1'533 m
St. Gallen
The Vorder Höhi is a wild, little-known crossing at 1,537 metres, high above Amden on the sunny terrace of the Walensee, reaching over the broad Churfirsten massif into the Toggenburg – indeed the only road crossing of that whole range.
ROUTE
ELEVATION PROFILE
ROUTE MAP
DESCRIPTION
The Vorder Höhi is a wild, little-known crossing at 1,537 metres, high above Amden on the sunny terrace of the Walensee, reaching over the broad Churfirsten massif into the Toggenburg – indeed the only road crossing of that whole range. It is barely a road at all: a narrow strip built by the army, like the Pragelpass road, closed to motor traffic and marked on the national map as barred. The asphalt gives out at the summit, where a grooved concrete "tank track" takes over for the plunge down to Starkenbach. So the climb belongs to walkers, mountain bikers and, for the brave, road cyclists – who grind up gradients so steep that the front wheel can lift off the ground.
At the top there is no restaurant, no kiosk, no crowd of tourists – only alp cattle sheds, a spring and a small pass sign, set in a high-moor landscape of national importance, with no noise of cars or motorbikes. The view runs from the Säntis in the north to the distant Tödi in the south, the Mürtschenstock looming over the whole climb from the lake. Its one brush with the wider world came in 1973–74, when a threatened rockfall above Amden put the only access road from Weesen in jeopardy, and this rough back way over the mountains briefly mattered. A pass for those who like the Alps quiet, empty and unpolished.
SELECTED ROUTE