The Eiger as seen from the Hotel Bellevue Des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg, Switzerland.
Note: This is part 1 of a 3-part spotlight on our Grindelwald, Zermatt and Chamonix Hiking Tour.
This last month has been busy! Along with the new Swiss Alps ski trip that we introduced in May, we also designed a hiking tour for a 30-something couple that asked us to put together a self guided hike in Switzerland and France. Like the skiing guests, this couple had a few criteria. First, they wanted to see the most stunning mountains in the Swiss and French Alps. Second, they wanted a hearty dose of luxury since this is a special occasion and they don’t get to hike in the Alps every day. Third, they only have a week available, so they wanted maximum value for their time. This couple was also fine with a little busyness in exchange for WOW views. So we mixed everything in our magic beaker and voila, the result is our new Grindelwald, Zermatt & Chamonix hiking tour, a hike we also refer to as the Eiger, Matterhorn & Mont Blanc.
The mountains surrounding the Eiger are stunningly beautiful. This is the view from the carless village of Mürren. From left to right, the mountains in this photo are the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.
Full disclosure: The towns of Grindelwald, Zermatt and Chamonix, and the Eiger, Matterhorn and Mont Blanc summits that anchor them, are not “off the beaten path.” They’re not “hidden gems,” nor are they the “greatest places you’ve never heard of.” These locations are not “the next big thing” because they ARE the thing, and they played a pivotal role in the history of modern alpine tourism. Mont Blanc, for example, has been attracting alpinists and adventurers to its summit since the late 1700s. The Matterhorn, to cite another example, welcomed famous authors and adventure-seekers like Mark Twain in the late 1800s. Put another way, mountain tourism is what it is today because of these destinations.
So why go then, in this age of endless quests to escape the crowds and find the next best undiscovered spot? The answer is simple. The Eiger, Matterhorn and Mont Blanc are three mountains that everyone should see at least once in their lives. Famous places are famous for a reason, and you’ll feel like you did something special if you stretch your legs along the slopes of these famous alpine giants.
Let’s begin with the Eiger, located in the Bernese Alps (Berner Oberland) of central Switzerland in a sub region of mountains called the Jungfrau. The Eiger is famous because it’s beautiful, and it’s beautiful for a number of reasons. First, the Eiger has the biggest north face in the Alps. North faces are special in the world of mountaineering because, facing north, they are shielded from the sun’s warming rays and are typically the coldest, darkest, iciest and most difficult routes to climb. The Eiger’s north face, referred to locally as the Nordwand, is one of the most formidable in Europe, towering 6,000 feet above the surrounding countryside. The Eiger is also part of a much larger group of mountains and glaciers with notable peaks like the Mönch, Jungfrau, Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn, Grosses Fiescherhorn and Finsteraarhorn. This last peak is the highest mountain in the Bernese Alps at 14,022 feet/4,274 meters. In the center of these mountains exists a fantastical world of glaciers including the largest glacier in Western Europe, the Aletsch.
The idyllic Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland which has inspired artists and writers for centuries. The valley boasts 72 tumbling waterfalls.
All of this rock and ice has a profund effect on the surrounding landscape. The lower elevation countryside is well-watered which makes for a fairytale land of flower-filled meadows, green grass, bubbling streams, cool pine forests and misty waterfalls. It’s a land of profound beauty and inspiration. The famous poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe composed "Song of the Spirits Over the Waters" while visiting Staubbach Falls, one of 72 waterfalls in the nearby Lauterbrunnen Valley. In addition, the elevation change of the region is striking, which makes for incredible photographs. Interlaken, for example, the jumping-off point for the region, sits 11,000 feet (3,401 meters) LOWER than the summit of the Eiger. The views from the lowlands to the highlands are stunning!
Finally, if you like historic trains and “typically Swiss” architecture, then there’s no better place to explore than the Swiss countryside surrounding the Eiger. The Brienz Rothornbahn steam-powered narrow gauge rack railway (opened in 1892) huffs and puffs above the Brienzersee (Lake Brienz) and offers panoramic views of the entire Jungfrau mountain range. The electrified Schynige Platte rack railway (opened in 1893) departs the village of Wilderswil and climbs at a leisurely 7.5 mph (12 kph) to a mountain-top vantage point that magnifies tenfold the view of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau peaks. The Wengernalpbahn (opened in 1893), touted as the “longest cog railway in the world,” connects the villages of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald and carries passengers past idyllic wooden chalets and mountain pastures to the very base of the Eiger at a historic railway station called Kleine Scheidegg. At Kleine Scheidegg, guests descend the train and crane their necks back to examine the Eiger’s 6,000 foot-tall Nordwand. Last, but not least, the Jungfaubahn (opened in 1912) departs Kleine Scheidegg and carries passenger INSIDE the Eiger, eventually dropping them at the Jungfraujoch, the highest railstation in Europe servicing the eight highest railroad in the world.
A person can easily spend a week or more hiking the countryside that surrounds the Eiger, but our new Grindelwald, Zermatt & Chamonix hiking tour also explores the Matterhorn and the region of Mont Blanc which we’ll explore in part 2 and part 3 of this post. Stay tuned…
