[vigsom]

Introduction

This is a pic-o-log of a recent trip to one of the world's most favourite mountain tops - Mount Titlis in Switzerland. The attempt here is to provide details of our experience, useful guidance to potential travellers, temptation to fence sitters and what to expect there.

Arrival in Switzerland

There were a lot of events that got interlocked with our travel plan - and we ended up being able to apply just two weeks prior to the planned travel date. The Schengen visa application stipulates everything up front - Invite letter, proof of residence of the sponsor, applicant's bank statement, employment proof OR GST certificate, confirmed returned tickets, valid medical insurance, etc. etc. For the first time in life, I applied for a visa without travel associate assistance, and it went through like clockwork, but the clock started ticking and kept ticking till we got our visas in our passports just two days prior to departure.

We came to Switzerland as planned (Phew!) and with just the first day as rest day, undertook our first outdoor activity to Mount Titlis. Reason for the hurry: weather was expected to be wet post that.

Preparations for the visit

1. Snow boots - something that has rough all terrain soles; my industrial shoes were just fine
2. Windcheater, monkey cap, gloves, sunglasses
3. Swiss Travel Pass - can choose from various options available; we got an 8 day pass that would cover train/bus rides across Swiss (except reservation charges on premium panorama trains), ride to Mt.Titlis at half the scheduled rate, free rides to two other mountains; we rode free from Zurich Airport to our place of stay, and all train rides thereafter
4. Based on estimated time of departure from place of stay, checked timings of trains, connections on the sbb.ch website

[vigsom]

The Rail Connection

Based on our ETD, we found the following connections

Zurich local station to Zurich HB (approx. 10 min ride) --> Zurich HB to Luzern (Lucerne) approx. 40min ride --> Luzern to Engelberg (approx. 45 min. ride) on meter gauge). Once at Engelberg, there is a shuttle bus that drops one off at the base station, but we chose to walk 10 mins and enjoy the surroundings

Moving up the escalator to Zurich HB Terminus


Zurich HB Terminus


Departing Zurich HB on a double decker train; most commuter trains on broad gauge are double decker


Luzern Terminus - shifting to platform 12 (Platforms 12, 13, 14 designated for meter gauge trains aka chota line)


Enroute Luzern to Engelberg




Stans Station - pit stop to yet another mountain Stanserhorn


Enroute Luzern to Engelberg (Contd.)






Crystal clear water stream


Willkommen!


Rolling into Engelberg


Engelberg Station - all blokes including the cameraman headed to Mt. Titlis





The meter gauge train - an old one; there are newer trains too

[vigsom]

Moving from Engelberg Station to Titlis Cable Car Valley Station

We took a 10 minute walk instead of the shuttle - to enjoy the walk through beautiful surroundings. It was warm, but invigorating!

Exiting Engelberg Station and turning left (as per the yellow arrow)


Moving past picture postcard houses..


[i]Till one sees the Titlis signboard /I]


And a lot of vehicles parked in the background


Getting closer


and closer


and closer


buses of various makes in the parking


Titlis Cable Car Valley Station finally after a 10 min walk






Join the long queue - this was the queue at approx. 09:30am

[vigsom]

Riding Cable Car#1 from Valley Station up to Titlis Rotair Stand

Let the pics do most of the talking; ride time from Valley Station to Rotair stand is approx. 15 mins.

Boarding the Cable Car at the Valley Station - six to a car



Ready to go up


Views from the cable car - the ride is okay but the car does vibrate a bit when passing over the rollers at the top of each tower














There is an intermediate stop called Trubsee where hikers would get off; others to remain seated to go to the upper stop called Rotair stand


From Trubsee to the Rotair Stand




At the final stop for the first cable car viz. the Rotair Stand

[vigsom]

Riding Cable Car#2 from Titlis Rotair Stand to Mt.Titlis

There are only two cars here doing up and down runs; good news is each car can take approx. 75 pax and the one way journey takes between 3 and 4 mins. There is a long waiting time here, and so patience is key. These cars rotate 360 degree in the run up to the top giving all passengers 360 degree views of the mountain.

The long queue and wait to board the Rotair


One batch waiting for the Rotair; passengers are allowed in batches of 75 (number TBC); there is a counter to let marshals know the count based on each person's pass scanned and tripod open


Two cars crossing - one going up and one coming down


Arriving for us to board




Boarding was quick and so was departure - long line of folks waiting


Approaching the top; lot of construction in progress






Loo at 10,600 feet


Info on what is where at the top


Moving up and out

[vigsom]

At the top - A cool and wow feeling

Pathway to the Ice Flyer


Rope barricade - many folks moving out of the barricade close to the edge - absolute disregard for personal safety. Thankfully, the white is not snow but fabric meant to offer some traction


Tower under construction


Ice Flyers seen in the background - honestly, I don't have the guts to take these


Heavy equipment - wonder how they brought this all up?




Panoramic view from the top


Snow capped peak


Views from the top

[vigsom]

Glacier Cave, some beverage and the ride back to base

Glacier Cave Stats


Inside the Glacier Cave - extremely slippery surface and AT boots are more a must here than at the top


Nice Shivling




Refreshing Ovomaltine at 10,000 feet



Ride on board the Titlis Rotair from the top to the stand

https://youtu.be/vFrx2Qb2sBs?si=69KFPynfofEnX8vx

By a stroke of luck, we rode a car that carried the Tricolour



Riding the cable car from Stand to Valley Station; about 60% into the video, you can hear cowbells

https://youtu.be/GTQQoqqpccU?si=aCm1Tn5xbqIAAFz3

At the Trubsee Stand - nobody got on




Jai Hind!

[vigsom]

An Electrifying Experience Comes to a Close

We traced our steps back to Engelberg Station, with the great experience still in our heads. What a day well spent!

Nice views outside Engelberg Station while we were waiting for our train




Two trains cooling off


Views enroute Engelberg to Luzern










Tips for travellers

1. When travelling from Luzern to Engelberg, there are breathtaking views from both sides
2. From Zurich HB to Luzern, be seated to the left and you'll get some amazing views of the lake before the train comes to Zug
3. Carry a lot of water, and irrespective of weather, keep the equipment I'd recommended in the opening post
4. DO NOT venture outside the wire rope barricade at the top; no heroics here!
5. Keep the Swiss travel pass QR code open in a window on the mobile; anybody can ask even on the return leg from Titlis
6. Swiss travel pass - even if the travel pass is purchased, one needs to activate tickets for all chosen days; please do that and keep the relevant e-tickets with QR codes handy; SBB train ticket checkers pop up anytime

Stay tuned for more; the show isn't over yet!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Manuscript]

Nice photo blog. It brought back memories when I had visited Mount Titlis in 2010. The way they have made the transport system, trains, trams, then cable car. That's why Swiss is a pleasure to visit. Did you go to Mount Pilatus as well? Did you visit the car museum in Lucern?

[jasonbourne]

Wow, that was lovely travelogue. It felt like a lovely trip down the memory lane for me. Reminded me of my times living in Switzerland.

[RonMasc'y]

Lovely pic-o-log. Brought alive my 2015 memories of the exact same excursion. Looks like nothing much has changed since then. Everything is as beautiful and clean as ever. Cheers!

[DudeWithaFiat]

Beautiful. We had visited Mt.Titlis sometime in 2016. At the base, there was a Indian shop selling Idli & Chutney for 20 Euros a plate that time (2 idlis + some chutney) with a pretty long queue. My friend bought a plate and saying it was the most expense idli that he had ever had.

[haisaikat]

Nice photoblog. We were there this June only and while the views are breathtaking at both Engelberg and Titlis top, I wanted to throw some light on the real atmosphere at Titlis. Noisy Indian majority crowd (group tours), playing loud songs sometimes accompanied by shooting eye soaring reels, skipping queues for boarding the cable car at their own will, the Toilets are dirty and incidentally the instructions to keep the Toilets clean are written in Hindi (and of course English).

The construction has made the place a bit messy but that did not stop people from posing in front of Shahrukh - Kajol DDLJ cutout. You should have taken that ICE Flyer, its much safer that what you get at some of the other places. We did also get down for a hike at Trubsee on ground of visiting an Alpine lake like it in India takes rigorous trekking at times, hence we did not want to let this opportunity pass.

Waiting for more updates on the rest of your trip.

[OldFuelNewFire]

This looks so much like the zugspitze trip that we boys did a couple of years ago. We did it in -2 deg winter.