Alpine Pass Route Trek

This is the photo diary of Dave Butcher for the Alpine Pass Route from Grindelwald to Montreux in Switzerland.

The photographs will be added later. Here are the first few taken on this trip around Grindelwald and Kandersteg.

Walking Team: Jan (my wife), me, Phil Moorhouse (a friend I met on a ski mountaineering trip in the 90's), Rob (we used to work with him in the 70's) and Annie (Robs American wife).

Support Team: Rik and Glen East. We have known Rik since the 70's, then he ran a pub in Norfolk with wife Glen before retiring a few years ago. They now tour the world a few months a year in their camper van and wanted to see Switzerland so they volunteered to transport our luggage between our accommodations and be with us each evening. They were able to park close by each evening. They made the trip possible as I would not have been able to carry the load with my bad back.

Getting there: Originally, we planned to fly to Geneva and catch the train but a few weeks before the trip there was a massive security alert for air travellers with a plot to blow up several planes with explosive liquids carried in hand luggage. The new hand luggage restrictions would have prevented me from carrying any film onto the aircraft so we changed plans and drove instead. Any film in hold luggage would be ruined by the powerful x-rays used on such luggage, much stronger than those used for hand luggage. We cancelled our flights and lost the air miles that we had used to book the flights with. British Airways didn't seem to care about our situation or value our future business, needless to say we haven't used them since.

We left home on Friday 25th August and drove down over 4 days, stopping with relatives in Harpenden so that we could drive to Dover early the next day to catch a ferry, then followed a drive down through Belgium to the Hotel Pfalzblick in Dahn in the Pfalzerwald in Germany (northwest of Karlsruhe) and on the following day to the Hotel Schiff in Schluchsee in the Black Forest.

We decided before leaving that we wouldn't knock ourselves out trying to walk every step of the way; if there was a convenient lift, train or bus that would get us in a good position fast, without missing some key point of interest, we would use it. As the original instigator, and organiser of the trip, a major part of it for me was to take photographs to add to my picture library for possible future sales.

I bought the Swiss map CD for the area so that I could program my GPS to keep us on track without too many headaches. I had programmed every major junction, village and main mountains on the route, several hundred waypoints. We had 2 sets of maps and compasses between us too, so we didn't rely on new technology completely. The gps was particularly useful at forks in the track, large changes in direction were obvious no matter what technology was used. We also knew what the neighbouring peaks were without unfolding the map and the general direction of our objective at all times. It proved to be a good addition to the navigation tools and removed some of the stress of route finding in bad weather.

The Route: The Alpine Pass Route, APR, starts in Sargans on the border of Liechtenstein and ends in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva (Lac Leman). It is 202 miles long, crosses 16 passes with a total ascent of 18,000 metres (59,000 feet), a high point of 2778m and would take at least 15 days to do the entire route. We chose to do the second half from Grindelwald to Montreux over 8 days.

Monday 28th August 2006: Jan and I arrived in Grindelwald near Interlaken in Central Switzerland. We stayed in the Chalet-Hotel Alte Post, a hotel we have used several times in the past. It has a great restaurant attached and they are very friendly and welcoming. They also kindly allowed us to leave our car in their car park.

Day 1, Tuesday 29th August 2006: We walked 2 miles to the Mannlichen lift station in Grindelwald Grund and caught the 10am cable car to the top station, about 20 minutes. From here we walked up Mannlichen for photos from the top. Lots of clouds hanging around below the tops. Then around the balcony route to Kleine Scheidegg. This is a great little path with views staright ahead to the north face of the Eiger. We walked down to the bustling Kleine Scheidegg at 12.20pm where we met up with Phil who had chosen to walk up from Grindelwald. The weather was closing in and it started raining heavily as we walked down to Wengen, reaching it at 4.15pm. We were quickly soaked and decided to take the train down to Lauterbrunnen and the Hotel Silberhorn.

Walk: 13 miles, 1118 metres of ascent, 5h 55m

Day 2, Wednesday 30th August 2006: We left the hotel and headed for the bus stop down the Lauterbrunnen valley to the Schilthornbahn at Stechelberg where we caught the cable cars to Murren, changing part way up. Murren had 4 inches of snow on the ground; the rain we had yesterday had turned to snow as the temperature dropped in the evening and higher up. We started walking at 9.30am. The clouds were down so we saw nothing for the first hour or so. We headed for the Rostock Hut where we stopped at 12.10pm for a bowl of soup. A half hour later we were off again up the snow slopes to the pass. We reached the Sefinenfurke pass at 3pm, there was about 15 inches of fresh snow here and we had been having snow showers and short sunny spells through the day. To help us reach the top of the pass there was a cable and rope hand rail attached to the rock, as well as snow-covered steps. On the descent we could use the cable for a sort of abseil and it made it easier than it would otherwise have been. We arrived at the Berggasthaus Golderli on the edge of Griesalp at 6pm for a quick shower and dinner at 6.30pm. We had booked a room for 4 and a place in the dormitory for Phil but in the end we had 2 rooms since there had been a couple of cancellations with the bad weather.

Walk: 11 miles, 1815 metres of ascent, 8h 30m

Day 3, Thursday 31st August 2006: We left Golderli at 8am (breakfast was at 7am) with a clear blue sky above. What a contrast to yesterday. There was frost on the fields and snow on the ground above 2000 metres. A good track led up to the pass and there were cables, ropes, chains and steps to aid our ascent and descent from the Hohturli, the highest point on the entire Alpine Pass Route at 2778m. There was about 18 inches of soft, fresh snow at the pass. The views were spectacular and we decided to climb up the snow to the Blumlisalphutte (2873m) for a beer and a snack. It was about a half hour up to the hut and after a break of an hour we were off again. There was steep snow on the descent and the cables made it really easy. Impressive glacier fingers from the high peaks on our left (Blumlisalp, etc). The snow petered out above the 2000m level and we were back to summer meadows (alps) with cows grazing. We stopped at the Ober Bergli on the crags above Oeschinensee (lake) for another beer. Then we followed a steep track down a couple of small cliffs to reach the trail beside Oeschinensee. It was a very easy walk out from here to the Hotel Adler in Kandersteg which we reached at 6.25pm.

Walk: 10 miles, 1370 metres of ascent, 10h 30m

Day 4, Friday 1st September 2006: We left the hotel at 8.15am and headed to the cable car which started running at 8.30am. From Undere Allme at the top we headed uphill then left for the Alpschelegrat, the last section of the track was narrow and quite exciting with a steep drop on our left. This is clearly not a well trodden route! Time for photos from Alpschelegrat then we headed up the last section to Bunderschrinde pass. We spent quite some time here in the sunshine with clear blue skies all day. Then it was down to the lush green meadows on the Adelboden side of the pass. We stopped for a few beers and Rosti at the Berghaus Bonderalp at 2100m. An elderly couple run it and the husband brought out his Alpenhorn to give us a demonstration. We were here for 2h 30m - quite a long break! Good view of the nearby Wildstrubel (skied in 1999 on Western Bernese Oberland traverse ski mountaineering trip) and lots of other big peaks. The track went steeply across some fields below the Bonderalp and as we were walking along we started to hear the Alpenhorn again from over a half mile away. We enjoyed our time at the Bonderalp and were well looked after. At 5.30pm we reached the Hotel Baren in the narrow main street of Adelboden, right in the centre of the busy little village. It was a traditional wooden chalet but with all that you would expect from a modern hotel. Our rooms were very large with balconies over the street and views to the mountains that we had just crossed. Our room had a double bed and a mezzanine floor with another bed up there.

Walk: 8 miles, 1209 metres of ascent, 7h

Day 5, Saturday 2nd September 2006: It was a grey day and we reluctantly left the Hotel Baren (it was very comfortable and the food and service was excellent) at 8.50am walking down to the river and then up to the Geilsbuel cable car station. We decided to save some time and take the cable car to the Hahnenmoos Pass, reaching it at 11am. We came down a good track to a road with waterfalls where we diverted to the Siebenbrunnen waterfalls. Very impressive falls flowing over rocks from several directions with the tops of all the falls completely overgrown making it look as if they were issuing from below some scrubby bushes and small trees. It was raining here so after a few photos we retired to the restaurant for a beer. We then went down to the Simmenfalle waterfalls for more photos (one later sold to a poster company in germany) and then to the nearby restaurant for a beer. We left a bit after 5pm and reached the Alpenhotel Residence in Lenk at 6pm, our home for the night.

Walk: 14 miles, 696 metres of ascent, 9h

Day 6, Sunday 3rd September 2006: We left Lenk at 9.10am and walked to the cable car to Betelberg. From here we were able to spend some time walking along a really interesting ridge. It was criss-crossed by huge limestone crevasses and holes, quite narrow in places with steep drops to the side. At 11.30am we reached the Truttlisberg Pass. From here it was downwards across meadows to the vilage of Lauenen where we stopped at the Hotel Wildhorn for lunch at 1.15pm. I had Rosti Speck (bacon) and a couple of beers, it was excellent. We left after 1h 30m (no point rushing!) and headed through the village and up to the Krinne Pass (3.50pm) then down to what looked like a really old traditional wooden chalet-style Hotel Baren in Gsteig, just behind the shapely church by 5pm. It was overcast quite a bit but we had some sunny spells and it was warm most of the time.

Walk: 13 miles, 1388 metres of ascent, 6h 30m

Day 7, Monday 4th September 2006: At 8.50am we were on our way back down the valley then heading up to the Blattipass which we reached at 11am. On to the Col de Vore at 1.15pm and a short while later we stopped at the Chalet Vieux for a short beer stop. A half hour later we on our way to the Col des Anderets and quite a trek around the hillside and down to reach the wide, busy Col des Mosses. We had sun and hot weather all day. A main route from Aigle to the Gstaad region. We stayed at Le Relais Alpin, a modern sterile hotel more used to coach parties than small groups of walkers such as us. The Col is also a bit of a bleak place, there is not a lot else here.

Walk: 15 miles, 1050 metres of ascent, 9h

Day 8, Tuesday 5th September 2006: Our last day started at 8.40pm with us striding out towards a large reservoir and dam which gave us a different sort of view. We could also clearly see the Tour de Famelon and the Tour d'Ai that we had climbed in 1994. By 11.15am we reached the Barrage de l'Hongrin. We had a couple of hours climbing uphill to reach the little Chalet Alp Chaudes where we stopped for a beer for a half hour. Then it was up to the Col de Chaude by 2.30pm where we left the road and headed steeply to the Rochers de Naye and the railway. This was the end of our trip; we had decided to avoid the walk down but instead to enjoy the view from the luxury of a train. We reached Montreux at 5.40pm and the Hotel Elite at 6.20pm after another sunny hot day. All 7 of us celebrated with a very nice dinner at a restaurant on the shores of Lake Geneva and copious amounts of beer and wine.

Walk: 13 miles, 520 metres of ascent, 9h 05m

What a great walk. No route signposts just map, compass, gps and guidebook by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone Press). Few people most of the time. Great scenery, very photogenic so lots of photographs taken. We didn't knock ourselves out by using a few cable cars and a train but this allowed us longer breaks at some mountain restaurants with spectacular views and we didn't need to rush the walking. Stayed in some good hotels and were well looked after pretty much everywhere. Now it just remained for us to return to our car and drive home. We had a very pleasant train journey through the mountains back to Grindelwald. It seemed such a long time since we left but was in fact just 9 days.

Totals: 97 miles, 9,166 metres of ascent, 8 days of walking

Cameras: Mamiya 7, 50mm and 80mm lenses mostly plus 43mm lens on some days instead of the 50mm, Ilford FP4 120 film