The Titlis cable car
Nearly 7 km of cable and a single pylon in the middle, from a slope above Engelberg up to below the Titlis.
On the Titlis, you take in the whole horizon without leaving your spot: on the last climb, the cabin turns on itself. In 1992, according to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, the Rotair becomes the world’s first cable car with a rotating cabin. At first only the floor turned under the passengers’ feet; since the new cabins of November 2014, the whole cabin goes round, Wikipedia says.
Going up in stages
From Engelberg, at about a thousand metres, the climb comes in several goes. A funicular reaches the Gerschnialp as early as 1913. In 1927 a cable car takes over as far as Trübsee, at 1796 m; only one other Swiss cable car had received its licence before it, the Historical Dictionary notes. In 1965 the line is extended to Stand (2428 m), and two years later to the Klein Titlis (3032 m). Today gondolas and cable cars carry visitors from Engelberg to Stand, where the Rotair makes the final leap. A new line, opened in 2025 for freight, can also carry passengers since 2026, especially while the Rotair is being rebuilt.
The mountain
The Titlis rises to 3238 m, on the border of Obwalden and Bern. According to the Historical Dictionary, Renward Cysat takes it for the country’s highest peak in 1661, and Gabriel Walser, a mapmaker, does the same in 1767. The first to reach the top, at the end of July 1744, are four lay brothers, religious who were not priests, from the Benedictine monastery in Engelberg. A glacier still covers its northern face; according to Wikipedia, it could be gone in some twenty years. At the summit you can visit a grotto cut into the ice, and since December 2012 a suspension bridge, billed as the highest in Europe, runs along the cliff.
On the map
The map melts all these stages into a single line: a cable car nearly 7 km long, starting from the opposite slope, beyond Engelberg, and ending below the summit. Its two cabins cross halfway, next to the only pylon, and do not turn on themselves. The intermediate stations, from the Gerschnialp to Stand, are not there. The vehicles on the map are there for play: they keep to no timetable and don’t show where the real ones are. To travel, check the official timetables; and if you’d like the map to do more, write to us, our links are at the top of the page.
Sources: Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, article “Titlis”; Wikipedia, articles “Titlis” and “Bergbahnen Engelberg-Trübsee-Titlis” (German).