All of Switzerland is gorgeous, but some places are more gorgeous than others. In my book, it's Grindelwald and Zermatt. However, to my dismay, tourists from all over the globe share that opinion, and flock to these villages to enjoy the views. I can't blame them! Though I can try to escape them. And the best strategy to do that is to find hikes off the beaten track, to find views that aren't available by cable car or train. This hike is one of them.

Declared as a favourite hike by a friend who lives in Grindelwald, I was eager to give it a go. The first opportunity came one late August weekend when I was staying in the village with a friend and the absymal morning weather suddenly took a turn for the better, so we decided fairly last minute to hike up to Schreckhornhütte, passing by Bäregg on the way there. I loved it so much I returned there several times after (just for the Bäregg part, not Schreckhornhütte - as much as I loved it, doing it in one day - after two days of climbing beforehand - left a bit of trauma, so next time I'm going to that hut, I'm definitely staying the night...). 

What I love most about the Bäregg hike is that it has so much variety. You start with views of the valley and Grindelwald below, and as soon as you turn a corner, you enter a world of steep drop offs, washed out sections, waterfalls, jagged peaks, glaciers, and silky green pastures. It's wild and dramatic. And a lot less busy than other hikes in Grindelwald (I don't expect it to get busier after this blog post either 😉), so you get to enjoy a rösti and a beer on the gorgeous sun-soaked terrace of Berghaus Bäregg in the company of only a few people who decide to venture there.

HIKING FROM GRINDELWALD TO BERGHAUS BÄREGG Time of the year: From early summer to late autumn (check the opening times of the hut here)  How to get to the starting point: Pfingstegg cable car station is the starting point, which is a 10-minute walk from Grindelwald (turn right before the church - there are signposts). You can either start the hike up from the bottom of the cable car, or take the cable car and start from there (saves you around 45 minutes of walking up). Hike time: Around 3 hours altogether if starting from the top of the cable car and finishing there. If you start at the bottom and return there, around 4h30min altogether. Hike length & ascent: 6km, 430vm elevation Hiking gear needed: Usual hiking gear (hiking boots, poles). Difficulty: Easy Hike directions: The route is quite well marked. If starting at the cable car station, turn right and follow the gravel path - keep going straight and up (at one point you'll reach a point where the path joins with the one coming from the bottom of the cable car). First bit of the path is still in the tree line, so quite shaded, but you soon leave the trees behind and the rocky path leads you past big rock walls into the pastures (you might see sheep if you're lucky). After a while of windy and steep turns through the pastures you should be able to see the hut, and reach it within minutes.

For more experienced (and fit!) hikers that aren't afraid of heights and want to to prolong the hike, I recommend going to Schreckhornhütte (see here the description of the full hike). The photos below are from that part of the hike. 

All creations of nature are equal, but some are more equal than others. In my book, few can compare to mighty glaciers that have been accumulating snow and ice for thousands of years. Hearing their humming and cracking is like listening to a different era, travelling through space and time. 

Priding itself in being the largest Alpine glacier, Aletschgletscher is likely on most hikers' bucket lists. But it certainly was not on anyone's bucket list when we visited. Venturing there on a day with a fairly unstable weather forecast proved to be a a risky, but rewarding business: having to trod through fresh snow (at times guessing the path and trying to recognise the marks underneath the white dusty layer) meant it was just us and the glacier. I could count the people we met on the fingers of one hand.

Arriving with the cablecar to Bettmerhorn, we started our hike with a view of the glacier that kept getting better and better as we were walking right on its edges the whole time (sticking to the marked path), making our way towards Märjelesee, which awaited us in a snowstorm taken right out of a Harry Potter film. Luckily we could warm ourselves up with a shot of the local herbal liquor in the cosy Gletscherstube before continuing towards Fiescheralp (cheat code: the path down to Fiescheralp can partly be taken through a long pedestrian tunnel, which shortens the time to get there quite significantly - very valuable when there's a snowstorm).

Although the fresh snow cover and intermittent fog made the hike trickier, they proved to be a blessing in disguise - besides giving us the glacier all to ourselves, it looked even more magnificent with the mountains around it rising from the mist. But as much as I find glaciers inspiring, they're also a heartbreaking reminder of what a negative impact humankind has had on nature. Aletsch is, like many others, a retreating glacier. As a result of climate change, it has lost 1.3 kilometres of its length since 1980 (as of 2016, according to Wikipedia), 3.2 kilometres since 1870, and lost also more than 300 metres of its thickness. It's really crappy of us to treat our one and only planet so indifferently, so let our beloved glaciers be an incentive for us to overthrow the exploitative capitalist practices and opt for a more sustainable future that ensures Earth's survival. ✊

HIKING BY THE ALETSCHGLETSCHER  (from Bettmerhorn through Märjelesee to Fiescheralp) Time of the year: I hiked in early October.   How to get to the starting point: From Geneva, take the train to Betten Talstation and then the chairlift to Bettmeralp, changing there for the cablecar to Bettmerhorn (it's a 10 min walk through the village from where you arrive in Bettmeralp to the cable car that takes you to Bettmerhorn). The hike then starts at Bettmerhorn (see directions below) and finishes at Fiescheralp, where you take the cable car down to Fiesch. Hike time: Around 4 hours.  Hike length & ascent: Around 10km, 500m ascent  Hiking gear needed: Good hiking gear (waterproof boots, poles) and crampons if hiking outside the summer season. Difficulty: Moderate (due to mostly rocky path).  Hike directions: I am normally quite confident in writing the directions for the hikes I've done (I mean, that's the whole point of this blog...), but Aletsch was a bit of a search in the dark due to the fresh snow cover. In any case, once you reach Bettmerhorn, follow the signs to the panorama point. Right before the panorama, you'll see the signs for Märjelesee, pointing to your left. After that you'll go downhill for some time, until you see yellow signs again for Märjelesee, taking you right. From then on, the path goes more or less straight on for most of the way (with visible red marks on the rocks to guide you if you're lucky). There are one or two rockfall parts in between (meaning walking through huge wobbly rocks), but they are fairly short. You should then reach the yellow signs again - taking you straight on for another while. After 2-3 hours you should be turning right and seeing the Gletscherstube in the distance already, leaving the glacier behind on your left. Once you've had a rest (and some herbal liquor) at the Gletscherstube, follow the pedestrian tunnel (visible from the hut) to Fiescheralp (about an hour walk), where you can take the cablecar down to Fiesch, and then the train to Brig.

 

Märjelesee.

Gletscherstube (above), and the view from the cosy hut (below).

Brecca valley wouldn't necessarily appear on the lists of top ten hikes you have to do in Switzerland, but although it doesn't have the drama of your most scenic and jagged Swiss mountains, to miss it would be doing it injustice. In the glacier-carved pre-Alpine valley, the trail takes you through glorious Hobbit land, with views definitely stopping you for your "oh-s" and "ah-s" (so much so that the cover photo of this post has been my iphone screensaver since last October).

Leaving the touristy Schwarzsee behind, a short ride on the chairlift to Riggisalp saves you an hour or two of walking, which you can instead spend on prolonging the trail and taking in the views. Soon after you leave Riggisalp, the valley starts opening up, with a gentle sloping mountain to your left, and the winding valley ahead, covered in mossy grass and tall pine trees. Reaching the lowest point of the valley, you have to cross a lively stream, and continue through the colourful woods.

Once you reach Rippetli, you have to decide between taking the path down to Schwarzsee, or continuing upwards through the longer trail. We had to make a decision whether to risk hiking in the rain as the weather was deteriorating, or to take the safer option back o the lake. True to our supposedly adventurous spirit, we decided to take the longer route and despite a few sprinkles of rain that we had to walk through, our decision was well justified. I am unsure whether the gloomy rainy vibe contributed to it, but the second valley we entered was even more majestic than the first one, with sharp rocky peaks rising above it in the fog.

As you descend toward Schwarzsee, you will pass a lovely mountain hut Alp Hubel Rippa, where you can enjoy a beer with a view of the lake down below, and majestic woods behind (hike in the autumn for the extra treat of the colourful palette). The path will then take you down to crowded Schwarzsee, which will make you appreciate the pristine nature you just returned from even more.

HIKING THE BRECCA VALLEY Time of the year: I hiked in mid October.   How to get to the starting point: From Geneva, take the train to Fribourg and then the bus to Schwarzsee Gypsera, where you hop on a chairlift to Riggisalp (12 CHF one way - you'll return to the lake by foot).  Hike time: Around 4 hours.  Hike length & ascent: Around 14,5km, 600m ascent  Hiking gear needed: The usual hiking gear (boots, poles). Difficulty: Easy.  Hike directions: Once you've reached Riggisalp (1493m) with the chairlift, turn right and follow the gravel road - it is mostly well marked. The yellow signs will take you back to Gypsera by the short or long route - I recommend the longer one. Some of the signs (and huts to stop by) to follow include Untere Euschels, where you turn right to cross a stream and continue through a forest to reach Rippetli, where the trail splits - either you go down to Gypsera to take the shorter route, or continue following the trail upwards, through some rocky bits and a breathtaking view of the valley and majestic mountains rising above it, and then continue past Alp Cerniets, Alp Steinige Rippa, and Alp Hubel Rippa, and from there down to the lake.

At the end of October, clocks turn back, bringing shorter days and early nights. I hiked to Palette d'Isenau the first Sunday when the clocks changed, so I was not used to early sunsets yet - and all the more pleasantly surprised by the soft light that struck mid-afternoon, as we returned to Lac Retaud for the last leg of our hike down the valley. Most of the hikers were gone by then - painting a very different atmosphere to the one five hours before, when we reached Lac Retaud at the outset of our hike. 

But let's start at the beginning. Although Lac Retaud can be reached by car, we were relying on public transport and hiked up from the base station of the Glacier 3000 cable car. A short 20-minute walk through the woods brings you to this small emerald lake, which was buzzing with hikers and families in the morning. The hike towards Palette d'Isenau continued on a gravel road, soon opening up to breathtaking views.

The highest point of the hike is the summit Palette d'Isenau, parts of which were completely covered in frozen snow, and rises up directly opposite the Glacier 3000, providing a view of the whole massif and the sparkling Arnensee below. Having hiked there in October, just as autumn slowly turns into winter, the mountains looked like a palette of bright yellow larches, hazy green and brown pastures, and bright white snowy slopes. 

The return walk is circular and passes by a mountain hut (where I'm sure you could get some delicious cheese in the summer - but it was closed in October), a small lake (more of a pond), and ends up back at Lac Retaud, which serves food and drinks with a lovely view of the lake. Having been to Les Diablerets region before to visit the Glacier 3000 (only to discover it's more or less of a tourist trap), I was pleasantly surprised by this hike, and would definitely go again to explore other paths (to lake Arnensee for example). 

HIKING PALETTE D'ISENAU Time of the year: I hiked at the end of October.   How to get to the starting point: From Geneva, take the train to Les Diablerets, where you hop on a bus to Col du Pillon (Glacier 3000). The starting point of the hike is at the base station for the cable car for Glacier 3000 (although you don't take the cable car).  Hike time: Around 3,5 hours.  Hike length & ascent: Around 8km, 600m ascent  Hiking gear needed: The usual hiking gear (boots, poles). Difficulty: Easy.  Hike directions: Walk behind the Glacier 3000 cable car base station (basically you take the path between the restaurant and the cable car station), turning left into the woods. Follow the signposts for Lac Retaud, which you'll reach after 20 min of hiking or so. There'll be time to stop at this beautiful lake on the way back - for now, turn left at the lake and follow the gravel road straight ahead for a few 100 meters (there'll be a crossroads with blank yellow signposts on the way that might confuse you - just continue straight on the gravel path). You'll soon reach the pastures, opening up to a beautiful view of the mountain ranges around you. Continue towards Chalet Isenau and turn right towards the Palette. Once you reach the summit, take the path down, but turn right to take the circular route (towards Chalet Vieux and Arnensee), although make sure you follow the signpost for Lac Retaud once you reach the hut. Take the rocky path down for another 30 minutes or so to reach the lake and reward yourself with a beer. Then take the same 20-min path back down to your starting point in Col du Pillon, at the Glacier 3000 base station. If you're relying on public transport, make sure to check the bus times in advance, as they are not very frequent in autumn and you might find yourself waiting in the valley for an hour or two if you don't plan well.

I may not be an experienced Alpinist that can climb up Matterhorn (yet🙅), but I can hike up to its basecamp, the Hörnlihütte, which is the next best thing. Ending up where the bravest mountaineers start their ascent to the majestic Matterhorn brings you face to face with the famous Toblerone mountain, right at its foot. It rises up so high above you that you feel completely at its mercy - it feels like if it decided to crumble you under its weight, it could do so instantly (the threatening clouds that often start gathering around it, giving it the distinctive hat, reinforced that feeling further). 

The hike itself is highly scenic and dynamic. Through some hoops and ladders (literal ones), vertigo-inducing cliff walks, you go from silky green pastures, through moon-like slopes covered with gravel, to mounts of sharp rocks. At the start of the hike, Matterhorn looks sooooo far you can hardly spot the Hörnlihütte, standing on what looks like a giant bare rock. As we were approaching it, I was puzzled as to how we will reach it without having to climb. Luckily the closer you get, the less daunting the final ascent seems, riddled with tiny, almost invisible paths and metal stairs that bring you right to the hut. 

If it wasn't for clouds that seemed to forewarn an imminent weather deterioration, I could stay on the terrace of Hörnlihütte all afternoon. Overlooking the naked and vast glacier area on one side, and the raw face of Matterhorn, it makes you feel as if you landed on Moon. Except on this moon, they serve cold beer and delicious rösti, and if you bring your binoculars, you can spend hours watching the mountaineers slowly descending from the top of the mountain. 

This has been by far one of the most rewarding hikes I have ever done. As much as I was intimidated by the prospect of climbing ladders and cliff walks, they were much less scarier in real life than in my head - actually, not scary at all. They just made rösti feel more deserved. 😉

HIKING THE MATTERHORN BASECAMP (HÖRNLIHÜTTE) Time of the year: I hiked in early September.   How to get to the starting point: From Zermatt, turn right from the main train station and walk towards Winkelmatten for around 15 min, until you reach the cable car to Furi, where you change for Schwarzsee.  Hike time: Around 5h there and back (excluding stops).  Hike length & ascent: Around 10 km (the return hike from Schwarzsee), 707m ascent on the way up.  Hiking gear needed: Good hiking boots, surefootedness. Difficulty: Difficult, but doable. There are some vertigo-inducing ladders and ropes, but it's very manageable.  Hike directions: The hike starts at the beautiful Schwarzsee. This is one of the better marked hikes I have been to in Switzerland, so follow the yellow signpost for Hörnlihütte, which will soon take you uphill on a rocky path. Once you reach a gravel road, cross it, and continue going up on a narrow walking path. You'll soon reach a big building with a view of the glacier - follow the blue sign post for Hörnlihütte. You'll find yourself on a cliff walk, then continue uphill on rocky paths. Looking at the distant Hörnlihütte, you'll think it stands on a bare rock which you'll never be able to climb - but don't worry, once you come close to it, you'll see there's narrow paths and some well protected ladders to take you up there.

Being fond of waterscapes, I like my hikes with a pinch of mountain lakes. The Alps luckily have an abundance of those, but nowhere greater than in Zermatt, where one of the hiking trails passes by no less than five different lakes in the span of a few hours. It's an easy, but rewarding hike.

As with most hikes in Switzerland, the 5 lakes trail allows you to skip over an otherwise big ascent by taking the cable car to Blauherd. Starting there, my hiking pal and I kept walking uphill for too long (you should turn right for the lakes immediately after the station), accidentally passing by a lovely colony of playful marmots, a sure silver lining of an unintentional detour. 

Basking in the warm September sun, we decided to tweak the official trail and walk up to the Fluhalp hut and treat ourselves to a beer with a view of the lake and Matterhorn with its cloud hat in the distance. To make the trail circular, we took the path on a ridge opposite the hut, which revealed a stunning glacier to the back, and dramatic Matterhorn finally clearing up to the front. Funny how detours turn out to be very scenic life decisions (most of the time). 

Before we go on to the exciting part (technical details and photos), credit needs to be given where credit is due. If you read the first post after I resurrected my blog in 2020, one of the reasons I decided to document my hikes was the difficulties I experienced navigating between various different sources to find complete information about desired hikes. In Zermatt this was easier thanks to newly found goldmine - the Journey Era blog. I found his descriptions incredibly accurate and instructions very practical, so I relied heavily on it during the long weekend in Zermatt. You can read about his experience hiking the Five Lakes trail here. 

HIKING THE FIVE LAKES TRAIL IN ZERMATT (STARTING AT BLAUHERD AND FINISHING IN SUNNEGGA) Time of the year: I hiked in early September.   How to get there: From Zermatt, walk from the main train station towards the Gornergrat station (just across the street), but then take the street behind it and walk for about 5 minutes to get to the station, where you first take the underground funicular up to Sunnegga, and then a cable car to Blauherd, where the hike starts.  Hike time: Around 4 hours (excluding stops) - including the detour passing by Fluhalp and the ridge.  Hike length & ascent: Around 10 km, 300 m elevation gain.  Hiking gear needed: The usual hiking footwear. Difficulty: Easy.  Hike directions: From the Blauherd station, walk up and soon turn right to follow the 5 lakes trail - you'll see the Stellisee in the distance. Once you reach Stellisee, the 5-lake trail signposts will direct you to Grindjisee, but I recommend you take a detour and walk to Fluhalp, a lovely mountain hut (around 20 minute walk), where you can enjoy a beer with a view of the lake and Matterhorn. From there take the path behind the hut and down and then up, which will take you to the ridge opposite the hut, offering a great view of the glacier. Continue walking down the ridge (while enjoying Matterhorn views!), until you join the 5-lake trail again, walking down to Grindjisee. From there, take the yellow signposts towards Grünsee and Moosjisee (at this point, we were a bit confused as the signposts for Sunnegga pointed in the direction where we came from - but following the lake signs instead, we made it to Sunnegga just the same). At Moosjisee, you'll already see the signs for Leisee and Sunnegga - follow them to reach your final destination, and take the underground funicular back down to Zermatt.