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Short Description
A popular holiday region, Melchsee-Frutt offers a number of skiing, winter hiking, and snowshoe hiking routes. Erzegg Trail being the only officially open one when I chose to go for the first snowshoe hike of the season.
The trail leads up to “Gumm”, then around Tannensee lake and back to the cable car station.
In a rare move, my version shortens the route by excluding the excursion to the cable car station at the top, because… why?
Impressions
A sunny Saturday after a week of snowfall and subzero temperatures seemed like the ideal day to start off the winter hiking season, and Melchsee-Frutt housing one of the highest altitude trails I could find would offer the best chance of deep snow this early in the season and after an unusually warm autumn.
That guess turned out to be correct, as I was presented with a veritable winter wonderland, albeit a rather populated one.
As for the snowshoe trail, well, it seemed to just follow prepared winter hiking and cross country skiing pistes, making the snowshoes somewhat superfluous. I mean, of course you could go off into the deep snow next to the piste and make your own trail, but it just doesn’t feel the same with people walking on solid ground a few meters to your right…
Anywhoo, having reached the highest point of the trail and enjoyed the last bit of sun before continuing with freshly frozen fingers from taking the gloves off to eat from a metal container, the view of the alps was fantastic.
This was also the point where the trail turned into an actual snowshoe trail for the final one or two kilometers down and back to the cable car station.
In review, I have to call this one of the more underwhelming snowshoe trails I’ve done so far, which isn’t even that many. Mainly due to the lack of, well, snowshoe trail. It’s still a nice region with great views and maybe Bonistock Trail (SS 971) would be more interesting, but alas, it was closed that day for safety reasons.
Would you like to share your own experiences with this hike? Do you have any questions? Something to add? Feel free to leave a comment below đ
Route Report / Gallery
Full size images without watermarks are available for licensing to interested parties. Check romans.pictures for a selection of my favorites, or contact me for details.
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Basic Data
| Date of Hike: | 2022-12-17 |
| Participants: | Roman (Solo) |
| Technical Difficulty: | T1: Easy |
Stats
Roman’s Version
| Km | 9.6 |
| Net Hours (Est.) | 4.25 |
| Net Hours (Act.) | 2.75 |
| Ascent (m) | 418 |
| Descent (m) | 418 |
| Max. Alt. (m) | 2143 |
| Loop? | Yes |
| Cable Car? | Yes |
“Official” Version
| Km | 12 |
| Net Hours (Est.) | 5.25 |
| Ascent (m) | 420 |
| Descent (m) | 420 |
| Max. Alt. (m) | 2145 |
| Loop? | Yes |
| Cable Car? | Yes |