Lake Lucerne (LU/SZ) · The lift brings you back
Gratweg Stoos
Klingenstock to Fronalpstock
Klingenstock to Fronalpstock, along the ridge above Lake Lucerne
The whole day hangs on the Klingenstock chairlift, which runs daily 13 June to 11 October 2026 and then only at weekends to 1 November — and only in good weather. Stoos itself is car-free, reached by the steepest funicular in the world.
Four kilometres of ridge with the lake a thousand metres below on one side and the Muota valley on the other. A chairlift takes you to Klingenstock, the path runs the crest over Rot Turm and the Nollen with chains on the steep parts, and another chairlift brings you down from Fronalpstock. Short, high, and more serious underfoot than its length suggests.
Getting there and back
The lifts and stops this walk depends on
Schwyz (Schlattli) to Stoos
Funicular, 7 minutes, 110% at its steepest · Stoosbahnen
- Season
- All year, except the autumn revision 23 November – 4 December 2026
- First up
- 07:10, then every half hour at :10 and :40
- Last down
- 22:40, and 23:40 on Friday and Saturday
- Fare
- CHF 23.20 return, CHF 11.60 single; free with a GA or a Swiss Travel Pass
Train to Schwyz, then bus 501 to "Schwyz, Stoosbahn", about 16 minutes.
Stoosbahnen timetableRead 20 September 2026
Stoos to Klingenstock
Chairlift, about 15 minutes, to the start of the ridge · Stoosbahnen
- Season
- Daily 13 June – 11 October 2026; weekends and holidays 17 October – 1 November; nothing 12–16 October
- First up
- 09:00
- Last down
- 16:00
- Fare
- CHF 24 single, CHF 37 return
Good weather only. The chairlift prices carry no GA or Half-Fare reduction — those apply only to the combined Peak Experience Ticket.
Stoosbahnen, KlingenstockRead 20 September 2026
Fronalpstock down to Stoos
Chairlift, two sections, about 20 minutes down · Stoosbahnen
- Season
- Daily 1 May – 1 November 2026; weekends in April and in November
- First up
- 09:00
- Last down
- 16:00, extended to 17:30 on days the Klingenstock lift runs
- Fare
- CHF 24 single, CHF 37 return for both sections
The combined Peak Experience Ticket covers the funicular and both chairlifts: CHF 58 online for a day, CHF 36 with a GA or Swiss Travel Pass.
Stoosbahnen, FronalpstockRead 20 September 2026
At the start
- Klingenstock station, 15 m away
At the finish
- Fronalpstock station, 6 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.
Making it a loop
Longer ways round, if you drove or you are running
A one-way walk means a bus or a lift home. These are circuits other people publish near this one, for a day that finishes where it started — usually at the cost of the climb the lift would have given you.
The ridge as a round trip from the village
10.2 km·+928 m
Walk up to Klingenstock instead of riding, take the ridge, and come down from Fronalpstock on foot. The lift company publishes it as a circle from Stoos village and calls it about three hours, which is optimistic for 928 m of climb — reckon on more.
Stoosbahnen, Gratwanderweg as a round tripRead 20 September 2026
From the valley floor
12.2 km·+960 m
Brunnerboden to Stoos over the ridge, 4 h 50 and T3. Not a circle, but the long way to earn the same crest.
Schwyzer WanderwegeRead 20 September 2026
On the way
Where you can stop
Fronalpstock Hotel Restaurant
Mountain hotel at the finish, the highest in canton Schwyz · 1,922 m
- Food
- Self-service 11:00–16:00 with a large terrace, table service in the Adlerhorst; soup, Älplermagronen, schnitzel, salad buffet
- Beds
- 8 rooms, breakfast included, half board available
- Phone
- +41 41 820 27 26
The restaurant's own opening and closing dates for 2026 are not published; it asks guests to check before travelling.
Their own pageRead 20 September 2026
Alpwirtschaft Metzg
Alp, self-service, on the footpath up to Klingenstock · 1,540 m
- Open
- Summer only
There is nothing at Klingenstock itself — no restaurant is listed there on the operator's board.
Their own pageRead 20 September 2026
How hard it is
Grade, and how long it takes
“SchweizMobil calls the technique "medium" and the fitness "easy"; the operator and the cantonal hiking association both rate it T3, a step above what a mountain path usually means. Sure-footedness and a head for heights are required.” — SchweizMobil route 827
| The operator's time | 1 h 50 | SchweizMobil route 827 |
|---|---|---|
| Swiss signpost time | 1 h 46 | The official hiking-time method, on our line |
| At a running pace | 58 min | Our estimate; the grade does not change because you run |
The lift company gives about 2 h 30 for the same ridge. The official figures are 4 km with 380 m up and 400 m down; ours measure 4.5 km and 282 m. On a busy ridge the longer figure is the honest one.
Conditions
What it is like right now, and month by month
Weather this week
Loading the forecast for low point (1,725 m) and high point (1,929 m)…
Weather this week
Loading the forecast for low point (1,725 m) and high point (1,929 m)…
Weather by month
Typical weather Gratweg Stoos: at the lowest point (1,725 m) and the highest point (1,929 m). Select a month to see why it is rated as it is.
| Month | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weather | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Mixed | Mixed | Poor |
| High point, day / night | 0°/-6° | 0°/-7° | 2°/-5° | 5°/-2° | 9°/3° | 13°/6° | 15°/8° | 15°/8° | 11°/5° | 8°/2° | 3°/-2° | 1°/-5° |
| Low point, day / night | -1°/-6° | 0°/-7° | 4°/-4° | 7°/-1° | 11°/4° | 15°/7° | 17°/9° | 16°/9° | 12°/5° | 8°/2° | 3°/-2° | 0°/-5° |
| Rain, mm | 115 | 98 | 118 | 128 | 168 | 180 | 186 | 183 | 158 | 148 | 143 | 132 |
| Snow at high point | Likely | Likely | Likely | Likely | – | – | – | – | – | Frost | Possible | Likely |
| Daylight | 8 h 54 | 10 h 16 | 11 h 49 | 13 h 32 | 15 h 01 | 15 h 52 | 15 h 33 | 14 h 17 | 12 h 38 | 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
Walk it in the signed direction
Klingenstock to Fronalpstock is the recommended way round, and the reason is crowding: on a narrow, busy ridge everyone going the same way means far less passing on exposed ground.
SchweizMobil route 827Read 20 September 2026
It is called family-friendly and rated T3 on the same page
The operator tags the round trip "familienfreundlich" while grading it "difficult" and T3, and SchweizMobil flags an exposed spot on it. Take the T3: sure-footed, free from vertigo, grippy soles.
Stoosbahnen, GratwanderwegRead 20 September 2026
In late autumn, check which way up is running
The two accesses to car-free Stoos are revised in turn, not together: from 26 October to 20 November 2026 only the funicular reaches Stoos, and from 23 November to 4 December only the Morschach cable car does. The summary page reads as though both close at once — the per-lift notices are the ones to trust.
Stoosbahnen revision notices, autumn 2026Read 20 September 2026
Season: June to October. The chains on the steep sections go up around the beginning of June and come down around the beginning of November, and the Klingenstock chairlift bounds the rest: daily 13 June – 11 October 2026, then weekends and holidays to 1 November, good weather only.
Make it your day
Shorter, longer, or at a run
The loop, if you drove
The operator publishes the ridge as a round trip from Stoos village: 10.2 km with 928 m of climb, about 3 hours by its own reckoning, up on foot to Klingenstock and down from Fronalpstock. Take the lifts instead and the same circle becomes the 4 km ridge with a ride at each end. Either way you finish where you started — and since Stoos is car-free, that is the funicular station.
From the valley floor
The cantonal hiking association publishes Brunnerboden to Stoos over the ridge: 12.2 km, 4 h 50, 960 m up and 1,030 m down, T3. The lifts save about 2 h on the way up and 1 h 30 on the way down.
For runners
The Stoos-Trail's long course, the ST46, genuinely runs this ridge: 46.6 km and 2,460 m of climb from Schlattli up the Muota valley to Klingenstock, along the crest to the Fronalpstock mountain prize, then down through Morschach to Brunnen. The next edition is 10 July 2027. The shorter ST24 reaches Fronalpstock by another way and misses the ridge.
Races on this ground: Stoos-Trail.
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: Gratweg Stoos (Stoos (Klingenstock) - Stoos (Fronalpstock)) (SchweizMobil route 827). We publish our own line on OpenStreetMap, matched onto the official one and checked against it.
- Official line 4.5 km · ours 4.49 km (-0.2%)
- 95% of the official line is within 1.3 m of ours; the furthest point is 2.1 m
- Climb read from a 30 m terrain model along our line, smoothed; an operator's figure will differ
- Built on 2026-09-20
- SchweizMobil route 827, the official line read 20 September 2026
- Stoosbahnen: lift seasons, times and fares for 2026 read 20 September 2026
- Stoos-Muotatal: the live operating board, including the ridge chains read 20 September 2026
- Schwyzer Wanderwege: the T3 grade and the valley variant read 20 September 2026
- OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) the paths our line follows
- Bundesamt für Strassen, Kanton, Stiftung SchweizMobilthe official route line