IMAGES: ENGELBERG-TITLIS TOURISM
THE WILD SIDE
Walks of life Leaving the Schmitters and the well-trodden Walenpfad behind, I fi nd myself entirely alone on the narrow path to my fi rst Buiräbähnli. While each cableway functions on an on-demand basis, some are self-operated while others involve dialling up the farmer. The two-stage, vintage Sinsgäubahn falls into the latter category. I fi nd a steel box nailed onto the timber wall of the
top station. Inside is a Bakelite-style telephone, which I use to call the owner, farmer Josef Durrer. After a brief conversation down the crackling line, he sends up a lift. It’s reminiscent of an American truck, with an enclosed gondola daubed in sun-bleached green paint and an open fl atbed fashioned from timber slats. I clamber in and fl oat slowly down the valley. The
cable-car inches into the mid station, a small timber hut near a geranium-bestrewn farmhouse, and I see Josef. “How was the ride?” he asks with a smile on his sun-worn face. Josef’s raised cows on these pastures his entire life; these days, he rarely even rides the lower section of his gondola. “No one can remember the last time I went to the valley. It’s too much for me down there. I just ask the hiking guides to bring me what I need when they pass through.” Currently, he tells me, he spends his days on wildheuen, the time-honoured Alpine tradition of harvesting late-summer, wildfl ower-rich grass to dry into nutritious hay for livestock. When the telephone jangles with another request, I
hop into the second stage to continue my descent to the hamlet of Oberrickenbach. Even its quiet roads make for a jarring contrast after the tranquillity of the hiking trail, and I’m happy to soon board my next gondola, complete with hand-embroidered cushions and a sticker reading: ‘Don’t honk, driver dreaming of Swiss cows’. My hike resumes with knee-breaking hairpin bends,
following hard-to-spot trail markers. I lose the path a couple of times, and once I’m set straight by a young female farmer using a leaf blower — a modern approach to wildheuen. I spend two hours climbing through dense forest, the air pungent with mushrooms. By the time I reach Brändlen, eight hours after setting off , it’s dusk and I’ve covered — with the help of the cable-cars — 6,680ft of ascent and 6,050ft of descent. “You must be Gabriella,” calls Rita Schmitter,
guardian of Brändlen and daughter of Ueli and Isabelle, while painting the shutters in an outbuilding. “Grab a seat in the garden, I’m nearly done.” Soon, she brings me a beer and home-cooked rösti, served with a homegrown salad topped with mountain clover. She mentions I’m her second English-speaking guest of the year, and I tell her about my day. She raises her eyebrows at my anti- clockwise direction of travel; the trail’s offi cial direction goes the opposite way. “I prefer hiking that way, towards Engelberg,” she says. “It means I can always see Titlis.” I had, indeed, found myself pausing regularly to look back upon the snow-topped, 3,239m mountain, which towers above the town. It seems the beauty of the valley isn’t lost on those accustomed to seeing it every day.
HOW TO DO IT Fly direct from the UK to Zürich with Swiss in around 1h45m, then travel by train to Engelberg in 2h.
swiss.com
sbb.ch The full Buiräbähnli Safari route is best broken up with two overnight stays. Gondola rides cost about CHF 7 (£6) each way, paid to the farmers in cash. Doubles at Ski Lodge Engelberg from CHF 200 (£180), B&B.
skilodgeengelberg.com
engelberg.ch
ALPINE 2024 49 Hiking around Engelberg
Below: One of Engelberg’s farmers’ cable-cars
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