Heidiland (SG) · One way
Pizol Five Lakes Walk
5-Seen-Wanderung Pizol
Pizolhütte to Gaffia, by the Pizol lifts from Wangs
The last chairlift leaves Gaffia at 16:30 and the Pizolhütte at 16:00, and the operator asks walkers to leave the valley station by 11:00 at the latest. Miss it and the walk down to Wangs is a further 1,400 m of descent.
Five mountain lakes in a half-circle under the Pizol, walked from the top of the lifts and finished at another lift station, so nothing has to be walked twice. The Wangsersee sits by the hut at the start, then the Wildsee, the Schottensee, the Schwarzsee and the Baschalvasee follow, each with its own colour. Three climbs and three descents between them, on scree and rock in places.
Getting there and back
The lifts and stops this walk depends on
Wangs – Furt – Gaffia – Pizolhütte
Gondola, then two chairlifts · Pizolbahnen
- Last down
- Pizolhütte 16:00 · Gaffia 16:30 · gondola from Furt 17:30
Start the walk from the valley station by 11:00 at the latest, says the operator. Check the day's times before you go: they change with the season.
Pizolbahnen operating timesRead 19 September 2026
At the start
- Pizolhütte station, 14 m away
- station station, 285 m away
At the finish
- Gaffia station, 23 m away
Stops and stations come from OpenStreetMap, measured from the ends of our line. Times and seasons come from each operator's own page, on the date shown. Check them for your date.
On the way
Where you can stop
Pizolhütte
Mountain hut, at the start · 2,227 m
At the top station where the walk begins.
Their own pageAlte Alp Gaffia
Mountain restaurant · 1,861 m
- Open
- Summer only
The one place to stop near the end of the walk.
Read 19 September 2026
How hard it is
Grade, and how long it takes
“three strenuous ascents and descents, with scree and rocky sections that require hiking boots with a good profile” — Pizolbahnen, the 5-lakes walk
| The operator's time | 4 h 30 | Pizolbahnen |
|---|---|---|
| Swiss signpost time | 4 h 01 | The official hiking-time method, on our line |
| At a running pace | 2 h 13 | Our estimate; the grade does not change because you run |
The operator measures 11.4 km and 553 m of climb; the official route line is 10.19 km and ours is 9.96 km. The difference is where each one starts and stops at the lift stations, so allow the operator's time rather than ours if you are new to the walk.
Conditions
What it is like right now, and month by month
Weather this week
Loading the forecast for low point (1,856 m) and high point (2,508 m)…
Weather this week
Loading the forecast for low point (1,856 m) and high point (2,508 m)…
Weather by month
Typical weather Pizol Five Lakes Walk: at the lowest point (1,856 m) and the highest point (2,508 m). Select a month to see why it is rated as it is.
| Month | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weather | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Mixed | Mixed | Mixed | Mixed | Poor | Poor |
| High point, day / night | -4°/-9° | -4°/-11° | -2°/-9° | 1°/-5° | 6°/0° | 9°/3° | 10°/4° | 10°/5° | 7°/2° | 4°/0° | 0°/-5° | -2°/-8° |
| Low point, day / night | 1°/-6° | 0°/-8° | 2°/-5° | 6°/-2° | 10°/3° | 13°/6° | 14°/7° | 15°/8° | 11°/5° | 9°/3° | 4°/-2° | 2°/-5° |
| Rain, mm | 144 | 117 | 142 | 142 | 182 | 190 | 203 | 210 | 182 | 161 | 158 | 161 |
| Snow at high point | Likely | Likely | Likely | Likely | Likely | Likely | – | – | Frost | Possible | Likely | Likely |
| Daylight | 8 h 54 | 10 h 16 | 11 h 49 | 13 h 33 | 15 h 01 | 15 h 52 | 15 h 33 | 14 h 17 | 12 h 39 | 10 h 59 | 9 h 25 | 8 h 33 |
Source: TerraClimate 1991–2020 monthly averages. Averages for the area at each point’s elevation (4 km grid, corrected for height). Not a forecast or a report of current trail conditions. Snow at the high point is estimated with a simple snowpack model from these temperatures and precipitation, not observed; steep islands and high summits can hold more snow than it shows. Daylight is for the 15th of each month. Hut, transport and park seasons are separate: check them for your dates.
Before you go
What could stop you
No camping between the Wildseeluggen and the Schottensee
That stretch is a hunting reserve, and camping and bivouacking are banned there, with fines.
PizolbahnenRead 19 September 2026
It is a mountain walk, not a stroll between lakes
Three climbs and three descents, with scree and rock. Boots with a good sole, and a check of the forecast: there is no shelter between the lifts.
Season: Usually walkable from the beginning of July until the lifts close in October. Snow lies late in the hollows around the Wildsee.
Make it your day
Shorter, longer, or at a run
Shorter: turn back at the Wildsee
The first two lakes and back to the Pizolhütte make a much shorter outing, on the same chairlift home.
Longer: walk down to Wangs
From Gaffia the way down to Furt and Wangs adds about 1,400 m of descent. It is also the fallback if you miss the last chairlift.
For runners
A runnable half-circle apart from the scree between the Wildsee and the Schottensee. The climbs are short and steep; most people walk them. The lift times bound the day just as they do for walkers.
Keep it on your phone
Offline maps
Keep your route and maps on your phone for places without a signal. For multi-day trips, prepare them in the installed TrailSplits app.
- Open this trail in the app. Install TrailSplits, then open this trail there. On iPhone, downloads in a browser may not be available in the installed app.
- Choose your route or stages. Choose Prepare offline above. Wait for the route and maps to finish downloading.
- Try it before leaving coverage. Switch offline, close and reopen the app, then use My Hikes to start navigation. Repeat for every part you will need.
Saving a bookmark is not a map download. Storage can be cleared by your device; keep a backup map for remote trips.
Route and sources
What we checked, and when
This walk is an official Swiss hiking route: 5-Seen-Wanderung Pizol (Wangs-Pizol (Pizolhütte) - Wangs-Pizol (Gaffia)) (SchweizMobil route 931). We publish our own line on OpenStreetMap, matched onto the official one and checked against it.
- Official line 10.19 km · ours 9.96 km (-2.3%)
- 95% of the official line is within 5.6 m of ours; the furthest point is 27.3 m
- Climb read from a 30 m terrain model along our line, smoothed; an operator's figure will differ
- Built on 2026-09-20
- Pizolbahnen: the 5-lakes walk and its times read 19 September 2026
- SchweizMobil local route 931, the official line read 20 September 2026
- OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) the paths our line follows
- Bundesamt für Strassen, Kanton, Stiftung SchweizMobilthe official route line