DThe first one is the hardest. Because it was almost the best part of the tour. But not until it’s over. It felt good then. Because we did. It was still early when we came to the Wegenlis rock route on our hike up Schluchigrat towards Titlis. The so-called key point. Which made us a little busy in the weeks before we left for Switzerland. And even more so when we arrived, having entered the Alps near Stann, along the mountain railway up to Stanserhorn and from there to Alp Laucheren, where we wanted to spend the first night. And from where we should leave the next morning at the main point.

But how important would it be? We were pedestrians, good enough, at least experienced. But did we also have to be mountain climbers now? And that with a fully packed backpack on your back?

When you go hiking, you have a lot of time to think step by step. So also about this: “You follow the Gräfimattgrat in the direction of Schluchberg and reach the main point”, so it is said in the forum description. “The cliff passage is secured with thick ropes to hold the Vagnalis. Paved feet and head for heights are still an advantage.”

with apple and reclaim booklet

So nothing to do with climbing, but my eyes wandered to the prompts in these sentences, as if one were searching for a landscape for church towers. “Hold on” and “safe”, ok. “You can do it,” said everyone involved in the preparation for the tour. But it was “anyway”. In this detail it hung like a rock. A cliffhanger for a cliffhanger.

The route from Stanserhorn to Alp Laucheren was first down and then repeatedly up, and on the fifth and sixth stages of the so-called Tail Trail the rhythm should be maintained for the next three days: this newly designed long-distance hiking trail. There are eight sections in total, they run over six major mountains in central Switzerland, with a continuous view of Lake Lucerne: Staus, Rigi, Pilatus, Brienzer Rothorn and – on our two feet – Stanserhorn and Titlis. It is more or less the home of the Swiss freedom fighter Wilhelm Tell, who was educated at the school by Friedrich Schiller. Hence the name of the trail, hence the apple in the rucksack and a pale yellow Reclam booklet, purchased extra for this tour, did not survive the old German class.