urbirun Swiss Crossing lake2lake, what's that?

The urbirun swiss.crossing lake2lake adventure is an almost 370km long run, with more than 12'700m of elevation gain, during which I plan to see yellow signs, cows, squirrels and maybe even a cat…

It’s crossing a whole country from one lake to another, running, with a small backpack, running shoes on, and eyes wide open.

*to read the story and see pictures of each stage, links are at the bottom, of this post

*to know everything about WHAT’S IN MY BACKPACK, read here
*how it all started? read here
*all useless figures about this running adventure

Ok I confess, I didn’t pick up the largest country. But it is mine… and by the way on this point I’m delighted not to be Russian…

Swiss crossing Lake2Lake intend to explore Switzerland along trails and footpaths that criss-cross this beautiful country (more than 65’000km, I’ll mainly be along VIA4 then VIA3 of transnational trails).

Start : north-east corner, in Rorschach, on the shores of Lake Constance, 7km from the Austrian border, just in front of Germany…

Finish : south-west, in Le Bouveret on the shores of Lake Geneva, 4km from the French border.

A run-trip that will take me to :

the Saint-Gall Abbey,
the Lake of Zürich,
the quietness of the convent of Einsiedeln,
the Rothenturm Moorland Reserve,
the steep slopes of Morgarten, site of a founding battle for Switzerland,
Zug,
then Lucerne and its famous Kappelbrücke wood bridge,
the crests of the Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve classified by UNESCO,
a detour to visit the capital city of Bern, its medieval Old Town, and greet its famous bears,
then it will be the gorges of the Sense river in the Gantrisch Natural Park in the heart of the Mittelland region,
the Black Lake,
the Gorges of the Jogne,
Gruyères,
the Moléson summit (2002m),
before running down to Montreux and the Chillon Castle,
and finally cross the Grangettes Nature Reserve, on the shores of Lake Leman/Lake Geneva, to Le Bouveret, at the mouth of the Rhône River.

I am looking forward to exploring the diversity of Switzerland, its landscapes and terrains, its history and its modernity, from its plains to its mountains, from its hamlets to its cities, from its small secret valleys to its international lakes, and to get my legs and eyes full of it…

When are we leaving? I’m looking forward to it… (start May 30th)

(maps of each stage route are at the end of this other article, here)

The story and the pictures of all the stages are/will be here (COMING SOON, sorry I am running…), and of course on the urbirun facebook page, on the @urbirun instagram feed, with daily pics and stories along the run… and if you want to be sure not to miss anything, join the newsletter here.

Stage 1 – 25,8km – 812D+ – Rorschach/SG-Herisau/AR

Stage 2 – 23,7km – 1021D+ – Herisau/AR-Wattwil/SG

Stage 3 – 31,3km – 745D+ – Wattwi/SGl-Pfäffikon/SZ

Stage 4 – 33,3km – 1194D+ – Pfäffikon/SZ-Unterägeri/ZG

Stage 5 – 39,6km – 975D+ – Unterägeri/ZG-Luzern/LU

Stage 6 – 21,5km – 439D+ – Luzern/LU-Wohlusen/LU

Stage 7 – 28,9km – 1695D+ – Wohlusen/LU-Lüdernalp/BE

Stage 8 – 41.9km – 993D+ – Lüderenalp/BE-Bern/BE

Stage 9 – 30.8km – 1252D+ – Bern/BE-Guggisberg/BE

Stage 10 – 29.8km – 1142D+ – Guggisberg/BE-Charmey/FR

Stage 11 – 29.5km – 1806D+ – Charmey/FR-Les Rosalys/Paccots/FR

Stage 12 – 29km – 515D+ – Les Paccots/FR-Le Bouveret/VS
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