Rätikon High Route - Tilisuna- to Lindauer Hütte

After our ascent to the Sulzfluh on what was supposed to be our zero day, we now embarked on the fifth leg of our round trip around through the Rätikon. As with the last one, we did not quite follow the suggestions we had found in our hiking guidebook and instead modified the section to be a little longer and pass by the Schwarzhornsattel and Tobelsee.

We got started after a extensive breakfast, walking towards the Schwarzhornsattel. A bunch of cows and horses watched us curiously, especially a calf that seemed very interested in Tims photography gear. It came really close to check us out. Other than that we saw marmots once again, and almost the whole way to the saddle we were accompanied by a sountrack of their  piercing, shrill whistling.

After the short ascent to the Schwarzhornsattel we discussed wether we should include the climb to the Tschaggunser Mittagsspitze on our section, since it was just a little further from the saddle. But not our whole group wanted to go, so we decided to skip it, so that we would not have to split up again. Instead we just climbed up the first short, steep ascent to see if the view was nice and if we would be missing anything. From up there it was easy to see, that the peak was really not much higher and we probably wouldn't see much more anyways. So we picked staying together as a group over the climb to the peak.

Instead we now descended, down towards the Tobelsee. There we took a short break by the water. Soon after an older guy walked down to the lake – we had met him at the last hut, the night before and had had a nice little chat. Together we had a bit of a rant about a family camping right by the lake. While the desire for a camp like that is very understandable, staying right by a body of water can have quite a toll on the nature there and it is usually forbidden. Especially with the hut less than an hour's walk away it felt very unnecessary to compromise the sensitive environment there, and we all agreed they were not setting a good example for their children.

Our next waypoint was the "green corner" (grünes Eck), which we now approached in a wide arc. The spot hat gained its name from the greenish rock, called "serpentine rock", that gave it a quite different look than the rest of the mountain. 

When we had just passed the little hilltop at the "green corner", suddenly the shilouttes of some chamois emerged from the rock face beside us. First it seemed like just a few, then more and more showed up and a flock of more than 30 animals suddenly dashed down the side of the mountain until they reached a field of scree at the bottom of a little valley, where they slowed down and then trotted in between the trees of a small forest situated down there. It was really fascinating to watch!

Impressed by this spectacle of nature we continued our way and soon reached the "Bilkengrat", where our path descended into the valley. Here we reached a mountain forest for the first time on the whole high route, which served us very well because it finally gave us some shade. Along the path in the valley we saw quite a few carline thistles that gleamed beautifully in the sunlight.

In the valley we crossed a small stream and then decided to have a short rest in the shade below the walls of the Sulzfluh, before embarking on the last bit of the section that would bring us to the Lindauer Hütte. Here, the nice older guy we had met a few time during the day passed us once again and we had another short chat. He told us he was thoroughly enjoying leisurely walking the remainder of the way to hut, naming it a "final amble" instead of a "final sprint", and how much he enjoyed being out here. We fully agreed with that. It was so beautiful, and the athmosphere as well as the  forest scenery was a nice variety to the higher up, tree-less landscapes we had seen the last few days.