Unexpected Discovery – Frozen Lake in Glarus, Switzerland

In December 2016, after a trip to the Netherlands, I decided to visit my dad in Switzerland.

We went on a spontaneous adventure, and discovered a truly amazing hidden gem.

I’ve been to Switzerland multiple times (maybe 6 times), but even though the country is relatively small (California is 10 times bigger), I feel like there still is so much to discover.

In December, I was staying in Zurich for a week for Christmas; out of nowhere, I decided I wanted to go on a day trip in the mountains.

I searched for a bit on the web to find travel ideas in Switzerland, but didn’t find anything interesting. Looked on Instagram, but again didn’t find anything in the close area. Finally, I opened up google maps and looked for an interesting location close-by.

That’s when I found Glarus; a location with several mountains and lakes all packed together, and only 1 hour away from Zurich.
We took the car and drove there in the early morning.

We first went to the biggest lake in the area, Klontalarsee (“see” means lake in Swiss).

When we were there, there wasn’t that much snow, compared to other winters. Only a small layer of snow on the ground, and some layers on top of the mountains.

Because of the season, the lake looked nothing like I had seen on summer pictures. There was almost no water, as the lake had shrunk to a fourth of its size. Now I have a reason to come back to this place in summer to see how different it is!

After spending quite some time in this location, we decided to move on, and see if we could find something else. On Google maps, I had spotted a small lake right above where we were, Obersee.

Even though it was just above on the map, it took us 40 minutes to drive there, because most of the time we were driving on small mountain roads, climbing all the way up in the mountain to reach the mountain lake (well that happens a lot in Switzerland).

We had absolutely no idea what to expect coming to this place, and we definitely didn’t think we’d find a frozen lake! I remember the moment we first saw the lake; we were taken aback by the beauty of the place, and by the thick layer of ice.

To this day, I had never been on a frozen lake. I didn’t really know if we could venture on the ice safely. Thankfully, there was an old man ice skating, playing ice hockey (how typical!). He waved to say “come!”, and assured us there was absolutely no danger.

Here you can see my dad stepping on the ice, still a bit doubtful about this, and checking the ice.

Due to its location, in a valley between two mountains, the lake freezes every winter. It’s a well-known fact by the locals, who come to play ice hockey or skate on the lake on the weekends.

That’s what happen when you go out & explore your surroundings! You find new places, and have a wonderful time outdoors. These are the kind of adventures that fuel me, and every time I go exploring, I’m amazed by the beauty of nature.

Not sure what to do? Go out and explore!

Well I hope you liked this travel story! As always, let me know what you think of this place in the comments below!

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