Walking in the Bernese Oberland. Kev Reynolds

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      A short walk from Schynige Platte reveals an ever-changing panorama. The Jungfrau invariably dominates (Route 9)

      The Jungfraujoch railway is one of the engineering marvels of Switzerland and is accessible from either Grindelwald, Wengen or Lauterbrunnen. But since this volume is primarily intended for walkers, the railway lies outside the scope of this book. Wengen, of course, is not. Set on a natural shelf high above the Lauterbrunnen Valley, it has an exquisite outlook – especially to the Jungfrau, one of the loveliest mountains to be seen anywhere. Among the more popular outings from this resort is the walk to the Wengernalp, from whose safe and gentle pastures one may gaze on avalanches that pour from the Jungfrau almost every day in summer.

      Lauterbrunnen lies in its own deeply-cut trench, an amazing place of huge walls and feathery cascades. At the head of its valley, in a more open level of grassland, is the little hamlet of Stechelberg which makes a superb base for a walking holiday, for it has numerous possibilities for exploratory outings to mountain huts, to ‘lost’ tarns, seemingly barren screes and hidden hillside terraces.

      On its own hillside terrace on the west side of the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Mürren has a deserved reputation for its stunning mountain vista. Perhaps better-known these days as a skiing centre, it is no less lovely in summer when a splay of footpaths lead to scenes of enchantment. A little lower than Mürren, but a near-neighbour, Gimmelwald shares those scenes, and shares too a cableway to the Schilthorn, whose summit restaurant is known as Piz Gloria since a James Bond movie was shot there.

      To the west of Gimmelwald the high pass of the Sefinenfurke, approached in the shadow of the Gspaltenhorn, will take adventurous walkers over the mountains to the charming little hamlet of Griesalp at the head of the Kiental. This is a gentle pastoral valley whose unfussed charm contrasts with the blockbuster tourism of Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen. With the sub-valley of Spiggengrund nearby it gives plenty of scope for walkers who prefer to wander in solitude.

      From the Kiental one peers up at the big snowy mass of the Blüemlisalp whose several 3500m summits overlook the ice-cap of the Petersgrat to the south, and the deep fjord-like bowl that contains the Öeschinensee to the northwest. This lake is pictured on so many calendars, chocolate boxes and jigsaw puzzles that it’s a familiar sight to many long before they actually see it for themselves, and is probably the most visited mountain feature around Kandersteg. Kandersteg draws walkers and climbers alike with its wide choice of outings. There’s so much to explore nearby, including the superb Gasterntal, a peaceful valley whose walls are streaked with waterfalls, and whose meadows are so rich in flowers that it’s sometimes difficult to find the grass.

      Running parallel to the Kandertal (the valley of Kandersteg) is the Engstligental, with Adelboden in its upper reaches. The village is set on the hillside, not in the valley bed, looking south to the Wildstrubel, a mountain that Adelboden shares with its neighbour to the west, Lenk.

      Lenk’s valley is the Simmental, one of the most important in the Bernese Oberland by virtue of its ease of communications with country to the west over a brace of passes. But Lenk lies near its head in a tranquil landscape, untroubled by through-traffic, unbothered by big mountains. It’s a neat village set in a shallow plain, with a fine western wall of pastureland pitted with limestone hollows, and with easy walkers’ passes that lead across the hills to the Lauenental, which has the Wildhorn at its head.

      By comparison with Lauenen, Lenk is a bustling metropolis. For Lauenen is a secretive place that nevertheless deserves to be on the list of all who delight in mountain walking. It has much to commend it; not least a day’s circuit that takes you to a green tarn, a nature reserve, a superb waterfall and a mountain hut in an idyllic setting. There are other outings of value, too, of course, one of which takes you over another gentle pass among woods and meadows, and down to Gsteig, last of the villages tucked under the mountains on the northern side of the chain. Above Gsteig rises the big massif of Les Diablerets which marks the last of canton Bern and the first of canton Vaud. All to the west is French-speaking territory; some fine mountains and charming valleys which long-distance walkers tackling the Alpine Pass Route explore on their way to Montreux. But for the purposes of this guidebook, Col du Pillon which marks the canton border, is the limit of the region under review.

      On the south side of the chain, the Bernese Alps slope down to the Rhône Valley. Yet the border of canton Bern follows the crest of the main ridge. All to the south falls into canton Valais (Wallis to German-speaking Swiss), the region that is treated to its own guidebook in the same series: Walking in the Valais.

The Mountains

      In the public eye mountaineering in the Oberland has been focussed on the Eiger through an avalanche of publicity matched only, perhaps, by that afforded the Matterhorn. The Eiger’s north wall has been the scene of many epic dramas played out in full view of the telescopes of Kleine Scheidegg, but elsewhere along the chain there are other peaks, other faces, other ridges that offer sport of considerable charm yet without notoriety, and whose features make a colourful background for walkers wandering the magnificent network of footpaths nearby.

      The easy path linking Kleine Scheidegg and Männlichen is one of the busiest in the Bernese Alps. The Wetterhorn is clearly seen across Grindelwald’s basin

      Meiringen is not a mountaineering centre as such, but it has some fine mountains almost on its doorstep – most of which are known only to climbers. On the approach to the Grosse Scheidegg, by which Grindelwald may be reached, the slabs of the Engelhörner group are laced with routes, while to the south of these shrinking glaciers hang from such peaks as the Wellhorn, Wetterhorn and the Hangendgletscherhorn; the last mentioned also looms over the little-known Urbachtal that flows out to Innertkirchen.

      From the Schedelsgrättli, a fine view east shows big Oberland peaks beyond the Üschenental (Route 82)

      Grindelwald, with Alpiglen and Kleine Scheidegg on its western slope, has long been the historical base for major climbs on the Eiger. But also accessible from Grindelwald are several mountain huts that lie on the approach to big mountains too far from any village base; huts that make ideal destinations for walkers, lying as they do amid wildly romantic surroundings. The Schreckhorn Hut springs instantly to mind. The walk to it leads alongside glaciers, scrambles up rocks that wall an icefall, and gives the most incredible views of the Fiescherhörner, Agassizhorn and Finsteraarhorn (highest summit in the Bernese Alps at 4274m), not to mention a curious peep at the ‘back’ of the Eiger.

      Another hut approach that reveals the inner sanctum of the mountain world, is that which goes from Stechelberg to the Rottal Hut on the southwest flanks of the Jungfrau. Here you virtually rub noses with the Gletscherhorn and Ebnefluh, and have a privileged view of the Breithorn seen in profile. All around mountains rise in an upthrust of rock and ice – the fabled Lauterbrunnen Wall so assiduously explored in the 1930s by the great Münich-based climber, Willo Welzenbach.

      Next to the Breithorn stands the Tschingelhorn, with the saddle of Wetterlücke between them. On the far side of the Tschingelhorn nestles the Mutthorn Hut, almost entirely surrounded by ice. With several fine peaks made accessible from it, this hut proves popular with mountaineers in summer and is also visited on one of the walks described here, prior to a crossing of the Petersgrat with descent into the Lötschental in full view of the Gletscherstafel Wall, and the Bietschorn, one of the most difficult mountains hereabouts.

      After Grindelwald, Kandersteg is the most important mountaineering СКАЧАТЬ