Crossing the Untamed Entschlige – An Excellent Loop Through the Berner Oberland’s Frutigtal

Frutigen to Tellenburg and Back

Chances are, if you aren’t from Switzerland, you've never heard of the small town of Frutigen deep in Berner Oberland. Located in a sizeable glacial valley at the confluence of the Entschlige and Kander rivers between Lake Thun and Kandersteg, this small town serves as a fantastic gateway to the Alps. Frutigen has long been overshadowed by its nearby neighbor Interlaken but, as a base for Alpine adventures, Frutigen gives Interlaken a run for its money.

From the Frutigtal, the Frutigen Valley, you can continue up the Kander River to the Instagram-famous Blausee and Oeschinensee outside of Kandersteg, you can take a bus up the Entschlige River to the stunning waterfalls of Adelboden, or you can go straight into the Lötschberg Base Tunnel and, in half an hour, find yourself on the other side of the Alps in the remote Canton of Valais, the focus of our last couple posts.

Whichever direction you choose, you are almost guaranteed an excellent adventure.

In that spirit, this week we shed almost all transport, save the short ride from our house to Frutigen train station, and make an exceptional 11 km (7 mile) loop walk up the untamed Entschlige River valley, across a sickening swinging bridge, and back down to the Ruins of Tellenburg castle. The walk is beautiful, fascinating, wacky in some parts, and, in others, downright terrifying making it an exceptional addition to our Discovering Bern Series.

Thanks for joining us.

You can follow along with our walk using the interactive map above

Into the Entschligtal from Frutigen

The Entschlige River outside Frutigen

At the bottom of this deep untamed valley, it’s almost hard to believe that you are still at the heart of densely populated Central Europe.

This walk is part of a wooden sculpture path, and, as you continue along the river bank you pass quite a few, generally bark beetle-infested, wood carvings. Some of the art was likely quite detailed in its day but, today, most of the sculptures look like some kind of weird abstract art exhibition with faces half fallen off and once sharp features now weather beaten and cracked beyond recognition.

Starting at the Frutigen Train Station we start our walk by crossing the Entschlige River and making our way upriver through the outskirts of Frutigen into the Entschligtal. In Swiss German ‘Tal’ just means valley so you find this name ending across Switzerland. There happens to be an exceptional density of 'tal' names here in the Berner Oberland where large valleys proliferate the landscape.

Chances are, as you leave the train station you will find yourself in a crowd of day hikers but, fear not, the majority of these folks will soon be headed for the bus to Adelboden at the top of the Entschligtal Valley. Adelboden is one of the few large ski areas in Switzerland without a proper train line. Upstream of Frutigen the Entschlige lies in a deep untamed gorge and a single narrow road, clinging to the valley wall, is the sole source of access to the upper valley.

At some point in the future, we will make a trip up to Adelboden on the blog but, for now, we will stick to the valley bottom to take in the exceptional scenery.

While this walk starts out a bit lackluster along the banks of the channelized river, about a kilometer upstream, the terrain opens up and the river has, despite numerous attempts to quell it, taken back control of the valley bottom. It's a pretty awesome scene. The interlaced sediment-laden river forms textbook braided river channels that see the flow of water migrate across the valley depending on the water level and the movement of the gravel.

Wood carvings along the path

Crossing the Entschlige

Along the path up the Entschlige, you encounter quite a few bridges, most of which are fairly pleasant affairs fording a range of small idyllic streams making their way downslope into the Entschlige. It isn’t until you need to cross the river itself that the options become fairly few and far between.

There is a bridge right past the channelized section of the Entschlige in Frutigen but it would be a real shame to miss the scenery upstream. Alternatively, there is a lovely early 1900’s era covered bridge, the Grantibrügg, most of the way along the walk that is suitable for the faint of heart (i.e. Me) and will be my crossing of choice in the future.

The lovely Grantibrügg covered bridge crossing

Then, of course, there is the ‘featured attraction’ of this valley, and my newest idea of hell on earth, Hängebrücke Hohstalden.

I can appreciate the convenience and practicality of most swinging bridges and Hohstalden is no exception. The bridge was initially built to allow a family with school-age kids to get across the river to school each morning but, personally, I find most swinging bridges about as enjoyable as getting a tooth pulled or falling into a cactus… It's typically only something I do if I have to.

That being said, for people who more or less despise these types of bridges, Corinne and I have still managed to cross about a dozen of them in the past year. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, Hohstalden takes the cake for the most sickening of them all.

From the path at the water’s edge, you pass far beneath the narrow, 2-foot wide (c. 65 cm) bridge then quickly climb up several switchbacks and a steep ravine to gain the required 40 or so meters of elevation to cross the 155 m (500 ft) suspension bridge.

Where the heavy-duty construction of the Pfynwald’s Bhutan Brücke that we crossed a few weeks ago instilled confidence, Hohstalden, built around the same time in 2006, offers far less to settle the nerves. My heart already pounding from the approach, a sign suggesting that I maintain 10 m from the person in front of me sent things into overdrive.

Knowledgeable of the laws of physics, I waited for the bunched-up family of 5 to cross beyond the halfway point of the bridge before I got on. Of course, I should have waited longer.

The three young children ahead of me, clearly being fed some sort of amphetamine with their morning breakfast cereal, decided it would be excellent fun to double back down the bridge, this time running at full speed. With me about a third of the way down the bridge (conveniently the point where the installed handrail runs out), the normal bounce and shake turned into a proper swing.

With the children squealing in delight, the curse words flowing through my brain probably could have killed a Saint had they exited my mouth…

Looking up at Hängebrücke Hohstalden from the river level below

Looking down Hängebrücke Hohstalden

The exceptional feeling that I might puke at any second, was the only thing that willed me onwards. After what felt like an hour, but was probably only a minute or two, I was off the god-forsaken bridge, and never happier to find myself on solid ground.

For all this fun, the bridge owners only ask a Franc, or that you take a drink or snack at their conveniently located café at the far end of the bridge. Food was no option in my condition, so I gladly continued on the walk to work off my naseua.

On Towards Tellenburg

Past the café, the signage for the path gets a bit tricky. Corinne, running up ahead of me and also distraught by bridge induced adrenaline, ended up way off track on a road high above the intended path. Our track follows the road to the left past the café then turns off, heading straight through the garden of a chalet before contouring the slope high above the river most of the way back down to Frutigen.

The views as you go in and out of the forest and paddocks are lovely along the descent. If you chose to skip the swinging bridge and cross at the Grantibrügg covered bridge, the paths link up just before the track turns into a road through a rural farming community outside of Frutigen.

The lush fields filled with wildflowers, and cows bumping around their paddocks is unbelievably idyllic.

Upon reaching the Reinisch schoolhouse, you have two options, you can head back to Frutigen from here or turn the corner and head a short way up the Kandertal to the castle ruins at Tellenburg. The latter option is almost certainly worth the extra couple of kilometers for the views alone. The castle ruins are like a cherry on top.

Looking straight up the Kandertal towards the peaks of the Fisistock and its smoothed rock slopes you get the sense of how close to the Alps really are here in Frutigen.

Fields of wildflowers outside Frutigen

Looking up the Kandertal towards Kandersteg

Most of the rock that once filled the fairly obvious missing space on the side of the mountains above Kandersteg came down in a single catastrophic landslide event about 3,000 years ago. The resulting debris filled the valley below Kandersteg and flowed downslope almost all the way to Frutigen. Even to the untrained eye, the landslide deposit spilling out of the narrow valley is clearly visible.

Contour around the small Tellenburg hill and the ruins of Tellenburg castle, built around 1200 and expanded in the 13th and 14th Century finally comes into view. A devastating fire in 1885 brought the once impressive structure into ruin but, in its day, the castle controlled all trade coming over the Alps. Around 1400 the Bernese moved into the valley and turned the castle into the seat of their local bailiff, overseeing the region’s law and order.

Today, the central tower and some crumbling outer walls are all that are left but the castle still offers commanding views of the surroundings via an internal staircase to a high viewing platform and a nice shady picnic area. The perfect spot to stop for lunch.

From Tellenburg, you can take a small path down the hill and cross a road bridge over the Kander River. From there, the path follows the right bank of the river and under two parallel viaducts which carry BLS trains up the old Lötschberg line to Kandersteg and the Valais.

The first viaduct, a massive 1900’s arched stone masterpiece, is maintained by the local Alpine climbing club who have installed several challenging sport climbing routes along its supporting columns. The second viaduct, added more recently, is a more modern concrete construction that is really nothing to write home about but has increased the rail volume through the Kandertal substantially.

The ruins of Tellenburg Castle outside of Frutigen

Two Viaducts carrying BLS trains up the Kandertal on the old Lötschberg line

Back to Frutigen

After passing the viaducts, the rest of the walk back into Frutigen along the Kander is fairly flat passing farm fields and cow paddocks. Just a pleasant stroll through the quiet countryside. A couple of self-service food stalls in Kanderbrück, a small community just outside of Frutigen offer the chance to grab some fresh cheese and eggs for the next day.

From there, the walk back to Frutigen passes over the river, highway, and train tracks before turning off to the train station.

One point of interest along the way here is the northern portal of the 35 km Lötschberg Base Tunnel visible as it enters the mountain just below Tellenburg. The elevation of the tunnel portal is approximately 100 meters higher than the elevation of the Rhône River valley at the southern portal in the Valais. This location was chosen for the tunnel approach to tackle some of the more troublesome geologic layers deep in the mountain head-on.

Completed in 2007, the success of the tunnel has already spurred plans for its expansion which are set to start in 2026.

Finally, back at the Frutigen train station, you can head off in a number of directions. Take the lovely ride up to Kandersteg or head back down to Spiez and beautiful Lake Thun. Catch the bus to Addelboden for your next adventure or go wild and head straight through the base tunnel to the Valais and Italy just beyond that. The world is your oyster!

We hope you enjoyed our visit to Frutigen this week. If you are looking for more day hikes in the Berner Oberland, check out our Discovering Bern series. As always, feel free to comment on our social media and, if you enjoyed the post, please share it. Until next time, gute Reise!