had earlier in the forest. But at least the wind was behind me, not quite directly at my back, but near enough. The route passes through the treeline, and then I was getting the full force of the wind. On the final stretch, it was blowing an absolute gale, taking me towards the summit marker.
Coming back from Röti was a battle between the wind trying to hold me back on the one side, and gravity and my own will on the other. I made it back down, through the treeline, and on back to Weissenstein. Once there, I took the direct route down to Nesselboden, and then I just had the track through the forest to bring me on down to Oberdorf. There were still other walkers coming up on the track even though by now it was early afternoon. I went on down through the Steinenbruch to the road. The glatteis had melted during the course of the day, making it safer for the final few metres to the train station. And then I just had the journey back to Basel.
My step count for the day was 26,139.
Walkingman 