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.















   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LeMount Saint Michel

Image
LeMont Saint Michel Built on an island off the north coast of France, Normandy area.  It has been a monastery since the 8th century.  Much of the structure was in place by the 12th century.  We visited at low tide and people could walk from shore to the island. This was the view of it, from about 2 miles away, in from our car: Below shows the trail we followed to walk out there: On the shore-side of the island, the village buildings have become tourist shops and restaurants, got that seagull in this photo! In the background of the photo below, you can see the 'pilgrims' making a journey from shore, across the bay.  Pretty easy that day.  Many days it is not possible or at least not advised.  
Read more

Jessica, Sara and Alex in Swiss : the Wengen Trip

Image
Jessica, Sara and Alex in Swiss   the Wengen Trip Our (3) visitors arrived in Paris on Monday morning Jan15th, and we drove (with skis on top of the car) to Langenthal.  The next day we drove to the mountains.  Wengen is an elevated village (4100ft), accessible only by cog-wheel train. The train starts in Lauderbrunnen, which is the bottom of the valley shown in this picture below (we took this picture in December, standing in Wengen): The cog-wheel train stops in Wengen, and continues to Klein Scheidegg (6800ft). The weather was not very cooperative the (4) days were in the mountains. Low clouds, windy and snowing often.  We made the best of it.  We skied whenever the trains were running.  You could always get a train down the mountain, but often they closed the train to KleinScheidigg due to wind and snow. We rented a chalet in Wengen, which turned out to be are really nice place to stay in the mountains.  There was lots of space, 4 bedrooms, a great view of the mou
Read more

Hiking Morgartenberg

Image
In early February, we randomly picked a new peak to climb, not too far from home.  Mortgartenberg is a peak in the canton of Schwyz, the other side of Lucerne from our house .  The peak is right on the border of Schwyz and Zug cantons.  At the peak, you get a nice view of the lake Ageri.  You can also see lake Lauerzer to south.   We met an elderly man at the peak, who had out-paced us for the entire climb.  He was in his mid-seventies, claiming not to be a serious hiker.  Just in Swiss shape, I guess.  He had some keen insights about good places to hike in Schwyz/Zug.  He gave us a history (legend) lesson for Mortgartenberg peak, famous for Schwyz hauling heavy rocks to the peak, and unloading on the pesky Austrians trying to invade from north.  Never clear to me where to park our car: From here you could see Lauerzer You don't see Ageri until you get to the peak. Here's another shot of Lauerzer, from the car on way down.  No snow down there:
Read more