Fürstensteig Ridge Trail

PeaksRätikon Alps, above Vaduz,Liechtenstein

A shoulder-wide ledge blasted into a Liechtenstein cliff in 1898, a steel cable for a handhold and the Rhine Valley 1,600 metres below.

September·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 shoulder-wide ledge blasted into a cliff face in the Rätikon Alps above Vaduz, in Liechtenstein, with a steel cable bolted alongside for a handhold and the Rhine Valley 1,600 metres below. It was cut in 1898 for the fiftieth anniversary of Prince Johann II's reign, which is where the name comes from. It was paid for in thirds: by the state, by the prince, and by Karl Schädler, who owned the hotel the path starts from and needed guests. Schädler had bought the alp at Gaflei in 1872 and turned it into Liechtenstein's first spa, enlarging it to a hundred beds just as the path was being built. The spa came down in 1961, and the car park in front of the clinic that replaced it is where you set off. The first hour is kind. A path climbs through spruce and comes out onto grass where the whole flank of the Rätikon opens ahead of you, with the cut line of the trail visible across the slope long before you reach it. Then the ledge. In places it runs right at the lip, with nothing between your boot and the valley floor, and Vaduz, the Rhine and the vineyards lie flat below you like a map. On the inner side rock spires rise straight off the path, their ledges cushioned with alpine rose and dwarf pine holding on to whatever grit the wind has left. Beyond the Kuhgrat the traverse drops to the Three Sisters, where a summit cross marks the Great Sister at 2,053 metres and a scramble over loose rock earns the widest view of the day, out across two countries at once. The rock was climbed long before the path existed: the first recorded ascent came in June 1870, twenty-eight years before anyone cut a path toward it. The three peaks have their own story. Three young women went picking berries on Lady's Day while the church bells rang, and when a woman asked them for some they refused; she told them that hearts of stone should stand as stone forever.

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. At the Gaflei signpost the day is decided — the ledge, the Three Sisters beyond it, or an easier way back down — and the traverse ends in a different village from the one you parked in.
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. Rock spires rise straight off the path on the other side, their ledges cushioned with alpine rose and dwarf pine holding on to whatever grit the wind has left.
3
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.

Watch

Nearby

114 km