Hiking to the Wildmadfurggeli from the Chüebodensee at Elm
In September, I took friends on the Chüebodensee loop hike with a detour up to the Wildmadfurggeli at Elm (10 km hike with 857 m of ascent and decent). While I had hiked the Chüebodensee loop trail before (it is a favorite of mine), the detour up to the Wildmadfurggeli was new to me. And wow! The addition of the Wildmadfurggeli truly made an already great hike absolutely fantastic! If you have the time and the energy, I highly recommend this detour.
Detail Summary| Location: | Elm Sportbahn Obmoos, 8767, Switzerland |
| What | Chüebodensee loop + detour to the Wildmadfurggeli Total: 10 km, 857 m Ascent/Descent Time: 4 hrs 30 min Red and White trail Markers: Ampachli – Chüeboden – Chüebodensee – Wildmaadfurggeli – Ampachli Note: Chüebodensee loop: 8 km, 660 m Ascent/Descent Detour to the Wildmadfurggeli: 2 km, 197 m Ascent/Descent |
| Car: | Zurich – > Elm Sportbahn – 1 hr 20 min |
| Train/Bus: | Zurich HB -> Elm Sportbahn – 1 hr 50 min |
| Cost 2024: | Gondola Elm -> Ämpächli + Mountain Cart Adult/24 CHF, Child/16 CHF |
| Safety Notes: | For the mountain carts, children need to be 12 years old and at least 140 cm tall. Scooters are also available and can be ridden alone by children age 9 and up. Younger children can share a scooter with a parent. Helmets are included with the scooter and mountain car rental. |
Hiking the Chüebodensee Loop
As I covered hiking the Chüebodensee Loop in a previous post including all the logistic of getting there, I only took a few pictures on this part of the hike.
After reaching the Chüebodensee lake, we started the detour to Wildmadfurggeli.
Hiking to the Wildmadfurggeli
Just above the Chüebodensee lake, the trail splits and instead of heading back down, we took the trail continuing upwards towards the Wildmadfurggeli. This is a red and white mountain trail with some steep drop offs and rock scrambles but not overly challenging.
There was fresh snow on the trail here from the night before, however luckily it wasn’t too covered and we could easily keep hiking.
When we reached the top, we stopped for a picnic lunch and to really enjoy the view we had worked so hard for.
Before heading down, we walked a bit further to peek over the ridge. We then turned around and head back to the Chüebodensee.
I love that the small waterfall caught the light just so that the falls was a rainbow. Another highlight was spotting a herd of chamois on the far side of the lake. (They were too tiny and far away for me to get a good picture.) After spending some time at the lake, we then hiked back down Chüebodensee Loop until we reached the restaurant and gondola station.
Mountain Carts
Oh, and of course, we finished this hike with a mountain cart ride!
The Chüebodensee Loop is a fantastic hike on its own, adding in the Wildmadfurggeli and mountain carts made it practically perfect! I highly recommend this hike.
Leave a Reply