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Braunwald Winter Hike to Ortstockhaus Hut

Easy downhill snowshoe hike leading to a mountain restaurant with a sunny terrace and panorama views.

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This winter hike is an easy wander down the mountain with spectacular views. The trail leads to the Ortstockhaus mountain hut, where you can enjoy a meal on their sunny outdoor terrace.

At the end, you can sled down or keep walking through the alpine village till you reach the funicular station. I’ve also included options for a longer, more challenging tour and alternative that does not require snowshoes.

Region:   Glarnerland, Eastern Switzerland
Starting point: Braunwald funicular – Stachelbergstrasse 2, 8783 Glarus Süd Switzerland
By car: Metered parking next to funicular station
1hr10 from Zurich
By public transport: Train station: Linthal Braunwaldbahn
1hr30 from Zurich HB
Trail: 4.1 km • longer option below
Time: 1h15
Difficulty: easy • 20m up, 360m down
Condition: marked snowshoe path, mostly groomed
Elevation: highest point 1890
Open: mid Dec through March, check trail status
Cost: cable car tickets, small discount with travel cards
Extras: mountain hut with cafe and toilets
More info: Braunwald websitenearby webcamweather

Gallery

Trail overview

In this article, I describe the snowshoe trail from the top of the Gumen lift (#3), down to the Ortstockhaus restaurant (#4), ending at the Grötzenbüel station (#5). This is the dark pink line on the map below. The light pink line is a longer snowshoe loop option referenced below.

Map data © openstreetmap.org contributors

Here’s the flow:

  1. From Linthal in the valley, ride the funicular train up to the Braunwald village.
  2. Walk through the village to the Gumenbahn lift.
  3. Ride the Gumenbahn up to Gumen, where you find a restaurant and start of the trail.
  4. Hike on the dark pink line to Ortstockhaus restaurant for refreshments.
  5. Hike down to Grötzenbüel, which has restaurant and gondola station.
  6. You can ride the gondola or sled (green line) down to Huttenberg (6) and walk to the Braunwald funicular. Or hike down on the red line.

Trail map

The map below shows the one way trail from the top of the Gumen chair lift, down to the Ortstockhaus restaurant, ending at the Grötzenbüel station. From there, you can ride the gondola, hike or sled the rest of the way down to Braunwald. 

See trail map on KomootSchweizMobil 

The trail is relatively easy since it’s mostly downhill. When we visited, only the first 400m of descent from Gumen required snowshoes. After that the trail was groomed the rest of the way to Grötzenbüel. 

Grötzenbüel to Braunwald options

This trail ends at the Grötzenbüel gondola station (see on map). You have three options to return to Braunwald.

  1. Ride the gondola from Grötzenbüel to Huttenberg. Then a 10 min walk to the Braunwald funicular.
  2. Hike down to Braunwald. We followed a route suggested by the lift operators that took about 45 mins. See trail map.
  3. Sled 2 km down to Huttenberg, then 10 min walk to Braunwald funicular. You can rent sleds at the Grötzenbüel and return them at the Huttenberg station. 

If you choose to hike or sled down, your gondola ticket could be less expensive. So mention that when purchasing tickets.

Winter hike alternative

If you don’t want to snowshoe, you can hike just on the groomed winter trail from Grötzenbüel up to Ortstockhaus, then back the same way. See trail map.

In this case, you would ride the Hüttenberg-Grötzenbüel gondola to reach the trail, instead of the Gumen lift.

Longer snowshoe tour

The trail described here is the second half of the full snowshoe loop tour. The full trail starts at Grötzenbüel, hikes up to the Seblengrat ridge and traverses to Gumen. Then it joins the trail described in this post to finish the loop. The full trail is 8.5 km, 495m up and down. 🥾 See trail map.

In this case, you would ride the Hüttenberg-Grötzenbüel gondola to reach the trail, instead of the Gumen lift.

Note: the section between Seblengrat and Gumen is sometimes closed due to avalanche danger, as it was when we visited. ➡️ Check trail status. In that case, you can’t do the full loop and we would suggest doing the trail described in this post instead. 

How to get there

This trail is located in Braunwald, an alpine village in the Glarnerland region of eastern Switzerland (see on Google Maps).

You cannot drive directly to Braunwald, which is a car-free alpine village. Instead, ride the Linthal-Braunwald funicular train – Stachelbergstrasse 2, 8783 Glarus Süd Switzerland.

After riding the funicular up to Braunwald, it’s about a 10 min walk to the Burstberg-Gumen lift, which takes you up the trail.

By car:

Drive to Linthal in the Glarus region. The parking address is Stachelbergstrasse 2, 8783 Glarus Süd Switzerland.

Follow signs to the metered parking lot adjacent to the funicular station. If the parking lot next to the station is full, there is additional parking on the south side of the train tracks.

By public transit:

Take the train to Linthal Braunwaldbahn station (not Linthal, which is one stop further). The train station is below the funicular station.

If you traveled here with the Ostwind day pass, your ticket includes the funicular up to Braunwald. But you need to show your train ticket at the Linthal-Braunwald ticket office to get a barcode ticket for the funicular train. More details on tickets below.

Planning your day

Tickets

You’ll need a ticket for the Braunwald funicular and mountain lifts to access the trail. The exact ticket you need depends on which version of the trail you plan to do and which discount travel cards you have.

Best to explain your plans at the ticket office, show any discount cards you have, and they will sell you the correct ticket.

In 2025, a winter hiking day pass costs CHF 35/adult. You get a discount for kids and slight discount for Swiss Half Fare and other travel cards. See current prices on their website.

NOTE: If you traveled here by train with the Ostwind daypass, Saver Day Pass, Swiss Travel Pass, or GA, your ticket includes the funicular up to Braunwald. This means you pay a bit less for your hiking ticket. Make sure to show your train ticket when purchasing your mountain lift tickets so you don’t overpay.  

Opening Times

The Braunwaldbahn funicular train from Linthal runs year round, about every 30 mins from very early until almost midnight.

The mountain lifts usually run from 8:30 – 16:30. Check current schedule on their website.

What to wear & bring

You’ll need waterproof winter hiking boots, snowshoes, and hiking sticks with snow baskets. 

Dress appropriate to the weather forecast. The higher parts of the trail can be very sunny, making you strip off some layers. But the lower part of the trail are mostly shaded by the peaks, especially in December and January. So bring warm layers and thick gloves in case temps drop and you find yourself shivering.

Learn more about what to wear for a winter hike.

Photo story of trail

Getting to the trail

We started by riding the Linthal-Braunwaldbahn funicular shown here. It’s a 7 min ride up to the Braunwald village.

When you arrive in Braunwald, follow trail signs to the Gumenbahn gondola station, about 10 mins walk.

In the pic below, you can the trail split, with the skiers going downhill and walkers going uphill to the right. 

It’s usually a groomed snow trail as shown above. But on the day we did the snowshoe trail, the snow had melted on this path, as shown below. 

You’ll pass the Huttenberg-Grötzenbüel gondola station, where you can ride after your hike. The sled run ends there too.

Arriving at the Gumenbahn gondola station. It has closed gondola cars and sideways-facing open-air chairs – you can choose.

Riding up the mountain. 

Arriving at Gumen

The Gumenbahn drops you off at this mountain restaurant. 

It’s a nice place to have a coffee and cake before starting the hike. They have a toilet here.

Starting the hike

To start the hike, follow the pink signs pointing to Ortstockhaus. In this pic, beyond the sign, you can see the avalanche-prone slope that the longer snowshoe loop traverses. This part was closed on the day we visited.

You start walking on this little section with the skiers, then follow the pink signs. Don’t walk down the ski hill.

Here’s the little viewpoint at the start of the trail, before you start the steep downhill.

Great views up here in all directions.

Then a steep downhill parallel to the ski slope. With old snow, it was a bit tricky. Just do what you need to get down. This section only lasts about 10 mins.

After the steep downhill, you turn right, crossing the ski piste once. From here the trail flattens out and is groomed snow. We didn’t really need snowshoes from then on. 

The trail is quite flat and mild as you head out into the meadows away from the ski slopes.

My favorite part of the trail.

After about 30 mins, you reach this fork in the trail. Follow the path to the right for a short detour up to the Ortstockhaus restaurant.

Ortstockhaus

Here’s the Ortstockhaus restaurant. 

It was quite full the day we were there, but we still got a nice table outside.

We had their herbed veggie soup and winter salad, very tasty and fresh.

After eating, we soaked in the sun for a bit in these lounge chairs.

 

Hike down to Grötzenbüel

Retrace your steps to the fork and follow the main path, headed down to Grötzenbüel. It winds through a large meadow as shown below.

When you get to the cliff section, the walking path joins the ski trail for a few minutes. I did not like this part of the trail! Skiers speed by very quickly and get too close to the walkers. Stay to the side and watch out. This section takes about 8 mins until you split from the skies again.

The trail cuts across another ski slope here.

A couple mins before you reach Grötzenbüel, the main walking path goes straight ahead towards Braunwald and another path forks right headed to Grötzenbüel. If you are planning to walk all the way to Braunwald, it’s easiest to stay on this main path instead of going to Grötzenbüel first.

If you want to sled or cut your hike short, fork right and walk down to the Grötzenbüel station, where you’ll find a restaurant and toilets. You could rent sleds here and sled down. Or ride the gondola down then short walk to the Braunwald station.

Grötzenbüel

When you reach Grötzenbüel, it’s a busy hub, with lots of skiers and sledders taking a break and eating at the restaurant.

There are a couple self-service restaurants here and toilets.

You can board the gondola here and ride down to Huttenberg. Then walk back to Braunwald.

Or you can rent sleds next to the gondola entrance and sled down to Huttenberg. The photo below shows the purple sign pointing to the start of the sled run. It’s 2km and takes about 15 mins.

Hike down from Grötzenbüel to Braunwald

We wanted to hike longer, so we hiked down to Braunwald, which took about 45 mins. It was a little hard to find the trail. It’s just to the left of the sled run, you have to walk under the gondola to reach it.

It started as a footpath but quickly turned into a service road between chalets. It was ok, but not amazing. The views higher up the mountain were better.

Eventually the snow disappeared from the road. We just kept following signs to the Braunwaldbahn (funicular), winding our way through the village.

Hope you enjoy this winter hike!

➡️ See more winter hikes near Zurich.

The most beautiful winter hikes within a day trip distance of Zürich, including short and easy options for kids and beginners.

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Hi! I’m Tanya and our family has been living & hiking in Switzerland since 2005, collecting dozens of fun hikes and activities for all ages and abilities. More about us…

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