Preparing a trip to Zurich brings you sooner or later to the “house mountain” Üetliberg. The top offers breath taking views over the city of Zurich and its lake. If the weather plays along the glorious vista gets its finish by the glowing Alps in the background.
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Download GPX File: HERE
Follow the route on Strava: HERE
The Üetliberg peak belongs clearly to the top attractions in Zurich. My experience is, that Tourists often go to nice places. Unfortunately, they show this behavior in Zurich too, which means it’s crowded. The main reason behind this overfilled situation is the easiness to reach the top. Take the train at the main station. Drive 30 minutes up. Walk 500 meters. There you are.
If you are more into lonely / exclusive moments, then you have several options to improve the Üetliberg experience:
- Don’t go up there
- Choose a bad weather day (hoping for less people)
- Combine it with a run
Because you are reading scribaruns and not scribatakesthetrain I recommend you of course the last option.
Disclaimer: This is a strenuous run and not suitable for beginners, due to the altitude to be overcome. If you are not familiar with the area, please stick to the route, because there’s a path labyrinth, which of course is not dangerous, but may be not as satisfying as it could be.
The route
The Üetliberg experience run starts at Zurich’s periphery (Tram / Train Station Triemli). It takes you through longer lonely forested parts, moor landscapes, let’s you overtake heavy breathing downhill bikers looking for their trail all the way up and unifies you in the end with the standard tourist for the last few meters.
The effort will be rewarded immediately by the breath-taking view. I am 100% sure that the enjoyment is much more conscious with the completed distance and altitude. I claim that this impact is so high, that you will enjoy the view even though the weather is not post-card like. Sometimes fog and dark clouds have their own rough beauty.
The downhill part brings you again your privacy back and may triggers the feeling, that you are far away from any civilization somewhere in the alps. After enjoying Zurich’s aesthetics from a different angle you may conclude that scribaruns was right, that the combination of diverse nature, beautiful view combined with a challenging altitude run completes the Üetliberg experience to the max.
Route Infos
- Start – End: Tram Station Triemli or Train Station Triemli
- Feasible for hard Trainings: Yes, but only for hill runs
- Altimeter / Difficulty of the running course: Difficult
