Hiking the Northface trail from Allmendhubel to Gimmelwald via the Sprutz Waterfall

5 July 2015

After a good rest and lunch at the restaurant inside the Edelweiss Hotel, we continued our walk into Murren to look for the funicular railway that would bring us higher up the mountain to Allmendhubel, at 1907m above sea level.

The Allmendhubelbahn was easy to find. We could not miss the sight of the rack rail going up the side of the sloping mountain.

A model at the entrance of the station showed the inclines and technology used.

We managed to get a seat at the front of the car and had a nice view of the journey up.

It was 3 PM when we arrived at Allmendhubel.

We were in no hurry to start on our hike as the views were so stunning.  Fields of green and plenty of alpine flowers in bloom, against the mountain backdrop.

There were quite a few trails starting from the station and we were taking the Northface trail. 

One of the markers for the trail, painted in white-red-white.

We stopped often to enjoy the views.

View of the 800m high Western face of the Schwarzmonch (Black Monk) rising above the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Many rock climbers went up the almost vertical face successfully.

 Schilthornbahn cable car.

Having a cable car zooming past above our heads at one point.

One of the rest points with benches.

We had to pass through cattle gates along the way. 

Making sure that the gate is properly closed after we passed.

Before long we came upon the Schiltalp restaurant.

Schiltalp restaurant.

We stopped for drinks and met a nice friendly  dog.

We could see gliders floating overhead.

More animals were spotted along the trail.

Pigs!

For city dwellers, pig sty is not a common sight and worth stopping to take a photo.

Pig sty near the Schiltalp restaurant.

We came to a part of the trail that was one of my favourite. This was where it seems like the trail was leading us up the mountains in the distance. Just a visual illusion.

At one point, we left the marked trail to take the right hand path towards a forest path leading to the Sprutz waterfall. It was steep going down this trail that led us to a bridge across a stream.

All of the family crossed the stream using the wooden bridge, except one.

This hero decided it was more fun to walk across the stream using the rocks.

We passed through more farms and met more friendly farm animals.

A path led us into the woods and down a switchback trail that descended until we could hear the sound of the waterfall in the distance. It was a comforting sound as it meant we were on the right trail.

Trail leading down to Sprutz waterfall.

There was a bench where we sat to watch a group of boys and girls playing dangerous near the waterfall.  The trail led underneath the Sprutz waterfall before continuing uphill on steps cut into the rock face.

More hiking through forested trail and we emerged to get this view.

I figured the village below is Gimmelwald (1367m above level), the end point of our hike.

Hiking down to Gimmelwald.

This was one of my favourite places on this trail. We spent quite a while posing for photos with the mountains as the backdrop.

Some curious cows soon came to check what we were doing. 

We made our way down to the village below.  A friendly cat came to greet us  along the trail down to the village.

Just as we arrived at Gimmelwald, we could hear the rumble of distant thunder and felt a few drops of rain. This was an example of how fast the weather can change in the high mountains. We speed walked to the gondola station before we were caught in the approaching thunderstorm. The fastest walker in the family when there was any sign of danger was the one who was usually the slowest.  

The Gimmelwald station actually has gondolas going down to Murren or Stechelberg. The gondola station was unmanned. Tickets could be bought using a self-ticketing machine. We chose to head down to Stechelberg located in the Lauterbrunnen valley and then took a post-bus back to Lauterbrunnen. We could use our half fare cards on these yellow post-buses too.

Lauterbrunnen Valley as seen from Stechelberg.

In summary, our first day out hiking the Swiss Alps turned out to be one of the longest but very enjoyable hike in this trip. We started out from Wengen at about 10.45 AM. Took a 15 minutes train ride down to Lauterbrunnen to transfer to a gondola to Grütschalp to start our easy 1.5 hour, 4.3 km hike to Murren. From Murren, we took the funicular to Allmendhubel where we began our afternoon hike to Gimmelwald. This second hike was more gruelling as it involved several ascend and descend but the views were stunningly beautiful. We took about 5 hours as we stopped many times to enjoy the views and take photos. By the time we arrived at Stechelberg, it was 8 PM but it was still pretty bright in summer.

All in all, a great day out.

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Doing the Schynige Platte to Louchernhorn and back to Schynige Platte (Panorama Trail) hike

6 July 2015

We started the day with breakfast and beautiful views of the Swiss Alps at our apartment in Wengen before starting our journey to Schynige Platte.  The weather was forecasted to be slightly cloudy but no rain.  Perfect weather for a day trip to Schynige Platte from Wengen.

Schynige Platte is a plateau near Interlaken, at an altitude of 1967 m. Access is via Wilderswil at 584m. It took a couple of train changes to get to Wilderswil (Wengen to Lauterbrunnen to Wilderswil).

While waiting for the train to Schynige Platte, we had time to look around the small Wilderwill train station and saw some Edelweiss for sale. Edelweiss is a well-known mountain flower and perhaps better known as the song from the Sound of Music.

The ride from Wilderswil up to Schynige Platte is an attraction in itself. Instead of the usual fast and modern Swiss trains, the Schynige Platte Bahn is a narrow gauge historical cogwheel train that featured wooden benches in the carriages, rolling stock from the 19th century and conductors in historic uniforms. A travel back in time indeed.

There are a few versions of trains serving this route, some older (brown and open air) and some slightly newer (red) but still vintage. We happened to take the old style ”open-air” train up instead of the newer red train. The cogwheel train climbs at a slow 12 km/hr up to Schynige Platte, passing many panoramic viewpoints overlooking Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. This meant there is plenty of time to enjoy the views from the train. 50 minutes to be exact. For me, the views and ride was no big deal as I knew we would be seeing much better views as we hike around the plateau later. Nevertheless, it was interesting to experience the old Schynige Platte railway, which opened in 1893 and is one of Switzerland’s pioneering lines. 

Upon reaching the summit, we were greeted by splendid views of the Jungfrau region.

And a pair of alphorn players.

 

The alphorn is a traditional wind instrument used by farmers to communicate with their cattle grazing in the meadows on the Alps. A blow on the horn is supposed to make a sound that echo through the mountains, informing the cows that it is time to go home for their milking, food and shelter. Making a sound through that long pipe itself is a challenge for the newbies.

Most tourists would spent a couple of hours wandering on the summit to take in the views, get something to eat in one of the restaurants and visit the alpine garden in summer.

There was a small playground that tempted even the young and old adults to have a go. It was not every day that we could enjoy a swing or seesaw at 1900m above sea level.

Schynige Platte is the departure point for very popular mountain hikes. When planning my trip, I was contemplating whether to attempt the Schynige Platte to First hike. This famous 15 km hike is rated as demanding and difficult, but offers plenty of views of the Jungfrau region. It should take about 6 hours across meadows, rocky paths and perhaps snow fields and high alpine terrain at elevations of 1924 – 2613 meters above sea level. I was not very sure about the time it would have taken us, in view of the inexperience, fitness and also likelihood to stop for plenty of photos. I finally decided against doing this hike for simple reason. The last cable car down from First is 6.30 PM and it would mean spending a night in the high mountains if we were to miss it. And we could not be sure it we could make it in time even if we started out early from Schynige Platte. Nevertheless, there are shorter round trip hikes around the Schynige Platte that are not to be missed too. 

 

We started on our round trip Schynige Platte - Louchernhorn - Schynige Platte (Panorama Trail) hike after lunch. The starting point of this hike is located next to the restaurant just above the summit station leading to the Daube/Tuba lookout point. This 5.2 km trail should take about 2 and a half hours.

The beginning part of the trail was not too interesting, relatively speaking. There was some steep ascend to the lookout point where we could see the green waters of Lake Brienz and Interlaken below us.

View of Lake Brienz and Interlaken.

From there on, the hike on the ridge was more interesting and awesome, to say the least.

This is a popular hike and there were a few other family groups on this same trail. With thin wisps of clouds rolling across the summit, we made our way along the ridge keeping a distance between us and the next group.

Although the hike we did the day earlier was awesome, this ridge top hike was something else. Featuring steep drop to Lake Brienz on our left and gorgeous views of flowered meadows on our right and views of high mountains all round, this hike is simply one of the “must-do” hikes in the Bernese Oberland.

We took our time on this trail, stopping often to take pictures of the views of the majestic mountains, alpine flowers and green lake on our left.

This looked like a scene from the Fellowship of the Rings movie although we are not in New Zealand but in Switzerland. We looked like little hobbits when compared to the majestic and huge mountains.

There is a short detour to climb the stairs up to a lookout point but we did not try this as staircase and outlook point seems precarious.

The same trail would lead to First, about 5 hours away. Upon nearing Louchernhorn we took a right turn, left the ridge and headed back down towards Schynige Platte. The return trail was across a mixture of meadows and rocky terrains. No more view of Lake Brienz, just more views of the mountains.

Before long, we were back at Schynige Platte to take the same old cogwheel train down to Wilderswil.

We ended the day taking a walk around the town of Lauterbrunnen with views of the Staubbach Falls, one of the many waterfalls along the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

We found the office for the Airtime Paragliding and made our bookings for this activity before heading back to our apartment in Wengen.

A nice way to end the day was enjoying a glass of wine on the balcony and watching the sun set across the alps.

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