Hiking at Flumserberg – The Height Route (Maschgenkamm to Chrüz) + Mountain Coaster

The Height Route at Flumserberg is a short (8 km) hike that winds its way down (461 descent) from the top of the Maschgenkamm gondola station to the top of the Chrüz chair lift, passing by the Zigerfurgglen peak and the pretty lakes at Seebenalp along the way. At Chrüz, you can hike an additional 2 km to Tannenboden, take the chairlift down, or zoom down on the super-fun Floomzer mountain coaster. This hike had some really fantastic views of the Walensee lake below and the Churfirsten peaks across the valley. Plus there were a lot of options for lunch. We brought a picnic and there were lots of benches and a few tables along the way to stop at, but if you don’t want to pack a picnic, there are several restaurants to choose from. I highly recommend this hike.

Detail Summary

Additional Info

Getting There

To get to the start of this trail you need to take the Bergjet gondola from Tannenboden up to Maschgenkamm. To get to Tannenboden, you can either drive there and park in the large paid lot there, or take the train to Unterterzen and then take the gondola from Unterterzen to Tannenboden. If you take the train, and your ticket is not on your Swiss Pass (i.e. you have a paper ticket), you need to exchange your paper ticket at the cashier desk for a Flumserberg card. If your ticket is on your Swiss Pass (you have a GA card, for example) you can use the Swiss Pass card at the turnstile to get on the gondola at Unterterzen. Once you are at Tannenboden, you can purchase your tickets for the Maschgenkamm gondola (The BergJet) and for the Floomzer coaster or Chrüz chairlift depending on how you want to end your hike. We wanted to do the coaster so purchased a package deal (Floomzer Heidi package) for a one way ticket to Maschgenkamm and a single Floomzer coaster ride. With our tickets in hand, we boarded the gondola up to Maschgenkamm. On the way up, we got a good view of the mountain coaster track we would be taking later (picture 2 below).

At Maschgenkamm there is the Panorama Restaurant and the start of several trails, including the one we wanted to hike.

The Trail

To start the trail, you have a couple of options. You can take one of the lower trails that go around the Zigerfurgglen peak, or you can hike up over the peak as we did. The peak is a little bit of a scramble but not bad at all and worth the views. But, if you would rather a flat groomed path, take one of the other paths that go around the peak. (I recommend taking the path to the left as you will get very different views from the rest of the hike, while the path to the right will have views very similar to the rest of the hike.) The two paths that go around the peak form the 2 km Alpine Flower loop trail.

The middle trail takes you over the the Zigerfurgglen peak and it also the first peak in the Flumserberg 7-Peak trail. Seeing this first peak was a good teaser and now I have the 7-Peak trail on my list. In the fourth picture below, my husband is standing on the peak. You can see the Maschgenkamm Panorama Restaurant and gondola station (the start of our hike) on the right behind him and the Seebenalp lakes down below on the left that we will pass later in the hike. We also had a great view from there of the Walensee lake and the Churfirsten peaks. Simply gorgeous!

On the way down from the peak, we had some really lovely views of the alpine meadows. The cows looked very content.

After we met up with the Alpine Flower trail that goes around the peak, we left the 7-Peak trail, and took the trail headed in the direction of Seebenalp. We had wonderful views on this part of the trail of the Churfirsten peaks across the valley and of the Seebenalp lakes below. When our trail met up again with the 7-Peak trail at the Chrüzen picnic area, we got a nice look over the ridge into the valley on the other side (picture 2 below). If you are up for a bit of scrambling, you can follow the rest of the 7-peak trail from here (going over 3 of the peaks before heading back to Sebenalp) by continuing up the ridge. I haven’t done this, but have heard it is nice. We wanted a more leisurely hike so we took the trail to the right towards Seebenalp with its slightly more gentle walk back.

As we walked to Seebenalp, we got some lovely views up and down the mountain. The wild flowers were in full bloom, which was really nice.

After we passed the hotel and restaurant at Seebenalp, we followed the trail towards Winkelzahn. After about a kilometer, the trail forks off into the forest towards Chrüz (and the Floomzer mountain coaster). The shade was really nice in the forest, but there were also some fantastic open sections with beautiful views of lake Walensee.

After we reached Chrüz, I took one more picture of the lake and then it was time to ride the coaster.

Mountain Coaster

If you didn’t already buy a ticket for the Floomzer coaster, you can buy one here. We already had our tickets, so we just headed through the turnstile and on to the coaster. The Floomzer is a super fun coaster with lots of speedy dips and turns! Really enjoyable!

You’re not allowed to take pictures while on the coaster, but you can buy a picture of yourself on the coaster from the desk next to the cashier for the BergJet gondola. A print + digital copy is 5 CHF – the expression on my husband’s face is priceless.