Fürstensteig Ridge Trail

PeaksRätikon Alps, above Vaduz, Liechtenstein

August·Peaking now

Jul–Sep

High summer into early autumn: the whole one-way traverse runs, alpine rose peaks on the ledges in July, and September usually brings the most settled, stable weather of the season. Be off the exposed ridge by mid-afternoon — thunderstorms build fast over the Rätikon.

Year-round The cliff ledge, the cable and the 1,600-metre drop to Vaduz are there whenever the path is snow-free; it closes each winter.

The Fürstensteig is a footpath blasted into a cliff to mark a prince's anniversary. Between 1897 and 1898 workers cut a narrow ledge across the northwest wall of the Alpspitz above Gaflei, and the path opened on 17 July 1898, in the fortieth year of Prince Johann II's reign. He paid for one section, Karl Schädler — who ran the spa hotel at Gaflei — paid for a second, and the Vorarlberg branch of the alpine club paid for the third. What they left is a path about a shoulder's width across, with limestone on one side, air on the other, and a steel cable to hold. You walk it on your own feet, with no rope and no climbing gear. The Swiss walking scale rates it T3, meaning an exposed mountain path that asks for a sure step rather than climbing skill. Past the ledge a ridge carries on over the Kuhgrat, at 2,123 metres the high point of the walk, to the Three Sisters on the Austrian border. Step onto the ledge and the Rhine Valley drops away beneath your boots: Vaduz, the river and its vineyards lie roughly 1,600 metres below, and on a clear morning the view carries north to Lake Constance. Alpine rose and the flowers of the scree come out in June and July; chamois cross the loose rock above the path. Come in autumn and the valley often fills with fog while the ridge stands in sun. Nothing here is permanent, though. The path closes every winter, rockfall and debris bury it, and each spring crews clear and repair the ledge before it reopens; one rockfall shut it for a whole season, and the last repairs ran into June. For a country you can drive across in half an hour, this is a serious mountain day: five to six hours, a thousand-metre descent, and a stretch where your only handhold is a wire.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The route is a one-way traverse, not a loop — most walkers start from the Gaflei car park and come down to Planken, so check the bus times home before you set off.
Confirm the path is open before you drive up — it is cleared and repaired every spring after the winter, and rockfall has shut it for entire seasons.
Sure-footedness counts for more than fitness here — the ledge is narrow and exposed, and local alpine guidance is to keep children on a rope along the Fürstensteig and the Three Sisters.
Go early for the long view — the sightline down the Rhine to Lake Constance is sharpest in the first hours, before haze thickens over the valley floor.
Be off the ridge by mid-afternoon — summer heat builds thunderstorms over the Rätikon, and a cable-hung ledge is the worst place to be caught in one.

Things to do

1
Climb out of the spruce onto the open ridge
The walk begins gently: a path up through spruce from Gaflei, then out onto grass where the whole flank of the Rätikon opens ahead of you. The cut line of the trail is visible across the slope long before you reach the rock.
2
Look 1,600 metres down onto Vaduz
In places the ledge runs right at the lip, with nothing between your boot and the valley floor. Vaduz, the Rhine and the vineyards lie flat below like a map, and the drop is what people remember long after the walk.
3
Pass limestone towers cushioned with alpine rose
Rock spires rise straight off the path, their ledges softened by clumps of alpine rose and dwarf pine holding on to whatever soil the wind has left. Up close it is clear how little the plants have to work with — bare limestone, a handful of grit, and a lot of weather.
4
Choose your ridge at the Gaflei signpost
At the trailhead a signpost splits the day: the Fürstensteig ledge, the Three Sisters beyond it, or an easier way back down. It is worth a minute — the traverse ends in a different village from the one you parked in.
5
Stand under the cross on the Great Sister
Beyond the Kuhgrat the traverse drops to the Three Sisters, where a summit cross marks the Great Sister at 2,053 metres. A scramble over loose rock earns the widest view of the day, out across two countries at once.