Murren and Schilthorn

On Sunday, March 4th, we looked at another foggy, cloudy day in Langenthal and decided to take the chance it would be better weather at the higher elevations in the Jungfrau area.

We drove through the fog, almost to Thun, where the sky started clearing.  By the time we got to Lauterbrunnen, the sky was clear, and we got on the gondola up to Grutschalp.  Grutchalp is about 5000 ft of elevation, opposite side of the valley from Wengen. 

This is what it looks like down in Lauterbrunnen:

From Grutsalp, its a 1-1/2 hike to Murren, at about the same elevation, on a wintry trail that was pretty well traveled and seemed to be occasionally plowed.

Murren is a very cute little city of restaurants and tourists/private chalets. It is only accessible by gondola. 

We took another gondola from Murren to Schilton, which is about 10,000ft.   First, there is a stop at Birg, which is about half way to Schilton.   At the Birg stop, there are some catwalks to get a good view and a bit of scare.

Schilton was the location for a 1969 James Bond movie, On her Majesty's Secret Service.   It is a building (teetering) on the tip of a mountain.   There is actually a Bond museum in the base of this mountain-top viewing platform.

The Eger is the peak at the center of the photo below.   Directly below it, you can see the snowy, saddle that is KleinSchiedegg.  The building in bottom center is Birg, which is little more than the location to change gondolas:

You can see Thun on the far side of the lake:

 Near the bottom of this photo below, you can see Murren, right on the edge of a cliff.  At the top of the photo are the peaks, from left to right, Eger, Monach and Jungfrau:

There are distinct glaciers on the north side of the Jungfrau peaks.  We can see them best when the wind has a chance to blow all the snow off them.  They are hard to photograph, but with the right light, they are translucent, like huge ice cubes stuck on the mountain side.