Five-Lake hike at Pizol, Glarus.

First Lake: Wildsee

Disclaimer: Although this is a five-lake hike, we saw only 4 lakes. I will explain why we didn’t see the fifth lake.

Info:

• We started our travel with Pizolbahn in Wangs.
• From Wangs, we took a cable car to Furt.
• From Furt, we took a ski lift/chair lift to Gaffia.
• From Gaffia, we took a ski lift/chair lift to Pizolhütte.
• We paid CHF22/person. We have half fare travelcard from SwissPass. Without half fare, you pay CHF44/person for round trip. Please check Pizol website for updated information on prices etc.

Second Lake: Schottensee

1st August, 2018. Destination: Pizol 5-lake hike Distance: 10km Elevation: 750m Duration: 6.5 hours Starting: Pizolhütte End point: Gaffia

• Maps/Info about this hike can be found in Pizol website (click here!)
• A brief map guide by us can be found at the end of the page.

I would like to iterate that the cable car up to Pizol is worth the time, money and effort even if you don’t intend to hike. The view is simply amazing on the chair lift up to Pizolhütte. It is in fact a good place to bring visitors for day trip or even stay over as there are plenty of accommodations around the area.

I’ve been wanting to go Pizol a few months now after repeatedly seeing it on my Instagram feed. We were unlucky with the weather so we didn’t made it up until the Swiss National Day on 1st of August. It was really crowded on the trail, especially at the first lake, Wildsee and the second, Schottensee.

It was a really warm day so we were even slower than our usual pace. We didn‘t stay long at Wildsee because of the crowd and there was no quiet place to rest. Towards Schottensee, we found a shaded spot overlooking the lake to have a small bite. It felt almost festive as the throng of people passing us, drones in the sky and people swimming in the cold lake.

Third lake: Schwarzsee

I would say Wildsee and Schottensee truly took my breath away. These lakes are so calm, and blue as if it belongs to another planet. We spent considerable amount of time near Schottensee then we went on towards the third lake, Schwarzsee. I sweat thinking about hiking the up the slope to Schwarzplanggrat. We had heatwave on the weak, it was so hot on that day that it felt like the sun sucked the energy out of us. After much struggle, we reached the peak of Schwarzplanggrat – which offers a panoramic view. It was quite a treat for us.

We made our way down to Schwarzsee and didn’t stop until Lake number 4: Baschalvasee where we catch our breath, rehydrated and eat some snacks. At this point, nobody cares to talk anymore because our batteries were near flat. We reached the Gaffia station at est. 16:30.

We stopped counting lakes at Schottensee and didn’t realised that we didn’t see a fifth lake until we were home discussing about it. We missed Wangsersee which lies on the other side of Pizolhütte. It was our mistake that we didn’t check the map before our hike. There’s a tip for you if you want to do the 5-lake hike – don’t forget the fifth lake. Check the map!

Third lake: Schwarzsee

Fourth lake: Baschalvasee

Extra: View at the start of our hike.

Extra: Dipping our feet in Schottensee.