Winter Hike: Biberegg
Let's be honest, not even Swiss winters are always like this, but 2020 was an exceptional ones for snow lovers (two hands up for me!). And if you struggle to walk around because of snow even in the big cities,, it means you don't have to go far to find mountains and hills cloaked in white.
This hike starts just 40 minutes-distance (45 km) from Zurich, in Canton Schwyz. You reach the village of Rothenturm (it won't be hard to recognise it, given the huge Sankt Antonius church towering above the road), and a little further on, you can park in the Biberegg ski area.
Beyond the ski-lifts, you enter a forest, across a romantic wooden bridge over a stream, hardly emerging from snow, and after crossing this small forest, you leave behind the children screaming on the skis and enter the silence of a valley dotted with farms and scattered trees on a steep ridge. The hiking trails are all marked by the pink stakes, but if you want to step up the fun (or the reckless effort to lift your snowshoes under a meter of snow) you can safely deviate from the route and chart your own, keeping the already plowed path in sight.
Snowshoes on your feet are essential: you get into the woods, climb to the top of through trails, and even if the path is already groomed, you gently sink into the snow and can't continue with just hiking boots.
We warm up immediately, on a steep climb to a first fork, where different trails cross. We turned left on route 815 towards Bannegg - Herrenboden. We enter, always continuing to climb, more gently, in a forest that looks like something out of a Lapland postcard. We continue among tall pines laden with snow, on the left there are some glimpses of the valley and the mountains beyond, among the fog that now thickens and now thins out.
After the long path through the forest, we re-emerge on a more bare ridge, and reach a cross, the second highest point of the hike and definitely the most panoramic. From this promontory the view is incredible: it opens onto Lake Lucerne (that day covered by a thick layer of clouds) with the characteristic silhouette of Mount Rigi on the opposite side. Lunch break near the cross at Bannegg, and then we continue to climb for a while. When you get to the second cross, don't miss the spectacular view behind you, with the Mythen massif appearing over the soft pine-covered hills, with the rugged rock faces dusted with snow.
The descent towards Herrenboden begins, among the scattered trees: the slope is remarkable on this side, and with snowshoes on your feet, sliding quickly down the slope is definitely fun. You arrive near a second small ski resort in the village of Mostelberg, where there is also a suspension bridge that you can cross on foot (374 meters, one of the longest in Europe), and continue uphill for about a hundred meters, until you reach an isolated and quiet plateau. A few farms reappear, and you approach the starting ridge again.
The view that this route offers is comparable to the most beautiful alpine panoramas, with a relatively moderate effort to reach the top. In deep snow the walk is quite strenuous, but the endless mountain views, the beautiful forests and the silence of the fog-covered valleys are worth every minute.
