961 m
Zurich
The Ghöch is one of the many gentle road passes that crease the Zürcher Oberland, a hamlet and saddle at about 961 metres in canton Zürich, reached from the east by side roads from Fischenthal and Gibswil in the Tösstal, and from the west by the steep climb from Bäretswil.
ROUTE
ELEVATION PROFILE
ROUTE MAP
DESCRIPTION
The Ghöch is one of the many gentle road passes that crease the Zürcher Oberland, a hamlet and saddle at about 961 metres in canton Zürich, reached from the east by side roads from Fischenthal and Gibswil in the Tösstal, and from the west by the steep climb from Bäretswil. This is glorious cycling country – green as far as the eye can see, thinly settled and little trafficked, a region of sub-1,000-metre crossings you can string into a hilly day. At the pass stand an excursion restaurant, a large car park, and – when the snow allows – even a small ski lift, an unexpected touch at so modest a height; the road stays open all year.
For all its gentleness, the Ghöch sits in country with a hard past. A short way off, above Bäretswil, lies the Täuferhöhle, the "Anabaptists' cave". It was a secret meeting place of the Anabaptists – the radical wing of the Reformation, launched in part by friends of Huldrych Zwingli who wanted to take reform further, insisting on baptism only in adulthood; admired by many but mercilessly persecuted, they gathered here out of sight. Nearby, too, a small convent of beguines stood at the Frauebrünneli from 1300 to 1525. Today the Ghöch is simply a quiet, lovely hill pass – but the woods around it remember a fiercer age.
SELECTED ROUTE