A day in Engelberg

The weather has been great lately here in Switzerland. Blue sky, shiny sun, warm temperatures… It has made me forget about the last snowfall we had a few weeks ago! I was trying to take some photos in the forest near home, but I only got poor photos, a wet camera and lens and frozen fingers… But since that day, the sun came out and decided to stay with us. It looks more like spring than winter now…. That is supposed to be good, right? I’m not sure… I don’t feel ready to say goodbye to the snow… not just yet!!

So we are trying to go out to the mountain as much as we can these days. The snow won’t last long and I feel the winter hiking season has been pretty short!! So last weekend we went to another new place for us: Engelberg, in Canton Obwalden. Engelberg is a little town known mainly for its ski resort close to the Mount Titlis, the highest summit in the area at 3,238 metres above the sea level. We went there to try again our new snowshoes, but I wasn’t very convinced we were going to find too much snow… And the idea of hiking in a ski resort always makes me think about crowded trails. Well, I was wrong!! As soon as we took the mountain train in Engelberg, we were welcomed by a beautiful snowy forest. We walked in the forest until we arrived to a very small gondola that was going to take us to Trübsee, a frozen alpine lake at 1,764m above the sea level and at the foot of Mount Titlis.

The landscape we found was impressive. Around Trübsee there is a wildlife protected area and it is not permitted to walk outside the marked paths. All the snow around was still a huge layer of powder snow, an immaculate white blanket spoiled only by a few wildlife footprints and a few scattered trees and pines. It was like walking through a white desert! I had the feeling I was in a minimalist painting, all in white and pastel blue colors. And surrounding these perfect white dunes, the majestic Alpine summits.

We spent the whole day snowshoeing in this area. Even if we were walking in a ski resort, we had the trails almost to ourselves. What a fantastic experience! I think I’m going to love snowshoeing: being able to walk on fresh snow without sinking and getting wet trousers, going up on slopes that would be impossible to climb with hiking boots… I like it!! Although I have to confess that having the camera hanging and using hiking poles make everything a bit more complicated… And I feel like, between camera gear, winter clothes and the snowshoes, I’m carrying my whole apartment in my backpack, hehehe. But I guess it’s all part of the challenge!

Here are some of the photos I took that day in Engelberg. It’s a different post than usually, with some minimalist photos, paying attention to the different textures and light on the fresh snow. I specially like the last ones I took at sunset. I love the last light in the mountains, when the summits seem to catch fire with the last orange sun rays and how the sky changes colors, even on a cloudless day. Well, I hope you like them!! 🙂