Liechtenstein Geography, Climate & Nature

Liechtenstein occupies most of the eastern half of the Alpine Rhine valley, wedged between Switzerland to the west, south and north-west and Austria to the east and north-east, with an area of just over 160 square kilometres and a border of 77.9 kilometres. It is the world's smallest country to border two countries and, with Uzbekistan, one of only two that are doubly landlocked -- landlocked by landlocked countries. The Rhine is the western border and the valley floor beside it, where most of the population lives in the western half of the country, is the lowest ground: the Ruggeller Riet, 430 metres.

East of the valley the land rises steeply through the villages of Triesenberg and Planken to the mountains that form the Austrian frontier, culminating in the Grauspitz at 2,599 metres. Malbun, the ski village at 1,600 metres, and Steg lie in the high valleys behind the first ridge; the road between them and Vaduz is the country's only mountain road of consequence.

The eleven municipalities are the old counties of Vaduz in the south and Schellenberg in the north: Vaduz, Schaan, Balzers with Gutenberg Castle between its two villages, Triesen, Triesenberg, Eschen, Mauren, Gamprin, Ruggell, Schellenberg and Planken.

Liechtenstein's climate is the Alpine Rhine's: a valley floor at 430 to 500 metres with warm summers, foggy cold winters and the Föhn wind that can bring a spring day in February, and mountains above 1,600 metres that hold snow from November to April. Neither advisory gives temperature figures and none are repeated here; what they give is the hazards. Heavy rains, particularly in spring and summer, can cause severe flooding and landslides and close roads; in winter, heavy snowfall can make it difficult to reach some villages and ski centres, the mountain roads are winding and not always ploughed, snow chains are recommended, and the British advisory says to carry water, food, warm clothing and medicines in the vehicle.

Avalanches are a risk in the mountainous areas all year round, some fatal even with light snow accumulations; the European Avalanche Warning Service is the reference and the advisories say to follow all warnings. Weather can change rapidly even in summer on the high trails.

Best Destinations by Month has the practical reading.

Liechtenstein's biodiversity runs from the Rhine's floodplain to the Alpine ridges in a strip of 160 square kilometres, with the Ruggeller Riet wetland at 430 metres at one end and the Grauspitz at 2,599 at the other; the valley floor is settled and farmed almost entirely, and the country's natural inheritance lives on the slopes and in the high valleys behind Triesenberg, Malbun and Steg.

The encyclopaedia pages opened for this page carry no species inventory or protected-area count for Liechtenstein, and none is invented here. What can be said is structural: the country shares the Alpine Rhine valley's flora and fauna with its Swiss and Austrian neighbours, its high pastures are grazed alps, and its forests climb to the treeline below the frontier ridge.

No species-level survey was consulted beyond the sources named in the data file.

This page says only what its sources say, and on Liechtenstein's wildlife they say nothing specific: the chamois, marmots and golden eagles of the Alpine Rhine are in the country as they are on the Swiss and Austrian sides of the ridges, but no sentence opened for this page names them, and they stay out of it. The Ruggeller Riet wetland on the northern border is the place a birder would start, and the high valleys above Malbun the place a walker would.

The practical zoology is the advisories': mountain weather that changes in an hour, avalanches in every season, and the rule never to hike or ski alone.