Hike Report (And Favorite Pictures) – ‘Schijenfluh Umrundung’ Day Hike Trail in Switzerland and Austria 2021-10

Short Description

The “Schijenfluh Umrundung” (“Tour around Schijenfluh”), as the name states if you ignore the stray letter H, leads around Mount Schijenflue, briefly crossing into Austria.

Along the way you’ll see lake Partnun with its green tinted waters, alpine meadows, bleak highland karst landscapes with its brown grass tones, lonely houses, as well as well as stark contrasts between dark crystalline Silvretta rocks on one side and bright limestone on the other side of the northern trail.

Noteworthy cultural/historical aspect: Many of the paths taken were used by Walser people and/or smugglers. Not that you could tell, but it’s neat to know, isn’t it.

Notes

• When consulting the map it looks like you should be able to park in Partnun itself. This is not the case. If you don’t want to take the bus from the lower valley parking spaces to the beginning of the route, you’ll have to use my route: Skipping the bus and adding an hour to the hike.
  Fairly busy place. Seems much more popular than you might think.

Impressions

This being a Saturday, and considering I did the Fürstin Gina Weg hike just the day before, we were looking for a short to medium length, remote and not too popular hike.

We chose “Schijenfluh Umrundung”, as it seemed to tick all of the boxes. Though I might have gotten a clue about the popularity if I had zoomed out on the map a bit to discover the multiple large parking spots further down the road in the valley.

As mentioned in the notes, we learned two things upon our arrival:

1. You can’t park in Partnun village itself without a special permission (residents).
2. This region seems to be very popular and touristic. Oops.

We opted not to take the bus and to just walk the extra few kilometers from the parking space to Partnun and back.

Boats on Partnunsee, Schijenfluh mountains in the background.

These boats are for rent – 2 bucks per person, honor system.

The next thing we learned was both a bit of a bother in the moment, and a relief overall:

'3. Partnunsee (Lake Partnun) where we had hoped to have a peaceful lat lunch seems to be the main attraction where all the families congregate, closely followed by the local restaurants.

We managed to enjoy our brief stay at the lake anyway and set off on the actual hiking portion of the day. (We wanted to see the lake in sunlight, which is why we went clockwise.)

As soon as the lake was out of view, we encountered only a few other people and the trail turned into the remote, barren, bleak, but immensely beautiful landscape we had imagined and hoped for.

Crossing the Tilisunafürggli ridge into Austria, the rocky landscape was replaced by no less beautiful alpine meadows and a view of the Austrian alps.

We also passed more than one old customs post that we joked would be the ideal houses for introverts (like us), provided they like their living arrangements a bit on the ascetic side.

This must be the Ascetic Introvert’s vacation home.

We chose a bit of a windy day for this, and it was much stronger on the north side. Coupled with the sun being blocked by the Schijenflue mountains, there was quite a bit of windchill. Once again I was glad I prioritized coming prepared (and bringing clothing options for all weather conditions) over traveling light.

Coming around the south side and starting the descent to Partnun, we were glad to be back in the setting sun and mostly out of the wind. Maybe that played a role in how beautiful the landscape here was to us but I think it’s mostly down to the views simply being gorgeous all on their own.

Twilight Tree

We needed a bit longer than expected to complete the tour and reached the car in the twilight, which had the benefits of a uniquely atmospheric mood and some rare photographic opportunities. I do like how they came out 🙂

My trusty Saab waiting for us. I call it “Blue Steel”

Schijenfluh was full of (mostly pleasant) surprises for us, including the subtle diversity of the route. We left with great memories and a strong desire to revisit this region.