It was the grandest panorama of our 16-day journey across 10 cantons in Switzerland, a front row seat to the Jungfrau’s legendary north face rising vertically three kilometres from the shadowy depths of a barren limestone gorge. And we almost skipped this spectacular gondola ride until we realized that it was completely free to Swiss Travel Pass holders in our period of visit.
In retrospect though, a trip up the Schilthorn would still be worthwhile even at the usual half-price offered to pass holders. We also considered the First-Bachalpsee round-trip hike as an alternative, but the lure of that famous panorama, followed by an idyllic stroll from Mürren to Gimmelwald and finishing with a subterranean passage into the bowels of the roaring Trümmelbach Falls, proved irresistible.
Settling into our apartment at Lauterbrunnen on the valley floor, we took three day-trips in the Bernese Oberland starting with the Schilthorn. The next day we would take the magnificent hike from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg then the cogwheel train to Jungfraujoch, and on the final day a boat cruise on Lake Brienz followed by a visit to the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum.
The trip itself was a fascinating ride across various modes of Swiss mountain transport. Passengers arriving by train at Lauterbrunnen would first transfer to a cable car -- which used to be a funicular -- up 700m to the mountain hamlet of Grütschalp, then hop onto a 1960s narrow guage train for the charming town of Mürren, before ascending another 1300m on a modern gondola to the very top.
At Mürren travelers get their last chance of picking up picnic supplies at a distinguished Coop supermarket, famous for having all its goods shipped in every morning by cable car. Even in the 21st century the town remains largely inaccessible by road, and the only vehicles in town are electric golf carts chauffeuring hotel guests from the station.
Mürren’s extraordinary setting is best appreciated with a bird's eye view from the gondola, where the town can be seen perched at the cliff edge with a near-vertical, 800m drop to the Lauterbrunnen Valley below.
Cervelats and landjägers -- Swiss sausages that require no cooking -- were becoming our lunch staples along with the usual cheese, salad and our indispensable tube of Tomy mayo, all learned from watching Swiss hikers along the way.
Part of the Schilthorn’s attraction is the Thrill Walk at the intermediate gondola station of Birg, featuring a steel walkway cantilevered into the rockface and overlooking a sheer drop of 800m below. No matter how secure the safety net is, this tightrope simply isn’t for the faint of heart.
There are those who haven’t yet learned to fear, and those who put their trust in the robust Swiss engineering that went into this mesh tunnel overhanging a most epic drop.
The Ogre, the Monk and the Young Maiden, all part of the local legend that I learned from a Swiss-born friend who called the Jungfrau the biggest and ugliest of the three. This was the Swiss skyline that we came for.
Across the valley stood Gspaltenhorn, Breithorn and their neighbouring 3000+ metre peaks stretching across the Jungfrau range. Mount Titlis and Mont Blanc are also said to be among more than a hundred summits visible from the observatory platform here at Schilthorn.
The slopes below also host the longest downhill ski race in the world, the infamous Inferno boasting two kilometres of nerve-wracking speeds that would take a gruelling 15 minutes even for professional racers. Intermediate skiers like myself would likely take three times as long to finish, providing that I get through the annual draw for entries in the first place to this exclusive event alongside the world’s social elites.
The alpine lake of Thunersee, two and a half kilometres of vertical below us, glimmered from beyond the Lauterbrunnen Valley. After a couple hours at the Thrill Walk and the revolving observatory, we took the gondola back to Mürren for a 2 km downhill stroll towards Gimmelwald.
Even after being made famous by Rick Steves, the alpine hamlet of Gimmelwald remains sleepy and serene due largely to its inaccessibility: no cars, no trains, just a cable car that runs every 15 minutes and shuts down after 17:30. This tranquility would have been killed by the proposed development of a ski resort, thwarted at the end by the ingenuity of the villagers who declared the village an avalanche zone, now evidenced by the prevalence of triangular avalanche-breakers set up around the village.
We once considered renting an apartment in the village, but our desire to explore other parts of the Berner Oberland demanded the convenience of transport that steered us to renting at Lauterbrunnen instead. We did stop at a self-serve ice-cream stand -- really just a fridge full of single-serve ice-cream cups and an unattended wooden box to collect payment -- before taking the cable car down to Stechelberg for our next destination.
One of the few means of transport in Switzerland that offer absolutely no discount for Swiss Travel Pass holders, the 100-year-old underground funicular at Trümmelbach Falls takes passengers deep underneath the skirt of the Young Maiden where the largest subterranean waterfall in Europe awaits.
A dimly lit path leads into various viewing chambers, slippery from the misty air and made more so by the footsteps of the hundred thousand annual visitors from around the world who find their ways here despite its out-of-the-way location.
Unlike the snow melt on the Schilthorn side of the valley which gives rise to the impressive Staubbach Falls over Lauterbrunnen, the melting glaciers of Jungfrau burrows underneath the mountain and culminates in this subterranean monster at Trümmelbach, a cascading series of ten waterfalls to the delight of visitors.
Every year 20,000 tons of rocks and debris tumble down these falls and travel in the direction of Lake Brienz, contributing to its famous turquoise glow under sunlight. We finished our hour-long tour just before the waterfall closed at 17:00, in time for a short bus ride back to Lauterbrunnen Station to complete our round-trip for the day.
Arriving at Lauterbrunnen for the night, we're glad we took up the offer from Swiss Travel Pass for the complimentary -- and time limited -- day-trip to the Schilthorn. Just a few months after our visit, the rules changed again and the price of the Schilthorn gondola went from completely free for pass holders to now half-fare. It would have been worthwhile still, but I would have a harder time choosing between Schilthorn versus Bachalpsee. I really needed a fourth night at Lauterbrunnen.
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