Escape the Crowds On This Exceptional Walk in Switzerland's World-Famous Lauterbrunnen Valley

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Our Newest Series: Into the Alps

If you have followed along with our previous posts, you have already heard us talk a lot about the history of the Berner Oberland and Switzerland at large in our Discovering Bern and One Year: 26 Cantons series but we really haven’t talked much about the elephant in the room, the Swiss Alps. The Alps make up 60% of Switzerland and, in most cases, define the country to the rest of the world.

Any quick Google search will quickly confirm what you probably already knew. Switzerland’s mountains are huge, and the views are downright spectacular, but, honestly, that’s only half the story. The Alps are an incredible natural world of contradictions. Both ancient and wildly dynamic, seemingly void of life at first glance but surprisingly full on closer inspection.

With summer just around the corner, we are excited to share some of our favorite Alpine treks with you in our newest series: Into the Alps. Join us as we walk, hike, and paddle our way through the physical and human geography of this fantastic mountain landscape.

This week we visit the lovely Lauterbrunnen Valley in the Jungfrau Region of the Berner Oberland, a bit of a crossover with Discovering Bern, but, in the future, we won’t limit the series to our Bernese backyard. The Swiss Alps are packed with diversity and a range of excellent adventures.

So, without further ado, we hope you enjoy this first installment of Into the Alps!

LAUTERBRUNNEN TO STECHELBERG

Every time I see the Berner Oberland Bahn overflowing with visitors making their way up into the mountains from Interlaken, I have to quell the urge to give up on my plans and join them. While the Jungfrau region may be one of the single most touristy parts of Switzerland, on a nice day, its views are unquestionably spectacular. With almost no effort, you can feel as if you have been transported to another world.

Before the freak April snowstorm that hit this past week, the spring weather in the Berner Oberland was exceptional and we jumped on the opportunity to head to Lauterbrunnen before the summer crowds.

While there are tons of great walks to be done in the Alps, I would have a hard time coming up with a better bang for your buck than this path from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg. It’s an easy and accessible 9 km (about 5.5 mile) walk that shows off some of the absolute best of Switzerland’s landscape. The walk's proximity to the train and efficient PostAuto Bus service means you can easily make a one-way trip without having to backtrack. Honestly though… you might not want to leave after this one, I know I didn’t!

*Just a special note here, while the Gaia GPS maps we embed in our posts are generally pretty accurate, with the steep cliffs nearby, this one has a couple of errors, there is not 4,500 ft of elevation gain and you should not go climbing any big hills or cliffs in the middle of this walk (there is a moderate uphill past Stechelberg). If you want something a bit more accurate check out the Swiss Mobility Map

You can follow along with our Lauterbrunnen trip using this interactive map, but an important note, the path looks like it goes up some crazy elevation about mid-way through the walk. This is an error in the map. You want to stay on the valley floor until you reach Stechelberg. Don't go climbing any cliffs because the map told you to!

Arriving in Lauterbrunnen

The village of Lauterbrunnen as you leave the train station and head into town

Regardless of the crowds, if you are willing to put in just a bit of effort (really not that much), you are in for a real treat. While the train station and the town of Lauterbrunnen are liable to be slammed, our walk quickly passes through and leaves the crowds behind.

Under almost all circumstances, I think it makes the most sense to head to Lauterbrunnen by train. From Interlaken Ost (East) Station, the Berner Oberland Bahn offers regular and efficient service straight into the heart of the Lauterbrunnen Valley, spitting you out right at the start of the walk.

Convenience aside, the line from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen is just a plain joy to ride. You can open the window, sit back, and relax as the train meanders along its, mostly original, 1890 path up the valley past increasingly impressive sights. Along the way, the train slows to tackle some of the steeper grades using rack and pinion (the train has cogs that can lower into a third ridged track for increased traction) and, in my opinion, the rumble is one of the absolute best train feelings you can get.

Time of day and year will determine what you experience when you get off the train at Lauterbrunnen but, in most cases, you can expect the small train station to be crowded. This past week, we plodded past hundreds of skiers on their way up to the seasons leftover snow high above Wengen. During the summer, it was hundreds of floppy hat tourists in perfect form for an African safari to the (not really) Top of Europe at Jungfraujoch. If you are looking for a much cheaper alternative to Jungfraujoch, we also have the walk for you here, check out that post for more!

The Valley of 72 Waterfalls

If you have ever seen a Swiss postcard, there is a good chance you have already seen Staubbach Falls. This iconic 300-meter (about 1000 ft) waterfall has the largest vertical free-fall in Switzerland. Unquestionably, the falls are lovely but the insane popularity of this spot may stem more from its location, less than 1 km from the train station at Lauterbrunnen than the waterfall itself. Lucky for you, only a fraction of the visitors to Staubbach continue further down the path.

Looking up at Staubbachfall and the upper Lauterbrunnen Valley from the edge of the town of Lauterbrunnen

From Staubbach Falls, the walk follows a small road past a campground and through a range of small farms further up into the valley. It’s hard to believe as the crowds thin out that the views really only get better from here...

While the promotional material for Lauterbrunnen advertises 72 waterfalls, realistically you would have to be here at just the right time in spring/early summer to see them all in action. The water comes from a combination of snow melt and natural springs high up in the Alps and the flow of some of the streams spilling over the valley walls can get dangerously low towards the end of summer once most of the snow is gone.

Regardless of when you visit though, you will pass a few standout waterfalls along the walk that tend to flow year-round. These include Spissbachfall, Buchenbachfall, Aegertenbachfall, and (my favorite) Mürrenbachfall just below the gondola heading up to the village of Mürren high in the Alps.

Exceptional waterfalls abound in the Lauterbrunnen Valley but my favorite is Mürrenbachfall

As a geomorphologist, I would be amiss if I didn’t provide you with at least some context for the spectacular landscape we are passing thorough. The larger Lauterbrunnen valley is a classic ‘U’-shaped glacial valley with a fairly flat bottom and near vertical walls carved out during the last ice-age. Remnants of the glaciers that did the carving are still around (though barely), way up on the peaks at the top of the valley.

At first glance, rocky hills piled up near the cliffs look like they might have fallen from high above but they are actually lateral moraines, a mix of crushed rock deposited in place along the edges of the glacier as it retreated.

A close inspection of the cliffs themselves reveals quite a few large pockets in the cream-colored rock. These features are karst, or caves within the 140-million-year-old limestone that makes up much of the lower Lauterbrunnen valley.

Limestone tends to be quite massive, meaning it lacks much in the way of visible layering that you see with some sedimentary rocks, but the rock is calcareous and reacts fairly easily to water. As a result, limestone forms some of the largest cave systems in the world including several exceptional specimens here in Switzerland, but that can be the story for another day.

On our latest visit we saw some falcons nesting in the karst high on the cliff above, but we were a bit too far away to identify them. If you are interested in birds (or humans with wings) consider bringing your binoculars.

View looking up the Lauterbrunnen Valley from the path

A Leap of Faith

You can just make out the Schilthornbahn on its way to Gimmelwald in the upper left-hand corner. The towers above Mürrenbachfall are a new cable car being built straight to Mürren.

As you continue up valley, the cliffs get a bit bigger, the crowds wane, and everything tends to get a bit quieter but don’t be surprised if your peaceful walk is rudely interrupted by a few gunshot cracks along the way.

Lauterbrunnen is one of the few places in Switzerland where it is possible to BASE jump and, each year, nearly 20,000 of these wing suited dare devils will take the plunge from ledges high up on the cliff above.

If you are not familiar with BASE jumping, the acronym stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans, and Earth. Basically, rather than jumping out of a plane, in this derivative of sky diving, you jump from a high place and (hopefully) pull your chute open before hitting the ground. The loud crack comes from the parachute opening dynamically in mid-air.

Witnessing one of these jumps firsthand can be quite exciting but just know that there is a fairly dark shadow hanging over the sport here. Over the last two decades there have been around 80 extreme sport related deaths in Switzerland. Not coincidentally, three-quarters of those were right here in the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

Of course, year-round, you are likely to see parachutes dotting the skies across the Swiss Alps, but the vast majority of these belong to paragliders. As opposed to BASE jumpers, on takeoff, paragliders get a running start to allow their large parachute to completely open before they ever leave the ground. This, alongside a much larger canopy, offers more control and, arguably, a much safer descent.

If you are keen at trying your hand at an extreme sport in Switzerland, I would say paragliding is a much saner (and more convenient) option. A plethora of providers offer tandem paragliding flights around the Berner Oberland. Alternatively, if you are terrified by heights like me, you might find that hopping on one of the hundreds of death-defying cable cars which dot the landscape offers enough adrenaline for a lifetime at a far cheaper price!

Powering the Future

Eventually our road becomes a dirt path near the base station for the Schilthornbahn, the cable car headed up to Mürren which opened here in 1967. The path continues to meander up valley from here along the river passing a few nice picnic spots along the way and, of course, a plethora of nice views. At some point, you will reach an odd arched shaped bridge carrying a large pipe across the river and, from here, the path climbs up over the bridge and into the outskirts of Stechelberg.

The pipe we just crossed carries diverted water from near Mürren into a hydroelectric power plant in Stechelberg just past the bridge. As you walk by the plant house, you can take a quick peak in the windows and see the turbines whirring away.

This plant is just one in a long line of hydro power projects in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. The arrival of tourism in the 19th century spurred hotel competition and some of the Alp’s first hydroelectric powered lights here in the valley. Since then, the demand for power has only grown. The Schilthornbahn operates on 100% hydropower and, just down the valley from Lauterbrunnen at Sousbach is the building site for one of Switzerland’s newest hydropower schemes. Set to open in 2025, Sousbach will provide annual power to nearly 7000 homes in the Berner Oberland.

A peleton wheel used to drive hydroelectric turbines on display outside of the Stechelberg hydropower plant

Is it Time for Cake Yet?

Just past the Stechelberg hydropower plant you arrive at the grouping of houses that make up Stechelberg, the eventual end of our walk. Of course, if you are not feeling up to it or you just can’t wait for the sweet treat at the end of your walk, you can head straight to the restaurant and bus stop, but our walk doesn’t end quite yet. Passing around Stechelberg, we tack on a couple of steeper out-and-back kilometers to this otherwise flat walk.

At Stechelberg, the valley narrows and steepens considerably as it hits much harder basement granitic rock. If you are willing to climb up just a bit further, it’s a nice way to stretch your legs and you will be treated to some exceptional alpine views. The extra effort is especially worth it on the downhill return as you are treated to unimpinged views back down the whole Lauterbrunnen valley through which you just walked.

During the summer, there are a couple restaurants open further up the valley, but they were closed on our last visit. We turned back towards Stechelberg just before a pair of steeper switchbacks. There are a couple nice benches near here and I think stopping at this point generally maintains the relaxed vibe of the walk while adding a bit of a challenge to the mix.

Of course, you can go even further than we did (there are plenty more trails uphill from here), or end your walk in Stechelberg but, whatever you choose, you have to make a stop at the Hotel and Restaurant Stechelberg for a slice of their homemade Schwarzwäldertorte. This massive slice of chocolate flake covered cream cake is just as divine as the view from the restaurant patio. In my humble opinion, the perfect conclusion to any walk.

View into the Alps from just uphill of Stechelberg

The perfect ending to any good walk in the Alps, Schwarzwäldertorte. One of these days I will take a picture of the cake before it's half eaten...

In the parking lot just behind Hotel and Restaurant Stechelberg you can catch a regularly scheduled PostAuto Bus back to Lauterbrunnen. If you are looking for a bit more adventure on your way back to into town, hop off the bus at the Schilthornbahn for a trip further up into the mountains or stop at famous Trümmelbach Falls and follow the path up into a slot canyon like gorge carved by glacial melt water. Just know ahead of time that, at both of these stops, you are likely to re-encounter the mass of humanity you passed back in Lauterbrunnen.

We hope you enjoyed this first post in our series Into the Alps. If you are looking for more adventure across Switzerland, you may enjoy our other ongoing series, One Year: 26 Cantons where we visit each of Switzerland’s 26 Cantons in 2024 or Discovering Bern where we guide you along our favorite Sunday walks in the Berner Oberland.

As always, feel free to comment on our social media or reach out with your own experiences and suggestions. Until next time, gute Reise!