Snowshoeing in Einsiedeln

On Sunday we went to Einsiedeln, which is a popular ski area close to Zurich (45 minutes by train). It was a perfect day for snow-shoeing, cold and sunny. I found a route plotted by someone using their phone. It is difficult to find good trail maps online, I think because everyone just "knows" these things and they are very well signed. But you need to know where to start and which direction to head, this is where a map would be useful.  The route was about 15km and took us about 8 hours, including quite a few breaks.

Benedictine Monastery. 

Possibly gold plated (or a very good gold paint), statue of Mary.

Start of the hike, you can see the Monastery behind me.

It was very cold at the start of the hike, especially as we were in the shade, at least -10 C I'd guess. We made good use of the ballaclavas and gloves Mom gave us for Christmas.

We took a break at this spot, overlooking Sihlsee. (A See is a lake, in German... so Lake Sihl)

Sihlsee and a little village.

Time to put on the snowshoes.

 For the first few hours of our hike we carried our snowshoes. The trail was partly on small roads or had been shovelled or plowed (yes really) for "winter"  hiking.  Also, it hadn't snowed in a few days so the trails were well used by walkers which makes difficult walking with snowshoes. We thought the hike was quite nice up to this point, beautiful scenery of hills and villages. But it just kept getting better.

A mountain hut where you can have a hot bowl of soup, glass of wine or beer, and maybe if you are lucky some Wurst und Brot  (sausage and bread).  We brought our own lunch with us, so we headed up the hill to the barn you can see in the distance.

A warm spot for lunch.

Up the hill from our lunch spot.

A cross with a seat at the bottom is common on hilltops in Switzerland.  

 This was the first of a number of hills, but we didn't know it as we were just following a route and I didn't really pay much attention to the elevation information.

The Mythen Peaks, along the way someone told us there is a hut on  top of "Grosser Mythen"  and the thing to do is stay at another hut in the saddle, and hike to the peak for sunrise.  We have added the Mythens to our list.

Our highest peak, the second of three.

School in Alpthal beside the bus stop.

  We hiked out at Alpthal and caught a bus back to Einsiedeln. The bus was packed with skiiers, snowboarders, and snowshoers, we were shoulder to shoulder. But you gotta love the Swiss transportation system. So nice to take a bus and train home rather than have to drive.  It was a fabulous day. We were tired but happy at the end of the day. This is one of great things about Switzerland. This weekend we are taking cross-country skate ski lessons. I was told by several people that even if you are an expert at classic it is much less frustrating to take a skate lesson than just do it on your own.  I'm looking forward to it, but looks like the weather won't be as nice as last weekend.