Winter walk around Trübsee (Engelberg)

I feel like a big girl that I finally managed to get to this well-known Swiss winter sports resort in Engelberg. Well, I admit, we came to this area (that is located quite far from our place) only because of our son´s ice hockey tournament. And before we came here, I had been searching for options what to do here so we don´t have to freeze at the ice arena.

Don´t get me wrong here, I’m not a “raven mother” who doesn´t care about her firstborn and doesn´t have any intention of supporting him. But! If the tournament takes almost a whole day (moreover when you have to be on the spot an hour before it starts), and you have two younger children in the tow, you really want to think up how also they can spend some quality time instead of being bored for 8 hours at the ice arena. So before we arrived, I had found that for me and our little one would be nice to take a walk around the mountain lake Trübsee.

Arrival

The arrival to Engelberg was truly impressive. Thanks to the recent frosty weather, there were countless frozen waterfalls falling from surrounding peaks. As I wrote, because we came here because of the ice hockey tournament, we didn´t park directly in the main parking lot (5CHF/day) by the valley station of the cable car, but a few hundred meters away at the Sportingpark Engelberg sports center (from here it is about 10 minutes walking along the river) .

The return ticket for the cable car to Trübsee costs 32CHF (16CHF with Halbtax). Your sled fits easily into the cabin.

Trail

We got off the cable car at the middle station Trübsee, almost right next to the ski slopes. For a slight moment, I felt a bit frustrated, that I had to give up skiing that day, but this feeling soon passed.

We slid the short hill down to the signpost. From there, we headed left in the direction of the Trübsee Hopper – a horizontal chairlift that takes the skiers to the Jochpass lifts.

Along the chairlift, we came to the restaurant Alpstübli.

The two chairs seemed to be waiting for us, so we’ve been sitting here for a while to soak up the energy from the warm sunshine (yes, it really wasn´t cold, as evidenced by the photos of our little, capless and gloves-free).

We enjoyed views of the skiers skiing in the Jochpass area and a our little had fun in the snow.

While our little was playing in the snow, I considered where to head next. One option was to go across the frozen lake directly back to the cable car or continue walking around the lake. Finally, I chose the second option.

So we followed the signposts to Hüethütte. On the way, there were a couple of downhill sections again.

Here we came across another signpost – it is important not to continue to Obertrübsee, but go right and follow the groomed trail around the lake (er, I mean, a large white area under which you only imagine the lake :)).

In this way, we came across the unmarked turn to the left, and after a few meters, we reached the edge of the cliff, from where there were nice views of the valley.

And then we headed back to the cable car station. But before we got into the cabin in the direction of Engelberg, we found out that a small ice rink (but really tiny) was on the terrace of the restaurant above the cable car station. So whoever doesn´t want to enjoy panoramic views can rent skates and tick off another winter sport at Engelberg 🙂

Summary

You can see our walk on the map below. In total, our walk took us (even with a short stop at Alpstübli and the viewing area) about an hour and a half and we walked about 3.5km and. And my impressions? Well, I can not describe it as a disappointment, certainly not. It’s more like I had some expectations, and they didn´t fill up. And what have I actually expected? Well, that I’ll be able to see the famous Rotair cable car (the world’s first rotating cable car). But because it is still a few hundred meters away and hidden behind the corner (or behind the mountain), I have seen nothing.

Anyway, it was a nice walk, and I would definitely like to hike here in the summer.