My 2020 has begun very quietly. Like every year, I spent Christmas holidays in Spain, enjoying the festive days with my family, eating a lot, shopping for presents, meeting our best friends… and not so much more! Even if I brought my camera (I always do), it has been in my backpack during all the holidays. I even neglected a bit my social networks and the blog, but this short “digital detox” has been great. It’s been three weeks (yes, Spanish Christmas holidays are longer and last until the 6th of January!) of tranquility, recharging batteries for the new year and the challenges that it will bring.

Three weeks is time enough for that. At the end, I was longing for coming back to Switzerland. Truth be told, I was missing the mountains, the snow, the long walks in the nature, capturing all those moments with my camera… So right after our plane landed, I started to plan the first hike of the year. And it wasn’t easy! So far, winter has been warm and dry in Switzerland. It hasn’t snowed very much and most part of the country is green… This January feels more like spring than winter in Zurich!! That is a bit disappointing… (I don’t like the cold, but I do love the snow and winter landscapes!). After some research, checking the forecast and the webcams around Switzerland, we decided to go to a destination that we hadn’t explored before: Melchsee-Frutt, in Canton Obwalden.

Melchsee-Frutt is a small ski-resort at 1920 m above the sea, near the lakes of Melchsee and Tannensee and not far from the famous mount Titlis (3238 m). We chose this location for its snowshoe trail. We though that a 12 km hike with snowshoes would be a nice way to start the winter hike season (specially after the big Christmas lunches and dinners in Spain).

As we were driving to Stöckalp, where we had to take the cable car to Melchsee-Frutt, I was a bit worried. The landscape was too green, and there wasn’t enough snow to even cover the final metres of the sledding slope or the lowest ski piste in the area…. Fortunately, once we arrived in Melchsee-Frutt we saw that there was enough snow to hike with snowshoes. The weather was fantastic: just a few scattered clouds, the sun shinning, warm temperature… The views, incredible!!! From the highest summits of this hike, we could see in the distance mount Titlis (Engelberg) and even the Steingletscher and Sustenhorn. The circular trail, surrounding the frozen lakes of Melchsee and Tannensee, took us to the summits of Bonistock (2160 m) and Erzegg (2150 m), from where we could enjoy panoramic views of the impressive Alps around us. When the end of the day was getting closer, we saw that we weren’t going to see the “alpenglow” illuminating the peaks around Melchsee-Frutt at sunset, so we took the last cable car down to the valley and drove home, tired but happy after a great day in the mountains!

Here are some photos from this winter hike. I hope you like them!

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