Danny Yee >> Travelogues >> Switzerland

Faulhorn walk: Schynige Platte to First

I got into Interlaken before 5pm and had time to check in to my hotel and go for a walk around town. For dinner I had perch fillets with vegetables and potatoes, from the Cafe du Paris. This was 26 francs, but was the best meal of my trip so far, so that didn't seem too bad.

In Interlaken I stayed in the Hotel Rugenpark (web site), which was by far the nicest of the three hotels I used on this trip. It was the cheapest, it was clean and comfortable, and it had the most reliable and fastest wireless Internet.
photo
alpenglow on the Jungfrau, from my window

More importantly, it's run by a couple Chris and Ursula who were both really friendly, though I talked the most to Ursula. When I arrived she quickly worked out what I wanted to do (hiking, basically), and equipped me with information for getting to and from the walks, advice on where to get dinner, and even the times for the train to Lucerne when I left.

And I had a view of the Jungfrau out my window!

Sunday 8th August

A bus took me from Interlaken West to Wilderswil, from where a cog railway runs up to Schynige Platte. There's a nice little Alpine Garden there, but I didn't have time to look at that and really just walked through it. I did do the detour over Oberberghorn, however.

The walk from Schynige Platte to First is recognised as one of the great daywalks of the Swiss Alps. It starts with an ascent on a cog railway and ends with a cable-car descent, so although it is almost entirely above 2000 metres there's only about 800m of ascent and 700m of descent.

There's dramatic local scenery, with various peaks and lakes, and grand views of the main range above to the south, with a row of peaks over 4000m including the Eiger, Monsch and Jungfrau, and of Interlaken below to the south, with the lakes on either side.

photo
the high peaks under cloud
photo
the alpine garden at Schynige Platte
photo
Oberberghorn
photo
the track under Loucherhorn
photo
looking back
photo
the clouds lift a little

There is one restaurant on the way, where I had vegetable soup and a wurst with bread. And then there's a restaurant/hotel "hut" on top of Faulhorn. Otherwise there are few signs of civilization, with the only road/cable/rail accesses at the ends of the walk. (There were quite a lot of people on the walk, mostly Swiss away for the weekend judging by the preponderance of "grützi" greetings.)

photo
Sagistal lake
photo
my lunch spot
photo
back into the fog
photo
glacial geomorphology
photo
some remnant snow
photo
cows on terraces
photo
the track up Faulhorn
photo
rock grooves
photo
flowers

One highlight was getting to see a marmot up close. I got within two metres of it without it getting very perturbed — hopefully because it was at a salt lick or because it had got used to people, with a territory was on top of a popular bit of the track near First, and not because it was demented by bubonic plague! And there were some nice flowers, though apparently June is the best time for those.

photo
marmot at salt lick
photo
what are you doing so close?

photo
Heidi
I also made friends with an American doing the same walk — spending two days in Switzerland just to do it, actually — who had the improbable name Heidi. She's a lecturer in theology at Loyola, with a special interest in Rahner.

I had contemplated continuing the walk to Grosse Scheidegg, but it would have been touch and go making the last bus from there. And when we got to First there was pretty much a whiteout (though it was clearer on the cable car on the way down).

The weather wasn't perfect, with some rain and long patches when the clouds came in and everything was obscured, sometimes giving way to patches of sun and views. But, helped out by the marmot, this day still made the "top photo" day of my entire Switzerland trip, just edging out the Grand Col Ferret day of the Tour du Mont Blanc (by 189 photos to 186).

Back in Interlaken, I had dinner with Heidi: I tried rösti and she had fondue.

Swiss food is fine, but one needs to keep a defibrillator handy — for use when all the saturated fats take their toll, and for the shock when one checks one's bank account after a week of eating out...

Chatting to Ursula later in the evening, it turned out she'd spent three months in Sydney, in Manly (a vastly different environment to Interlaken). We even discussed immigration, which is always a potentially dangerous topic.

Next: Interlaken: Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg
Up: Switzerland

Switzerland << Travelogues << Danny Yee