Iffighorn

🗺️ Overview

• Starting point: Parking area near the road to Iffigenalp

• Highest point: Iffighore, 2378 m

• Total elevation gain: 1100 m

• Total distance: 12 km

• Total time: 5h30

• Technical difficulty: Moderate

Download GPS file

As I was preparing for the Breithorn, I did this hike in an extended version. Otherwise, in its normal form, it is also ideal for families.

Above Lenk, on the left side of the valley, there is a little road that leads you to a panel indicating that the continuation to Iffigenalp is a timed road that you can take uphill between 30 and 45 minutes past every hour, and downhill between 00 and 15.

So you have to time your arrival.

But we did not have to, as for the extended version we just left the car in the small parking area next to the panel and continued on foot.

You start along the road and, after a few minutes, reach the Iffigfall, which is worth a detour. Then a path acts as a shortcut across the switchbacks the road makes. After crossing the road 2 or 3 times, you leave the path for Iffigenalp and go left, where Iffighore is indicated.

At first, you walk along the road, but after one minute you go onto a smaller road that leads to an alp. You continue on this smaller road for about half an hour. As it is a road, the climb is gentle, making it a nice way to warm up.

After about 1 hour from the start, at 1700 m and a little before the alp, you leave the road and continue through the pastures. The climb remains gentle until a large bend takes you around the rock cliff that was previously on your left and you start climbing steeply.

This is the steepest part of the hike. It lasts about 20–30 minutes, after which you reach the shoulder of Iffighore. A panel indicates that you can go down to Iffigenalp. This is where you would arrive with the shorter version of the hike.

Continuing instead toward Iffighore, you start a long climb on a grassy slope. It is one of those climbs where the end seems to be there, but it never arrives.

Anyway, the panorama gets gradually more spectacular as you start to see the mountains on the other side of the ridge more and more.

Towards the end, Iffigsee below also becomes visible. And finally, you reach the summit at 2378 m. We took about 3h15 in total to get there.

But the best part is after the summit. Even though it is 10 minutes longer going by the lake, I highly recommend taking that route. After a steepish descent, you reach the lake quicker than you think, in about 30 minutes.

It is one of those very scenic alpine lakes, but much less known than Oeschinensee.

We just had time for some photos when it started raining, so we rushed onto the rocky path that runs along the lake. After a narrow passage, the valley opens and you can see Iffigenalp from afar. The path zigzags downhill and takes about 1 hour to get there.

At Iffigenalp, you can take a bus back to the car. It takes 15 minutes and is a bit pricey. Otherwise, it is 45 minutes on foot. We opted for the bus.

Overall, we took 5h30 for a 12 km distance and 1100 m of elevation gain.

If you want to take it easy but still reach the summit, you can start from Iffigenalp, which will save about 1 hour.

Otherwise, the walk to the lake and back is perfect for families: about 500 m of elevation gain and 2h30 round trip, excluding breaks.