GIMMELWALD

Decades ago, an anonymous backpacker wrote these words in the guestbook of the Mountain Hostel:

"If heaven isn't all it's cracked up to be, then send me back to Gimmelwald."

The only way of getting to Gimmelwald (1,367m) is by cable-car and as soon as you hop off you get the feeling that this backpacker was on the right track.  It is hard not to fall in love with this sleepy mountain village of around 130 people.  No cars, no TV, no newspapers, not even a supermarket, but what it lacks in amenities it makes up for in all the right places.

The Mountain Hostel is one of a kind.  It really has an indescribable atmosphere.
Full of travellers all interested in hiking the mountains during the day and eating and drinking plenty at night, everyone immediately gets along.  However, forgetting the hostel for a moment, the serenity is where it's really at, the views are simply out of this world.  Daryl Kerrigan would be all over it.

Apart from the hostel, there are only one or two other places to stay.  One of these places also acts as a small restaurant and attached to the restaurant is an "honesty shop".  Billed as Europe's first unattended self-service village shop, you can buy anything from Swiss souvenirs to packets of noodles to chocolate bars and glucose lollies for your day of hiking.  What a great idea!!

It took us about half an hour on the train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen and then about 15 minutes on the bus to the town of Stechelberg, which is at the very end of the valley.  From there it the 5 minute cable-car ride got us to Gimmelwald.  We checked in, unpacked our stuff, got changed and headed out to explore.

We checked out the honesty shop and had a bite to eat at the small restaurant and then started to walk further uphill.  We passed Erica's cheese house, which was selling their own produced cheese, milk yoghurt, eggs and butter, but unfortunately they were closed.

We had been told about the Sprutz waterfall that was a one hour walk from the hostel so we decide to give it a go.  It really tested out the quads and glutes, but after a few stops, we finally made it and what an impressive sight it was.

You could actually walk right behind the waterfall and then hop out and stand underneath it to get "spritzed" as the locals call it.

It was also a perfect opportunity to fill our water bottle up as we had emptied it within in the first 20 minutes of walking!

We continued on uphill until re reached the Spielbodenalp Hut (1,793m) which is supposedly another spot where you can pick up local produce for next to nothing, but unfortunately it was also closed.

It was a really pretty spot.  The views of the Jungfrau mountain out across the Lauterbrunnen valley were simply astonishing and all the cows that were just lounging around added to the amazing scenery.

With the lack of supplies on offer in Gimmelwald, we hiked back down the mountain via Murren (1,650m), which although it only has 450 residents, it has over 2,000 hotel beds on offer and therefore had a pretty decent supermarket.  We stocked up on food and for the next two breakfasts, lunches and dinners, but we didn't get much wine as the hostel had a bar with plenty of beer!

I decided to challenge myself and see if I could last the 35 minutes back down to Gimmelwald without once dropping the 4 shopping bags.  I only just made it as my fingers were purple by the end of it, but the beer at the end brought them straight back to life!

There were some really decent people at the hostel, including Katherine from the US who was on my canyoning trip in Interlaken.  We all sat outside drinking and chatting and discussing where we were all going to hike the next day.  The view of the Jungfrau and surrounding mountains was staggering, it literally felt like you could reach out and touch them.

It went dark pretty quickly as the sun disappeared behind one of the huge mountain peaks and it also got damn cold!  By this time it was nudging 9pm and we really needed to get a move on with dinner.

The good thing about leaving dinner so late was that everyone that was cooking their own meals had already done so and we had the kitchen to ourselves!  We cooked up a huge meal of veal schnitzels with vegetables and Anna conjured up a tasty cauliflower mash and gravy.

We rugged up and went back outside to enjoy our meals with our new friends with the chilly mountain wind whistling around us.  It truly was just the most remarkable spot, hard to put into words really.

I was up at the crack of dawn the next morning and made sure I tippie-toed out of our dorm-room as there had been a group of people who had stayed up really really late singing and dancing on tables and  the like. It was sure to have kept a lot of light sleepers up until the wee hours of the morning....but not me!

not a bad spot to read the morning paper (on the laptop

We had a perfect breakfast of muesli and yoghurt and fruit and then made some gigantic sandwiches for our massive day ahead.

After talking to different people around the hostel, we had decided to give it a shot at hiking all the way to the top of the Schilthorn.  We realised that it was going to be a physically demanding day, but how tough, we weren't sure.

The Schilthorn is a 2,970m summit of the Bernese Alps which has a panoramic view that spans from the Titlis, Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger Mountains up to the Vosges Mountains and the Black Forest. The Mont Blanc in France is also visible on a clear day.

There is a panoramic revolving restaurant (named Piz Gloria) at the summit and this is where the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was set.  A famous black ski run featured in the film starts at this summit and during winter, it is the traditional start for the worlds longest downhill ski race known as the "inferno" which started in 1928.

There are a series of cable-cars which take just over 32 minutes to transport tourists from the valley in Stechelberg upto the top of the Schilthorn, however the maps say that 'experienced' hikers can hike from Gimmelwald to the top in just over 5 hours.

We left at 10 on the dot and with plenty of stops along the way, were thinking that we would arrive at the top somewhere around 4-5pm, but as we had never done anything like this before in our lives, we had no idea what to expect.

Half an hour down and we were already buggered, but we knew this was a pretty tough spot as we had walked it the day before on route to the Sprutz waterfall.  So we were hoping that once we reached the Spielbodenalp Hut where we had to got to the day before, it would start to get a little easier......how naive we were!

Anna giving the glutes a stretch one hour into the climb

Spielbodenalp Hut (1,793m), I'm pointing up to the Schilthorn on the left - Long way to go!!

It was pretty daunting to stand at the foot of the Schilltal valley and look up towards the Birg (2,677m) mountain on the right and the Schilthorn (2,970m) on the left and think about what let ahead of us.  However we had more immediate issues to worry about.........

Bryndli Peak

The next hour of our walk was so steep that at one stage I stopped and almost fell backwards from loosing my balance.  In one hour, the steep zig-zag path took us up to an altitude of 2,132m and though still warm, there was a distinct change in the temperature and the freshness of the air.

The views from the top of Brydli Peak were nothing short of mesmerising.  From here we had a clear view of the Jungfrau above (including an amazing halo-like cloud formation!) and all the way down we could see Gimmelwald and even make out the flags from our hostel.

Gimmelwald down below

We found a good spot to take a seat and have a rest, and as it was just on midday we took the opportunity to have some of our sandwiches and even indulge in some sweet Swiss chocolate!

Bryndli Peak (courtesy of Google)

From Bryndli Peak we had a scary 400m walk across a ridge that dropped hundreds of metres on both sides.  Not only was it scary from the point of view of the possibility of falling to your death, but a snake had just previously slithered right across the path in front of Anna and she was not keen on dilly-dallying around!

No sooner had we come down off the ridge into the Sefinental Valley before the next issue presented itself, a massive open paddock full of cows/bulls, we weren't sure what they were, but some of them had some monster horns and we weren't too keen on testing their charging abilities!

After testing the waters, I came to the conclusion that there were in fact no bulls in the vicinity and they were just horny female cows and therefore we were in no danger at all.  Unfortunately Anna took a lot longer to come to the same conclusion, but finally she finally worked out it was all good and joined me on the other side of cow corner.

There must have been 100 or so cows in this one area and the noise that was generated by the bells banging to and fro from their necks was almost deafening.  Now we knew why literally every souvenir shop in town had gimmicky cow-bells for sale!

One positive about the paddock of cows was that it took our minds off thinking how far we had already walked and how far we had to go.  Inevitably though, once we started walking up the other side of the valley and the huge face of rock was staring back at us, it started to take its toll.

leaving the cows behind

What should have taken us about 30 minutes, took about 50, as we trudged up the hill, stopping every 15 metres or so as our quads, calves and gluteus cried out for help.  Stupidly we had only brought one bottle of water each, thinking that we could fill them up along the way, but they were now empty with no sources of water in sight.

We reached the top of the Wasenegg ridge (2,288m) and sat down for a much needed rest and some more food.  We met a German couple here that were really nice and so we ching-wagged with them for a while.  They had done many hikes before, but were amazed when we told them we had come from Gimmelwald and were going all the way to the Schilthorn, bloody Aussies they must have thought!

They told us how they lived right near the Black Forest in Southern Germany and that if we were in the area, we must come and stay with them and the man gave us his business card.  Who ever thought zi Germans could be so nice!

Suddenly a BANG so loud it made thunder seem like a whimper rumbled and echoed throughout the valley and surrounding mountains.  I swear we all shat our pants with fright and had no idea what it could have been.  Thunder, avalanche, gun-shot, no way, this was much louder.  Then we realised it must have been one of those intentional dynamite blasts to eliminate potential avalanche sites.  We breathed a sigh of relief and praised be to god that we weren't in one of those tricky areas where you needed to keep your footing, because that could have been a different story!

Bryndli Peak down on the right and the Spielbodenalp Hut below it on the left - It was scary to look how far we'd come

Zi Germans bid us farewell and we continued on with our trek.  This next hour was to be the hardest section of the whole climb as a gravely and rocky trail lead directly upwards, so steep that we could not tell where it finished.

stuffed

We took many a break to turn around and admire the scenery, because for most of this part of the walk we were just staring at the rocky path and counting one step after the other, praying for it all to be over.

the photo's just don't do it justice how unreal this was

Each one of these steps was worth it though as we reached our next viewpoint, Grauseeli Lake (2,514m).  What a magical place it was!  After not drinking water for the past 2 hours, it was like one of those movies where someone is lost in the desert and they keep seeing mirages, only this time it actually was water......and we weren't in a desert.

Even though we still had about an hour and a half of walking left and an increase in altitude of over 400m, it was a real Rocky moment reaching the lake and I made sure I sand the theme song with plenty of gusto!  The video I have of me singing the Rocky theme song whilst Anna is painfully trudging the last 20 metres to the top like a drunk is hilarious!

Grauseeli Lake, the highest lake in the Berner Oberland country

we didn't care whether you were supposed to drink the water or not.....we were damn thirsty!

can views get any better than this? 2,500m up, staring across acres of valley below us and the Jungfrau in the distance

Again we stopped to eat some more food and catch up on some much needed water.  As we waved to the the cable-car above us going from Brig to the Schilthorn, we noticed a fairly sudden change in the weather.  A few drops of rain started falling and it easily dropped a few degrees to the point where I needed my jacket on!

the perfect lake for some skimming

1,2,3,4,5,6,7 hops!

WOW!!

Apart from the obvious delight of walking around this beautiful setting, it was also nice to be walking on some flat ground for a change.  This didn't last long though and before we knew it we were walking up a steep slope again and within minutes we had taken our jackets back off.

The first chance we got to play in the snow, we took it.  Not since April in Chamonix, France, had we played in the snow and even though it was only a little patch, it was still exciting!

This excitement didn't last long though as just as it started to really cloud over and start raining and then hailing (!!!), we came across this monument for a young woman who had been struck by lightening and killed in this very spot.  This made us pretty uneasy and even more determined to get to the top as quickly as bloody possible!

we weren't sure if this was some sore of graveyard or just piles of rocks that people had erected

Every minute the clouds got lower and lower and darker and darker and it was getting really scary.  We couldn't see the top of the mountain and we were aware that the last cable-car back down was leaving at 6:03pm.  It was only about 4pm at this stage and we knew there was roughly about 30 minutes left, but we certainly didn't want anything going wrong!

walking past a scull-and-crossbones sign whilst you're kind of scared shitless is always good

Without a doubt the scariest part of the day came when we had to cross this ridge section that was barely one metre wide.  The clouds and fog had set in and although the rain and hail/snow had stopped for the time being, the ground under foot was really slippery.  Although the ridge was only about 20 metres in length, and there was a cable to hold on to, the drop on either side would have been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of metres.  We basically just held on to the cable as hard as we could and got across as quickly but as carefully as possible!

I let out a huge cry of relief as through the thick clouds I could finally make out the shape of the Piz Gloria restaurant at the summit of the Schilthorn.  Almost 6 and a half hours after we had left Gimmelwald, we had both made it to the top, and weren't we bloody proud of ourselves!  Our elation was quickly subdued as a huge crackling of thunder reverberated around us.  Even with her sore legs, I have never seen Anna run so fast for cover, and I don't blame her, crikey moses it scared the living crap out of me as well haha.

what idiot would wear high heels!!!!

The thunder and lightening storm lasted for about 10 minutes, so we had to wait before we could go out on to the veranda and have out victory photo taken.  Unfortunately the clouds had set in for the evening, so the views weren't as spectacular as they could have been, but it didn't really bother us as we had seen most of it on the way up anyway.

We enjoyed a great sense of superiority as the next load of tourists got off the cable-car to wander around the platform and we walked inside to treat ourselves to well deserved coffee.

Since the late 19th century, various projects to build a railway to the Schilthorn had existed, however only in the 1960's had the aerial cable-car industry made enough progress to tackle such a demanding project.  A determined group of pioneers finally overcame the considerable financial and technical difficulties and in 1967 the Schilthorn summit was finally made accessible to the general public.  The revolutionary idea of building the worlds first revolving restaurant at 3,000m altitude was then developed and once this was constructed in 1968, James Bond made his entrance! 

As you can imagine, the souvenir shop is full of James Bond related memorabilia and although we didn't get sucked in to buying any of that crap, we did walk out with a few Swiss related items!

Luckily the clouds, thunder, hail and lightening were subdued for about a 10 minute period, long enough for us to get out on the terrace and take it all in.  The wind was howling in such a high pitch manner, you'd swear you were in one of those Hollywood movies like Vertical Limit when they're stuck out high in the mountains.  Obviously, we weren't really that high compared to world standards, but it was pretty cool nevertheless.

the Schilthorn - 2,970m - over 700m higher than Mt. Kosciusko (2,228m)

We ran into a guy from from our hostel who had also walked up from Gimmelwald (but taken a different and much easier route - why didn't we get told about this route!!), so we chilled in the revolving restaurant with him for a while before hopping in the cable-car and heading back to comfort of a warm shower.

Speaking of showers, I have yet to mention that the showers at our hostel required a 1 euro coin per 5 minute block of hot water, WTF!!!

rainbow up high!

Going back down, we had a laugh at the fact that we had originally planned to walk back down to Gimmelwald to save money (a one-way ticket on the cable-car cost us about 40 odd euro each!!).  Our legs had seized up so much that it was an effort to even get off at the bottom haha.

Schilthorn to Brig, you can just make out the lake at the bottom

Bryndli Peak (2,132m) and Wasenegg Ridge (2,288m), which we had hiked across earlier in the day 

it was a great sense of achievement to read the map and see what we had accomplished , next up Everest haha!

As can be imagined, we were absolutely spent that evening and night.  However, we managed stay up for long enough down a few beers, cook a huge meal of creamy pasta with bacon and peas and drink limoncello with our newly formed American friends.

The next morning we didn't want to get out of bed, but as it was our last day, we had to check out by 10am.  Needless to say it was a real effort getting out of bed, let alone having to pack our bags etc.

The cloudy and rainy weather had continued all night and into the morning.  The once scintillating views of the Jungfrao Mountain region was now just a big wall of grey, it was actually kind of cool!

heaps of waterfalls had been created on the far side of the Jungfrao Mountain range as a result of all the rain

Our next destination was only an hour or so away, so we decided to just chill around for a few hours, reading books, doing some blog and eating food etc.  It was just such a great place that we didn't want to leave.  Anna was even trying to convince me that we should stay another night, but unfortunately we already had accom booked in Bern and didn't want to have to pay for both.

Sadly it was time to leave, but we both vowed that at some stage in our lives we would be back again!

starting the cable-car back down from Gimmelwald to Stechelberg

back down in the Lauterbrunnen valley

The last week or so in Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen, Grindlewald and Gimmelwald had easily been one of, if not the best time on our trip.  We were so happy that 7-8 months in we were still having so much fun and although there was still plenty more fun ahead, we thought that our time in Switzerland would be pretty hard to beat.