We set off in the morning from the village of Randa towards the Europahütte. The Europahütte was built by the Randa community in 1999; it offers accommodation for up to 42 people, serves meals, and boasts a beautiful view from the terrace.
The Europahütte can be reached via several hiking trails; we chose the route through Chuebodmen, followed by an ascent along the Birchbach stream, which features several waterfalls.
From Europahütte, we descend to the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge (which is no longer the longest, though it held that title for five years).
The suspension bridge measures 500 meters in length, with an 85-meter drop beneath its deepest point. It opened in 2017 to replace the Europabrücke bridge; seven years earlier, that bridge had been destroyed by a rockslide after just two months of operation, forcing hikers to descend 500 meters into the valley—which made the route less attractive and caused visitor numbers to drop.
Surprisingly, the construction of the bridge took a local company only two and a half months. Incidentally, Charles Kuonen is the owner of a local winery and was the main sponsor of the bridge’s construction.
