Rigi Ramblings

Autumn is here and this means hiking season in Switzerland. Thus, it did not take too much of an effort for a friend who has recently taken to hiking to talk me into climbing one of central Switzerland’s more famous mountains, the Rigi, with them. Nicknamed ‘Queen of the Mountains’ and served by Europe’s oldest mountain railway, Mount Rigi has had a fixed place in Swiss cultural history for quite some time. J. M. W. Turner painted a series of superb watercolours of the mountain, which were exhibited at the Tate in 2007 and 2014. In 1868, a nearly 50 year old Queen Victoria ascended the mountain – albeit on the back of a pony or a mule.

In the past, Rigi has also seen its rocky tracks graced by the steps of Goethe, Mark Twain, Gerald Manley Hopkins and many, many more, so my friend and I decided that if the mountain had been good enough for them, it would be good enough for us.

We travelled to Küssnacht, where we began our ascent.

The path is relentless: it is rocky and steep and leads up, up, up, without allowing for a break until you finally reach the plateau of Seebodenalp. The view from there, is worthwhile, however. While my friend and I were progressing ever so slowly, dripping with sweat on this fine and unusually warm autumn day, Aramis had an ever so effortless spring in his step and seemed to wonder what was keeping us so long.

After a series of short breaks to catch our breath and have a sip of water, we continued to make our way towards the top. It took a good 4 hours of hiking to get to Rigi Staffel, where we sat down for lunch, enjoyed the lovely weather and admired the mountain panorama.

From Staffel it is another 30 minute trek uphill to the summit, Rigi Kulm, at 1798 metres above sea level.

Originally, we had envisaged taking the cable car to Weggis or the mountain railway to Vitznau for our return, but due to some detrimental effects that the sun was having on us or perhaps because we had begun to suffer from some rare form of hiking hubris we decided to walk back down again. Aramis did not object either, so we set off. We decided to hike to Weggis, from where we were hoping to catch the last boat back to Lucerne.

The signposts predicted another 2.5 hours of walking, but this time, it was downhill. The descent was similarly uncompromising as the ascent. On top of this, mountain bikers had turned the rock and soil into a network of deep furrows.

We reached Weggis just as the sun was slowly starting to set. Mark Twain spent two months here in 1897 and wrote to a friend:

‘This is the charmingest place we have ever lived in for repose and restfulness, superb scenery whose beauty undergoes a perpetual change from one miracle to another, yet never runs short of fresh surprises and new inventions. We shall always come here for the summers if we can.’

We got onboard the ‘Gotthard’, one of the ships cruising Lake Lucerne, just after 6pm and were treated to a spectacular sunset scenery.

After a great day of hiking, we waved goodbye to Lucerne. See you soon!