The Five Lakes Walk Pizol SG - 4-5 hours, 580 uphill, 1000 downhill.

This is a very well-known hike – once again the starting point (first comes an aerial cableway and two chair lifts) is near the main road / railway from Zürich to Chur.
The SBB has a special '30% off' deal until the end of September. Thus weekends might be a bit busy, but on the Monday we went, there were about twenty people on the path altogether.

The Pizol Hut, at the start of the walk (top of the second chair lift), is the last building until one reaches the end of the normal trail at the top of the first chair-lift so one needs enough food and drink for the whole distance. There is no shade anywhere either, so sun-cream and a hat are a good idea.

If I were to do this walk again, I would ring Information to ask what condition the path is in. When we got a short way up the first slope, we found about 15cms of snow. (At the Ticket-office down in the valley, we were asked what boots we had on, and now we knew why!) On a narrow path sloping left with a drop to the left as well, a couple of short stretches were not exactly my idea of fun and I was glad we hadn’t children with us. (The official leaflet says 6-7 years old upwards). The rock itself is ‘grippy’ even when wet though, and we soon had the difficulties behind us. After these first two slopes, the rest of the path was more or less snow-free. This time all the lakes were ice-free too. (Doing the walk many years ago in August, we found the first lake still completely frozen over!)
A great walk and not too bad on the knees as the downhill doesn’t come ‘all in one go’. Poles were useful though especially in the snow.