Snowshoe hikes by the light of the full moon

This winter 2025-2026, I led two snowshoe outings by the full moon in the Schwarzsee area (Fribourg, Switzerland). The starting point and part of the route lie within the Gantrisch Nature Park. These two evenings tell the same story, in a slightly different setting.

We set off in the early afternoon from Schwarzsee, climbed by day up to a local summit where we could picnic, watching the moon rise and the sun set, and then came back down by another route, through the dusk and then the night.

The sky was clear on the first outing, and we climbed in fine sunshine. At the top, a moment’s pause — the valley draped in sunshine and snow — before dusk gently took over. The sky clouded over a little for the night, but without spoiling our experience. We were able to fully enjoy this beautiful moon.

On the second outing, the sky was cloudier by day. We climbed in more diffuse light, the clouds drifting above our heads. The same scenario at the top: the pause, the view, the wait for dusk. And the same conclusion: the sky cleared in time, and the full moon asserted itself in all its splendour, wiping away in an instant the doubts the afternoon weather had raised. Once the clouds were gone, the moon seemed even brighter than on the first outing.

On both occasions, we descended at night, by the light of the moon alone. Towards the end, we were almost in a trance, under the full moon: no conversation, the snow muffling every step, our breath hanging in the cold air, and above our heads a magnificent, perfectly round moon.

Both outings were punctuated here and there by animal tracks in the snow. These tracks are worth pausing over, even when the animal itself remains unseen. The direction of the tracks shows where it was headed, the spacing between two prints tells you about its pace, and their depth in the snow says something of its weight and its gait. There is so much to learn from reading them, without ever crossing the one who left them.