magazin nummer22 sommer_v2

Mit dieser Aussicht strampelt es sich gleich ein wenig leichter. With these views as motivation, the going doesn’ t seem as tough.

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light on the tour – the glit tering Tannensee lake. Just above is the Tanna lp A lpine dair y, which Pirmin is keen to show me. The dair y makes cheese the way it has been done for centuries. Inside, the cheesemaker has stoked a f ire in the wood-burning stove. Over it hangs a mighty vat where milk and rennet are slowly coagu lating. Later, this v iscous mass will be transferred to the cool cellar, where it will mature into wheels of tasty cheese. Af ter that, we head to Engstlensee lake. As the sun has been blazing down, this is a

bike-f riend ly, and the boss himself is a keen cyclist. Erwin and a fellow downhill biking enthusiast, his Slovenian f riend Janez Grasic, built the f irst trail here on their own initiative – and paid for it too! They turned an old hiking path into the Trudy Trail – named af ter Erwin’s wife, who is a lso enjoys whizzing about on two wheels. “It ’s a more cha llenging way to get back down into the va lley,” grins Erwin. Af ter we leave the restaurant, Pirmin is keen to show me his “new playground ” and before I know it we’re taking the f irst cur ve

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www.sportingpark.ch Spor ting Park Engelberg Engelbergerstra sse 11 CH-6390 Engelberg Phone +41 41 639 60 00 info@spor tingpark.ch

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great oppor tunity for some welcome relief. We count to three and plunge in… My God, that ’s cold! I shou ldn’ t be surprised – the Engstlen- see is fed by streams that trick le down f rom the Joch

on the new Joch Pass Flow Trail. It turns out he wasn’ t exaggerating. L ike snow- boarding in the winter, when cornices and kickers inv ite you and your snowboard to play with grav ity, riding this

Mountain biking can gener- ate the same euphoria as ski- ing over powder snow.

Glacier. “Of ten, the ice in the lake doesn’ t completely melt until June,” says Pirmin. Trout and char clearly cope with these tem- peratures bet ter than overheated cyclists. Anglers come here to f ish even in the winter. If you’re in the mood for more cheese instead of f ish, you shou ld a lso pop into the Engstlena lp show dair y. Each summer it makes 100 wheels of Bernese A lpine cheese – each one weighing eight to ten kilograms. The dair y a lso produces 1,000 kilos of but- ter, 4 ,000 kilos of Mutsch li cheese, and 500 kilos of Ziger (a kind of whey cheese). Behind the lake the terrain ascends steeply again. But we rise above it – litera lly: we take the chairlif t. When we get to the Joch Pass at the top, Pirmin proposes a “snack ” to get our streng th up. At Bärghuis Jochpass, host Erwin Gabriel (58) ser ves us Urner Häfe- lichabis, a traditiona l stew made f rom mut- ton, white cabbage, root vegetables, onions and potatoes. Bärghuis Jochpass is cer tif ied

f low trail on a bike tru ly does a lmost feel like sur f ing. Over 4.5 km of trail and 400 metres of descent is a rapid succession of berms, roll- ers and jumps. And yet the course has been designed so that children and beginners can ride it too. “That doesn’ t mean the pros can’ t have f un here,” says Primin when we pause brief ly ha lfway down. “L ike with skiing, it gets more cha llenging the faster you go.” I’m so loaded with endorphins af ter that exhilarating ride that I want to do it a ll over again. And so we jump on the chairlif t and quick ly arrive back at the star t. Pirmin tells me that there are plans afoot to ex tend the trail down into Engelberg – another 700 metres of descent: “We want to mu ltiply the f low!” But there is an a lternative route we can take right now: the Hells Bells Trail f rom the Joch Pass down to Engstlensee. “Don’ t worr y,” says Pirmin. “It isn’ t as scar y as it sounds.” And so I get to tr y out another bike trail that of fers plenty of f low – and it ’s dev ilish good f un!

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