Luchsingen - Braunwald
I did this hike on the 21st of March, 2025. As it was still early in the hiking season, I was looking for snow free areas, not too far from Zürich. The lower parts of Glarus were mainly snow free, and I decided to hike up as close to Oberblegisee as possible, and continue to Braunwald from there.
Full route: Swisstopo
I took the train from Zürich to Luchsingen, where I started the hike. Once you are out of town, the ascent to Oberblegisee starts. You walk up through forest, and although it was mid March, some flowers had started to come through.
It was a rather cloudy day, but I still had nice views over the valley and surrounding mountains, which got even better once I was out of the forest. The trail was snow free until about half an hour before I reached Oberblegisee, where snow patches startet covering up the trail.
Up by Oberblegisee there was a thick snow cover, but it wasn’t too difficult walking on. I walked a bit around, following trails from other people, to not sink into soft snow. Both the views of the mountains just behind the lake and views back in direction Braunwald were great.
I came across a hiking info pole, which clearly showed how thick the snow cover was. I decided to take a short lunch break by the lake before continuing in direction Braunwald. I was completely alone and it was a very calm and special setting.
After taking a few more photos of the landscape, I continued the hike, which for the first half hour was the same way down from the lake as I came up. After this part, I turned off in direction Braunwald, and more trails through forest.
Getting out of the forest on the other side, I got the first views of Ortstock just behind Braunwald. The cloud cover was as thick as in the morning, but it made for a special and different setting than when I normally hike in sunshine and clear skies.
The rest of the trail back was almost snow free, and nowhere problematic to walk. Back in Braunwald, I took my time to enjoy the views and a bit of sunshine coming through the cloud cover.
After a short break, I took the Braunwaldbahn down to the train, from where I continued back to Zürich.
