Engelberg - Brüsti
I started the hike at the Fürenalp cable car station, which I reached with a bus from Engelberg train station. It was a cold but nice morning as I started the hike and there was a crips autumn feeling in the air.
The first part of the trail is a mix between open landscape and parts through more vegetated areas. I crossed a couple of rivers, and since it had been raining the days before, there was a lot of water coming down from the mountains turning into waterfalls.
The hiking path on the first part up through the valley is gravel road, and it was a nice slow start to the hike. As I made my way up, I had great views back down and in direction Titlis and the Firnalpeli glacier.
Once you enter the area below Blackenstock before you reach Surenenpass, the landscape changes. Up here, the landscape made me think of Iceland and the Faroe Islands. I really like when you have many different kinds of landscape during a hike.
From here, the gravel road turns into a regular hiking path, which takes you the last steeper part up to and over Surenenpass. I had started out early in Engelberg, as the weather forecast had promised a more grey afternoon with the possibility of rain, and the closer I got to Surenenpass, the more grey it became.
Despite the clouds coming in, the views were amazing from up here, and I used quite a long time taking pictures and walking around in the area, before I continued the last part up.
Up at Surenenpass, I quite literally hit the wall. I could just faintly see the hiking sign on the top, and it just looked absolutely amazing how the wall of clouds were just sitting there. I made my way up to the pass to see how dense the cloud cover was on the other side, and to decide if I should continue or turn around.
The cloud cover on the other side was as dense as it had looked from below, but I could sense that there was a constant change in the cloud cover, so after a break and some lunch, I decided to continue on the route I had planned.
Walking down on the other side, it was a constant mix between slightly clear views to my surroundings and walking in a thick fog. The trail was some places a bit narrow, but nowhere did I find it uncomfortable or unsafe.
As I got closer to Brüsti and the cable car down, I had some brief views down towards Vierwaldstättersee. It was a very special and nice experience to walk in the clouds, but i will have to come back at one point and do this part in clear weather.
Reaching Brüsti, I took the cable car down and made my way to Altdorf, from where I caught a train back home to Zürich.
