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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Alpine Hike

The beauty of living in Zurich is that I'm not too far away from escaping city life and making the most of the proximity of the Alps. On Sunday I went to Walenstadt – about an hour away by train – which is also one of the closest ski resorts to Zurich. As the skiing season hasn't really begun yet, I spent the day hiking.


Walenstadt is the name of the town closest to the ski resort.


Walenstadt itself is a small town situated on the border between Canton Sankt Gallen and Canton Glarus. It's a really picturesque area as the mountains look quite dramatic and there is also a lake in the valley, the Walensee. Once I arrived at Walenstadt train station I took a proper esoteric bus full of cheery locals up to Walenstadtberg, where I begun my hike.


Walenstadtberg is easy to get to from Zurich and it makes quite a pleasant day out.


Despite it being neither the hiking season nor the skiing season, the mountain seemed to attract quite a few people. I can understand why, it was nice to get on some high ground above the eternal fog which seems to have it's grip over much of lowland Switzerland.


Paragliders were also out in force.


Perhaps I will return here once the ski season gets under way, I've heard Flumserberg is particularly good and easy to get to too. From what I saw this side of the valley, it seems to have quite a varied range of pistes.

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