After doing hikes to Oeschinensee and Grindelwald First last week, a hike to Schäfler was on the program on Thursday.
We spent the past few days in St. Gallen in northeastern Switzerland, an area we had not been to before.
It is a nice little town, very picturesque and quite quiet.
The Cable Car to the Ebenalp
We left by train, more like a souped-up streetcar, towards Appenzell to take the train to Wasserauen where the cable car to the Ebenalp was waiting.
The tickets cost CHF 24, manageable in itself but not cheap. It was immensely worth it, by the way.
It had been rainy all week, of course, but when we got to the top of the mountain it started raining really hard. So we decided to buy a rain jacket/poncho, available in the vending machine for 4 CHF.
The view was truly breathtaking.
We were at an altitude of 1,640 meters, and it is one of the most popular spots in the Appenzeller Alps.
Of course, as we walked up, it stopped raining and we were the only ones walking around in those cute red ponchos.
The first part of this hike would go from the Ebenalp station to the Schäfler, the high point, after which we would hike down towards Seealpsee. A beautiful mountain lake that I wanted to swim in. (Spoiler: this too was not going to happen).
The trail toward the Schäfler became increasingly steep, starting through a wooded area before transitioning into a more barren, rocky landscape.
As we climbed higher, the clouds thickened, obscuring the view. I noticed my breathing becoming more labored, we were now hiking steeply uphill at an elevation of around 1800 meters.
Not surprisingly.
Remember those cows.
We walked higher and higher and also came across a farm where people were working. Two farm children were walking around with their father.
Very special to see how people really live around here.
Schäfler’s Hut
I was really sweating myself to death. But we were almost at the top of the Schäfler. Almost we could start the descent. Then we arrived at the Schäfler hut, a place where you can rest, eat, drink and sit for a while on the summit.
We had a drink and walked around it. We ran into this sign.
We thought this was about the path on the left. We were under the impression that there was a dangerous section, and a less dangerous section so we walked on.
The path did get narrower and narrower, and ropes of iron appeared to hold on to so you didn’t slip down as you tried to walk.
That path was really narrow.
We did now have the beautiful view of the famous Schäfler’s Ridge.
After this, we had to go over some kind of stairs. It went down and I walked in front. It felt dangerous, I didn’t have much room to move and the path was still very narrow.
With every step on a hike like this, I found myself doing a constant risk analysis, asking whether the next foothold was safe, whether I could trust the terrain beneath me. Usually, that’s enough to keep going.
But here, I couldn’t guarantee our safety anymore. Admitting that was hard, really hard, but we had to turn back. The danger was real, and that warning sign was there for a reason.
This was no longer an ordinary hiking trail.
So we didn’t go back to Seealpsee either. We decided to walk back to the Ebenalp.
On the way back through the wooded trail, we ran into those farm boys again. With them were several cows on the path who were looking at us rather intimidatingly. Sanne had not had the best experience with Swiss mountain cows during the Grindelwald First hike.
We didn’t dare cross the path where the cows were.
At one point, a farm boy approached us. He looked at us for a moment, and we looked back at him. He started speaking in the local dialect, and I replied that I didn’t speak the language very well. In my basic German, I asked if the cows were friendly.
“Very friendly” he indicated to us. He suggested we lead the way. That seemed like a good idea. He petted the cows a bit and we could walk past them.
This did give us confidence for the rest of trail back. Because, of course, these were not the last cows we encountered.
We stopped briefly because we still had a view of the Seealpsee and then left in the direction of Wasserauen, the descent in other words. I’ll save that for another article.
