Leukerbad: Torrentbahn Hike

This hike along gentle mountain slopes with unobstructed panoramic views is a good choice if you’re staying in Leukerbad. One day during our week in Leukerbad (late July), we went up the Torrentbahn gondola on the opposite side of the valley as the Gemmibahn. Easy hiking options for kids weren’t obvious on this mountain. We chose the hike to Wysse See, which turned out to be pretty nice even if we didn’t make it all the way to the lake. We had already hiked 2hrs and a storm was moving in, so we turned back before we reached our destination. But we were satisfied with the hike we did. Everything was beautiful and we were alone, unlike the crowds over at Gemmibahn.

Overview

This trail starts at the top of the Torrentbahn gondola in Leukerbad. The dirt path winds around the mountain with panorama views across the valley. You can walk as far as you like, then turn back. The full path to the lake shown below is about 4 km each way.

Getting There

There are two gondolas that go up to Leukerbad. One is in the village with no parking and the other is outside the village with lots of parking. If you are staying in the village, just walk over to the Torrentbahn on Promenadestrasse.

By car: Get yourself to the town of Leukerbad and drive to . There are two The Torrent gondola is on the southeast side of the town. There is a small free parking lot at the Torrentbahn, but it’s likely you’ll need to park somewhere else in town and walk over.

By public transport: The closest bus stop in the village is Leukerbad, Torrent. There is also a bus stop at Albinenleitern, Flaschen for the lift outside of town.

Details

From either Leukerbad or Flaschen, buy a return ticket up to Rinderhütte. In 2020, it costs CHF 38 for an adult. Children, SBB Half-fare and GA get a discount ticket at CHF 25. SBB Junior card and under 8 ride free. If you are staying in the area, you get a guest card that also gives you a discount.

Here’s what you see at the top the Rinderhütte. Lots of people came here to ride mountain bikes or Trottinet scooters all the way down the mountain.

As you leave the gondola, you’ll see a few trails heading to your left  and up the mountain. To reach the  Wysse See trail, start by following the dirt road on your right, staying on the higher road when it forks.

This pic is looking back to Rinderhütte from the trail. See that dirt road going down the mountain? The trail hugs mountain by that orange dirt until it hooks up with top part you can see here of the dirt road. So coming from Rinderhütte, take the dirt road down until it connects with this foot path.

We weren’t sure where we were going and the sign labeled Wysse See was handwritten, faded and not pointing at a trail. So we started by hiking up to the restaurant/hotel you see in the distance. This was totally unnecessary for the hike we wanted to do and spent our kids’ energy a bit too early. So just take the dirt road and trail described above.

Now for some pics just to show you what the trail looks like and what you will see.

In the below pic, we were very close to Wysse See, but at the time we didn’t know how close. It’s supposed to take about 1hr45mins to reach the Wysse See. We walked about 2hrs and kept hoping to see it any minute. But bad weather was moving in, so we had our picnic then turned back. If you don’t care about seeing the Wysse See, you can simply walk along this trail until you have had enough and go back. Most of the trail is easy going but there were a few steep narrow sections where we had to assist the kids, but nothing too dangerous. No strollers on this one folks.

Here are a few links relevant to this hike:

• info about this trail on the Torrentbahn site
• other hikes from the Torrentbahn’
• hiking map for this area