We took the train and funicular to the village of Braunwald above Glarus to start our journey and walked into Urnerboden.
The second day, we hiked from the Fisettengrat cable car, including a few scrambles over snow, enjoying the dramatic views of the peaks with a storm rolling in. The last day, we hitched a ride with the inn owner down to Glarus due to weather and hiked along the Glarus valley before heading home.
Urnerboden is the name of the peak with the most mass in Switzerland. The valley is part of Canton Uri and lies east of Klausenpass. It is narrow and sandwiched between 3000 meter peaks. The fact that it is part of Uri, when it is only accessible from Uri in mid-summer is a bit of a curiosity given it is much more accessible from Glarus. After much dispute, the border was drawn between the cantons in 1315.
The settling of the border with Urnerboden going to Uri is a bit of a legend. I will do my best to tell the legend from what we read in German.
Once upon a time, the border between the cantons was in dispute between the Uri and Glarner neighbors. They settled on a contest to determine the border. When the rooster crows, an athlete from each side would start running and where they meet the border would be drawn.
Each side chose its athletes with care and the roosters were also chosen with care for one that would crow as punctually at dawn as possible. The Uri people starved their rooster and kept it away from the hens believing hunger and good sleep would wake it up earlier. The Glarner kept their rooster well fed so it could crow powerfully.
After a sleepless night, the Uri rooster in Altdorf woke up at the break of dawn and crowed first. Their runner started up the pass while the Glarner rooster slept soundly being well fed. Finally, the Glarner rooster awoke and crowed, but the Glarner runner started well behind. As he approached the first ridge, he already saw the Uri runner above descending from the valley above. Below the ridge, the two men collided and the Uri runner declared the border.
The Glarner begged to have a bit more pasture that the Uri runner had won, and the Uri runner took pity on him and said he could have as much as he could take back with the Uri runner on his back heading uphill. The runner from Glarus put the Uri runner on his back and climbed a bit higher up the pass, but quickly ran out of breath and stopped to drink from the stream where he collapsed and died. The brook is still the border of the cantons today.
Regardless of the legend, Urnerboden is an enchanted place, and I hope to return in Winter to see its beauty again.
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