Short Description
The “Gastlosen Tour” trail leads around and through the Gastlosen mountain range in the south of Freiburg, Switzerland.
The imposing namesake peaks form a near vertical wall through the landscape, and remain visible throughout the hike.
There’s a variety of biomes to enjoy along the way, as well as views of the Bernese and Wallis alps along the southern portion of the tour.
Notes
- If arriving by public transport, the cable car is (almost) mandatory, as you’d have to walk from Jaun otherwise.
- There is an unadvertized free public parking area very close to the trail in the west. Though some experience with one lane mountain roads is advisable.
- Signage sometimes confusing. Often (in the South West) there will be a signaled left turn that actually leads to a different, wrong path, while the main road ahead is missing signs. Consult your map along the way.
Impressions
The weather forecast for the following week had it snowing down to 1600m and we had to assume this weekend posed the last chance to go hiking at altitudes close to 2k. We chose to visit the ironically named Gastlosen (lit. “Guestless”) mountains for this occasion. (I tried to look up the etymology of that mountain range but came up short).
As usual, we decided to skip the cable car, but this time it didn’t add much to the hike since there is a parking area very close to the trail in the west. I thank sattelite imaging for letting me find it while planning the trip, because I get the impression they prefer if people take the cable car.
(Uncharacteristically, we got up early (at 6AM, gasp!) to avoid the traditional Saturday congestion on the Zurich-Bern highway A1.)
Some twisty one lane mountain road driving later, we could see from the number of parked cars that a) this lot wasn’t exactly secret, b) that we weren’t the only ones to have the idea to visit today and c) these mountains really weren’t very aptly named.
A short walk from the parking lot, the “official” tour was reached. We decided to turn right, meaning we’d do the steepest ascent in the frosty shade and then enjoy the stroll back to the north side in the sun.
View of Hochmatt mountain.
We soon reached “Soldatenhaus”, then Wolfs Ort, and got to enjoy some views of the Fribourg mountains and Gruyere region.
View of the Bernese (foreground) and Wallis (Background, snowy) alps from the sunny south side.
Just a little while later, the south side greeted us with warm rays of sun, and a panorama of the Bernese and snow covered Wallis alps.
From there on it was the expected enjoyable stroll in the sun, Gastlosen mountains to the left, alps to the right, and autumn forests ahead.
Marchzähne peaks, almost certainly. Note the holes that look like a giant started to drill there, then changed his mind.
Along the way, we met four score and seven hikers, give or take three score, and one very patient little model, helping me practice my macro photography technique (with a normal kit lens):
Fuzzy Blue Butterfly 🙂 Anyone know the species?
Finally, having passed the north point, the way back to the parking lot led through mostly the aforementioned autumn forests, now partially lit by the afternoon sun.
Descent to the starting point.
A lovely, easy, medium length day hike, despite being more popular (and populated) than expected. Would recommend.