This was my first hike with the nice folks I found at Wanderforum. As usual Sabine was the one organizing this, and Paul was the right hand man. There were 5 of us, meeting 8:30 or so at HB Zurich. We took the next train to Wil and connected to the train to Nesslau, getting off at Ebnat Kappel. The owner of Berggasthaus at Nestel picked us up at the station. Sabine, Paul, Ana, Barenge and me squeeze into the small car and off we drove to Nestel. The Berggasthaus was decorated inside for the comin carnival, with animated lustful puppets. Quite funny, although I didn't get a word they said in (Swiss)German.

After some tea/coffee, and a look around the Berggasthaus and the scottish cows there, we strapped on our snowshoes. We set off for Tanzboden with rough directions from our host. Weather was great, quite clear, not windy and a bit sunny. Not terribly cold either, however there was no fresh snow/powder. It was mostly partly iced snow all along the trek. The snow+ice was cruching under our feet as we walked, quite noisily infact. We could find some "Wanderweg" signs for a while and then just generally climbed up somewhere. At one of the ridges we met a Swiss guy from around Wadenswil, so we tagged along with him to Tanzboden. There's a nice restaurant at Tanzboden where we sat a while to have hot chocolate and some munchies. This point is quite beautiful since all of Zurisee is visible from there, and you can make out Zurich and all of the surrounding mountains. The views were great especially being blessed with good weather.

Soon though it was time to climb down for a nice fondue waiting for us. The initial part of the descent was a bit tricky, at a really steep part which was quite icy. After some stumbling and slipping that slope was through. We trudged along on the well marked path in the snow for a while. The later part of the trek was through some heavily wooded parts without snow making it tricky to go through. Especially for me, since my ankle was hurting after the initial part of the descent. But soon we were back on our intial path, in the icy snow. It was only a matter of time then we made it back to the Berggasthaus.

There was some drinking and a nice leisurely consumation of Cheese Fondue. Yum! All filled up, it was time to find our way back to the station. This time, no car lift, so we walked along the road all the way down to Ebnat Kappel and its train station. Whereby we took the next bus to Wil, and from there a train straight into Zurich HB. I parted company with the rest at Flughafen and took the next train to Oerlikon and was home by 19:00 or so.

-- Ashish Bhambhani