*The famous village Grindelwald at the foot of the famous mountain — The Eiger*

After the Matterhorn trip I was hooked by the Swiss Alps. On my train from Zermatt back to Munich I started researching for my next (this) Swiss adventure and I found out about the Jungfrau region. After a couple weeks of googling and weather checking, with me being able to take another week off work. I pulled the trigger on booking the train tickets and hostels.

My plan was to hike a loop from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen then to Grindelwald and back to Interlaken. It appeared that this route was not quite well documented and I had seen very few trip reports on conditions so I was a bit nervous about what I was getting myself into. I carefully planned out my routes and checked for terrains on the map, it showed around 80km with almost 5000m of elevation gain but I knew that in reality it would be closer to 100+ km since I could not resist the temptation to tag a few nearby peaks along the way (The amount of time that I had to spend sitting in front of my laptop studying the map was insane). It seemed like a very detailed plan but if I had learned anything it’s that I have to be flexible on a trip like this. And it would turn out that being flexible with my schedule in the end would pay off massively.

*Rough planning of the hike with elevation profile. Komoot is a great App for these trips.*

The travel plan was similar to when I went to Zermatt: An early first train arrives in Frankfurt, from there I transferred to another train that goes to Basel, then another train from Bern to Interlaken. I was glad that no buses were required which meant that I could not possibly lose my wallet again this time. And I just don’t like buses in general. I much prefer trains than buses when travelling.

It was worth noting that something really interesting happened in the morning: I was waiting for my train at the train station at 5 A.M. and I saw two guys wearing University of British Columbia hoddies. I had to give myself a slap in the face to convince myself that I was not back in Vancouver. I stopped them in English and it turned out that they actually went to UBC for exchange and now they are back in Germany. What a small world.

After some obses. ket-checking-for-wallet actions and some uncomfortable naps I was finally in Interlaken after about 8 hours. The train rides went a lot more smooth than I thought they would and it was beautiful along the way (unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures on the train since I was saving my phone battery).

Here I had a make a decision if I wanted to hike into Lauterbrunnen or to take a train. It was 2pm already and it seemed like the “hike” into the village would mostly be on roads with cars zooming past by. I opted for the 20 min train ride into Lauterbrunnen and saving some legs for the next few days. The train ride into the valley was again, breathtaking, as snow capped peaks and waterfalls slowly reveal themselves. The train was definitely slow (about 40-50km) but that just meant that I get to enjoy the view for longer.

*Paragliders landing in Interlaken, you can see Eiger, Mönch and Gletscherhorn in the background (snow capped peaks)* . The famous Jungfrau region.

Arriving in Lauterbrunnen I was instantly amazed by the scenery: waterfalls plumbing down from the cliff sides pouring into the valley, mountain peaks thrusting into the sky with snow reflecting all the sunlight, cows mooing and their bells chiming and the valley floor dusted with houses — It was like it was out of a story book. I understood why J.R.R Tolkien took inspiration from this place and created the mountain scenes in Lord of the Rings (the misty mountains).

*Sunlight pours into the valley, Eiger in the background*

*A wide shot of the valley, I was heading up to a town built on top of the cliff on the right*

*Not sure what this mountain is called, but the fall colour was really popping*

Here are some more randoms shots with my phone:

*The “entrance” into the village. Lots of hostels lying around but I have booked a secretly amazing place.*

*Looking up at the mountains, the ridge on the upper left is what I will be taking the next few days. Cute church in the foreground.*

*One of the 52 waterfalls that pours into the valley. I only saw 10+ of them since it was not spring.*

*A cute little cabin that sells cheese, yogurt and cold beverages. A true European experience.*

I have booked a cheap hostel in a town called Mürren but it was on one of the mountains surrounding Lauterbrunnen. That meant I had a bit of hiking up to do until I can take off my shoes and just crawl into bed. There was an option to take the cable cart (and it only cost 6 CF) but I decided to use the last few hours of daylight to explore the area and knock off a few kilometres. The hike itself was only 7 km with about 1000m of elevation but after a day of travelling I was definitely tired. I started to regret not taking the cable cart half way up since I was in the woods and couldn’t get a view of the mountains. Thankfully I broke out of the trees quick enough before my patience ran out and it was breathtaking.

*There were many of these little cabins along the way, I have to say they were a little spooky sometimes…*

*In the village called Gimmelwald (800m above Lauterbrunnen), fall colours are popping*

*Green grass, farm houses and mountain ranges, the classic Swiss scenery*

*More farm houses with majestic mountains in the background*

*On my way down to Murren, I spent couple minutes sitting on this bench here looking at the Jungfrau mountain range*

Another 15 minutes taking-in-the-views walking I found the hostel I booked. For some reason I did not take many pictures of it so here are some from the internet:

I remember looking at the pictures when I was booking this hostel and thought to myself it’s located at such a pretty spot and it surely lived up to my expectations. The hostel was quite busy. I felt a bit intimidated going in as people always stress me out so I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself. As always my nerves were for nothing and the hosts were fluent English speakers and were very kind. I found my bunker bed, changed into some clean clothes, tried laying down for a nap but people were talking in the common area and some were walking in and out of the room so I gave up. I was tired and the idea of socializing with strangers felt really exhausting to me so I went out and sat in one of the hammocks outside.

Dinner was made of some bread, ham and lettece that I had brought earlier. I was used to these simple sandwiches I basically ate them every meal and I would just have 2 of them if I were extra hungry. I did eye one some homemade pizza that some people were having and was secretly jealous so I decided that I would indulge myself the next day.

I sat in that hammock for the rest of the day, did some journaling and watched the sun went down. I was quite tired and wanted to go to bed but most people were still awake talking in the common area and I made the major mistake of not bringing earplugs in hostels so I decided that I could not sleep anyways. I sat down by a group of people with a bottle of water and overheard one of them (Brian) talking about this gnarly mountain he had climbed earlier that day. I was interested so I jumped into the conversation and learned that it’s called Schilthorn at an altitude about 3000m. I then introduced myself and tried to explain what my job was when they asked about it.

Finally most people decided to go to bed so I was more than happy to do so. However, little sleep was had since there were multiple people snoring and the room got quite hot. Thankfully I was tired enough to catch a bit of shut-eye before the sun came up. The free Swiss breakfast was fabulous as usual with many options: milk, orange juice, ham, salami, multiple kinds of bread and fruits etc.. The morning also turned out to be when the cats came out to bug you for food.

*I found my quite corner spot for breakfast, but the seat was apparently taken*

*I named this guy salami because he kept trying to get my salami*

It was overcast and a bit chilly in the morning but I wasted no time: packed up my light backpack with water and some snacks and headed out looking for the trail up to Schilthorn. Apparently in Switzerland every hike starts with a trail that just goes straight up. Through farm houses, people’s back yards and cows that were chewing on grass. Waking up was definitely not an issue that morning as I felt all the lactate acid in my legs in the first hour. On the bright side the steep trail meant that I got to break out of the tree line fairly quickly and got my mind blown by the views above.

*Through people’s front doors… That mountain in the background has quite some Alaskan vibes.*

*I can’t imagine how nice it is to live in a place like this*

*Broke out of the trees and found my self in this tiny village where cows outnumber people*

Looking down at the village. This one was taken about an hour after the previous photo as I have ascended quite a long way above the trees. This is what I call the classic Swiss Alps scenery: Overlooking the villages and meandering trails and cows roaming on the grassland, their bells chiming and echoing in the valley. This mountainous backdrop just seemed unreal. Makes one feel so small yet so big.

*Climbing up, the trail gets steep here*

Reaching my first Alpine lake after some really steep sections, the past 40 minutes had been going straight up a mountain. Again interesting to see how the vegetation changes with elevation, now all is left is rocks and boulders. The clouds cleared and the views were supreme.

*Getting a first look at my destination, there was a lot more snow than I expected. I will be taking the ridge to the left all the way to the summit.*

*Gained the ridge. There are cable carts going all the way to the top and I definitely was jealous when I was gasping the thin air sometimes.* *Here the altitude is about 2700m and I started to feel the altitude.*

*Going up. The summit look equally far away as it did 30 minutes ago.*

*Had to traverse some steep snow on the ridgeline, I was breathing hard at this point.*

*Lots of snow. This was definitely a no-fall zone, the snow looked mellow in the picture but it was very steep in reality. If I slip I would slide all the way to the bottom.*

Looking at some really majestic high peaks all around. The scale of this place is off the charts. Remember that I am already at around 3000m but the surrounding peaks still looked so high up.

*After a few sketchy sections on the snow, I stood on top of the climbing looking back at the ridge I had traversed and the Jungfrau range.*

Most summits in Switzerland can be accessed by cable carts (they are products of crazy engineering) so I rarely get a quite summit. The summits usually come with very well-maintained infrastructure and you can get a hot meal and drinks. A lot of tourists take the cable cart all the way up so the top is like a Walmart. This is one of the reasons why accidents happen quite often as regular tourists would think that it’s not a dangerous environment due to its high accessibility, and go wonder off the trail then get lost or injured because lack off experience or gear. However, I do enjoy the mountain infrastructure in a way that it provides access to the “best” part of the mountain. One does not need to deal with a long approach and could get straight into the technical fun part of the mountain and that, to me, provides safety as I would not be wasting energy on flat-out walking.

Nonetheless, I found a quiet spot just off the summit and ate a sandwich, it was time to go down and destroy my knees on this 2000m descend down to my hostel. I was back at the hostel just a bit after 2pm and it was time to pack up things, head back for another 8km of downhill back to Lauterbrunnen and get ready for the 20km hike to Grindelwald the next day.

Interlaken-Lauterbrunnen-Grindelwald (Part I)

Panorama Ridge via Helm Creek

the Matterhorn