I had always dreamed of being in the Alps, not just seeing them from miles away but actually being where the Alps are. Like, on them. We have climbed to the top of Pike's Peak and to the bottom of the Grand Canyon but I never knew you could be so close to mountains that are so rugged and majestic until we went to the Berner Oberland region of Switzerland.
Not only can you see the mountains, you can smell them, feel them, touch them and, best of all, climb them. This part of the Alps isn't as high as the "14ers" in Colorado but the vertical drop from the 10,000-foot/3,048-meter peaks to the valley floor (about 2,000 feet/609 meters) is spectacular.
Alpine Walks Around Gimmelwald
We left our home in Heidelberg one morning for the town of Lauterbrunnen, a hub for Swiss public buses running through the valleys. Our bus route took us to the end of the Lauterbrunnen Valley, past multiple waterfalls cascading from cliffs on either side. We were at an altitude of about 2,623 feet/796 meters. From there, we rode up the Stechelberg cable car -- straight up a cliff -- to our hiking base at Gimmelwald, which is at about 5,000 feet/1,524 meters.
After checking in to the Hotel Mittaghorn, we left for a hike to the Kilchbalm through the Sefinen Valley. We ended at a bowl topped by glaciers, with waterfalls and a stream flowing through a meadow. We were the only ones there. The noise of the stream was very loud but the breathtaking beauty and view of the glaciers was awesome. Round trip, this hike took about three hours, and it was still early in the afternoon so we went for another hike, this time in the other direction.
We walked uphill to the next town, Mürren (sometimes written Muerren, seen here from above), rode the Allmendhubelbahn (a funicular train) to 6344 feet/1,934 meters and then hiked for another four hours on the North Face trail back to Gimmelwald. The views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains were obscured a bit by clouds, but the next day was perfectly clear all day, and the grandeur of these peaks is indescribable. We arrived back at our hotel at 7 in the evening and a wonderful dinner awaited us a half-hour later.
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