Hiking the world’s longest suspension bridge

At 494 meters long, hiking the world’s longest suspension bridge for pedestrian usage, the Charles Kuonen Suspension bridge, had been on my to-do list since the day it was open to public in July 2017.

Hike Statistics:

Start & End Point: Randa (1406m)
Highest Point: Europa Hut (2220m)
Ascend and Descend: 814m
Distance: 8km
Duration: 3.5 hours

Hiking the world’s longest suspension bridge – My Experience:

This hike was purely ascending all the way to the world’s longest suspension bridge and further on to Europa Hut from Randa.

Within a few minutes after leaving the train station, the uphill climb quickly started.

Not long after I had a beautiful view of Randa village.

If you are looking for a more relaxing hike and are not a fan of a steep ascend and descend, this may not be the hike for you.

After almost 1.5 hours of climbing, I was minutes away from reaching the world’s longest suspension bridge. The trail which was filled with pink flowers covering the forest floor was incredibly beautiful and highly unique. I had never seen this anywhere else before.

My scream of joy at the sight of the bridge was met by laughter from the other hikers already there.

This 494-meter-long world-record breaking construction with the backdrop of the surrounding 4000-meter mountains was a sight to behold.

It takes almost ten minutes to cross it and my calves could really feel the slight ascend towards the end after passing the mid-point.

Not for those with a fear of heights as it is 85 meters above the ground at its highest point, walking across the suspension bridge was surprisingly very stable. This is thanks to the newly developed and patented vibration damping system in place.

You can choose to hike straight down to Randa after crossing the bridge or climb up to Europa Hut before making your way down, as I did.

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As it was a short hike and I still had some time to spare, I took the 20 minutes train ride to Zermatt to say hello to the Matterhorn.

I was reminded of the first time I visited Zermatt when we had gone up Gornergrat with the Gornergratbahn. You can read more about that trip here.

I was also reminded of the last two times when I had flown over Zermatt and saw the Matterhorn up close. You can read about those trips here and here.

It was another wonderful day out in the Swiss Alps.

If you are looking for more inspiration on places to visit in Switzerland, click here