Here are the summary hike details:
- Start/ end location: top of Luftseilbahn Tierfehd – Kalktrittli (cable car station)
- Ascent /descent: 850 m
- Distance: 9 km (11.8 km including the tunnel)
- Duration: 5-6 hours (snack and photo breaks included)
- Technical and physical requirements: Medium
- Season: July – October
Introduction
Limmerensee and Muttsee Hut hike is located in Glarus Canton, Switzerland and is one of the most scenic hikes you can do. Altough it starts with a walk through a 2,8 km dark and cold tunnel, once out of it, you are at the base of Limmerensee from where the actual ascent starts.
Getting there
To start the hike you need to get to Luftseilbahn Tierfehd – Kalktrittli cable car station. You can get there by car, which is the easiest way and you will find a free parking. If you plan to go by train or bus, you can only go to Linthal Train Station and from there you can try to find a car that goes toward Luftseilbahn Tierfehd – Kalktrittli or you can walk, but it will ad 6,4 km to your route.
Hike details
Once you arrive at the cable car, you need to buy a 10 CHF ticket (one way up) or a 15 CHF ticket (up & return) from the self service machine (you can pay by card). The gondola is also self service, so you need to press the green start button in order to start. Once up, you are directly at the door that opens the 2.8 km tunnel and before proceeding, you need to take an orange vest from the gray boxes near the door. Close to the end of the tunnel, you will find a toilet (where is actually warm) and from the toilet sink you can also fill in your water bottles. The tunnel is part of the hydro electricity plant, and also the Limmerensee, situated at 1.857m (6,090ft.) is a reservoir lake of the same. Although you can’t tell from the pictures, the length of the lake is around 3 km.
The hike is one way straight up to Muttsee Hut (Muttseehütte), a bit steep but not too hard, and fairly short with better and better views as you climb, until you reach the maximum altitude of 2.500m (8,200ft.). For us it took 1,5 hours, but we also did a small detour when almost up, before turning right towards Muttseehütte, to the left cliff you’ll see in the pictures below, where is the best viewpoint of the region. The views from here are really nice and it really pays to go there, it will take you only 10 more minutes and it’s easy detour. Once at the hut, you could even stay overnight if you have a reservation, but you need to do one well ahead as it’s pretty booked during the summer. We continued the hike on the well marked path that goes back to the top of the cable car, on the other side of the mountains. The route is a bit more long on this way, but it’s only descent and the views totally worth it. The trail overall is not exposed, but there are some places with chains, as you will see below, however I would say it is really safe.
PS: you might have noticed Corina is missing from the pictures, reason is we had a beautiful baby that is a couple of months old and this is the reason we do fewer hikes this year… but you will meet the 3 of us on the trail in the next year for sure 🙂
Do you think this hike is doable in mid May? Or will it be too cold/snowy?
Hi Sean. Definitely too snowy I would say. I don’t advise it.
Hi, thank you for a great post. Is this hike doable in mid-June?
Hi Sarah. Thank you! It’s most probably snow on the route so it’s better to wait until July.