Mettmen
I have hiked in this area twice, first on the 20th of May, 2022 and a second time on the 9th of June, 2025. I got inspiration for this hike from the Kärpfbrugg-Rundweg, but I wanted it to be a bit longer, so I ended up with the below hike. There is a lot of different hiking paths in the area, so it is easy to modify the hike into a shorter or longer version.
Full route: Swisstopo
From Zürich, you take a train to Schwanden and after a bus ride, you can take a cable car up to Mettmen. There is a hotel and a restaurant at the cable car station in Mettmen.
The first time I hiked in this area, I hiked up from the bus stop to Mettmen and the second time, I took the cable car. Once in Mettmen, you start the hike along Stausee Garichti.
Once you are past the lake and start the ascent, you have great views back over the lake and the mountains in Glarus. The hiking path was well maintained and only for short parts steep through the forest. Once you are past the forest, the landscape opens up and you enter the valley and after a short time, you reach Kärpfbrugg.
The first time I visited this area, the weather wasn’t great, but the low hanging clouds still made for nice gloomy feeling, almost like being in Iceland (I imagine). It had rained the days before but even though there were quite a lot of water in small ponds and the streams, the hiking trails were okay, although a bit muddy.
The second time I was there, in June, the weather was completely opposite, sunny and very warm. It was nice to see the difference (and the mountains). The extra loop into the valley ending below the peak Chli Kärpf was well worth the extra kilometers.
After a lunch break by a small lake, I started the hike back down to Mettmen. It is a very nice hiking path, running up high so you have views down into the valley and far into Glarus in direction Ziegelbrücke. The path was some places a bit narrow, but nowhere did I find it problematic.
Back in Mettmen, I enjoyed the view from the cable car station once more, before taking the cable car down to the bus going back to Schwanden. I really liked this area and will definitely come back to do some of the other trails.
