Out by the Rawil Pass 2367m

Take the bus up to Iffigenalp, where the path for the pass is clearly marked. (You can walk up in 2 1/2 hours). We got the 0900 bus, a Toyota mini-bus, to Iffigenalp which buys you 1500' & several miles. The falls are quite spectacular & the road zig-zags perilously up by them. Goodness knows how the big bus gets up.

The Rawil Pass path goes across these cliffs & across to the left. It's quite safe!

The author with ice condensed on him on the Rawil Pass in June 1979.

The path has some fixed rope, which I have exaggerated

The road is timetabled - 1/2 hour one way & 1/2 hour the other. The pass path progresses up the cliff wall to the South of the alp &, as one would expect in July, the path was blfrom right to left. It's quite safe!

The author with ice condensed on him
on the Rawil Pass in June 1979.

The path has some fixed rope,
which I have exaggerated

The road is timetabled - 1/2 hour one way & 1/2 hour the other. The pass path progresses up the cliff wall to the South of the alp &, as one would expect in July, the path was blanked off in places by snow & at one place, someone had tunnelled underneath the snow to stay on the path, so an ice axe is more than useful.

The Rawil Pass, South side. The path goes up towards the left of the next slide. The lake is no longer there.

The Rawil Pass, North side, seen Westerly from the Wildstrubel Hut (i.e. South is left, Iffigalp is down the right side)

Like most Berner Oberland passes, this one flattens out towards the top on both sides. The top is called the Plan des Roses, a stony waste with struggling flowers. I wonder how it got its name? The pass path is good all the way - it was once the principal route over the Bernese Oberland. Down the other side, there is a view across the Valais but, in the foreground is the Tseuzier Dam, dry on both sides, as it started to move & they drained it fast. From the dam, either get a bus via Botyre into the Rhone Valley (which we did in 1979) or cross the dam (recommended) & walk the eight mile up-&-down 'contour' path to Crans, high on a shelf above the Rhone Valley (done in 1982) & pick up another tour on this link.

If you want a tougher (!) way out...

There is a path signposted to the Wildstrubel Hut after getting past the cliffs & on towards a hut in the valley above. The Wildstrubel Hut is at 2791m, will supply you with a much-needed beer & neither at the top, quite, nor well-placed for climbing the Wildstrubel. (This is best done from the other side on this link). Carry on up the path & (probably) up a snow field to another scratchy path below a cliff. (Above, to your left, you can see a military installation fed by a cable car from the Iffigenalp. You can't use it!) Then, there is a bit of a scramble & a nasty but short path down (the hut is on the wrong side of the ridge) to where the old path has fallen off. After that, there is a good route with the Wildstrubel in front of you over the Plaine Morte Glacier, which you do go on to climb the Wildstrubel. But carrying on, this path takes you to the cable car station for Montana or you can walk down on good paths & jeep tracks to the village.

The Wildstrubel Hut from above the snow field.

The path right goes to the cable car station

In 2005, I came over the path from The Sex Morte (cable car station but I had walked up) to the Wildstrubel Hut on my way down to the Iffigenalp. The path I had used before had disappeared in the winter, as they sometimes do & there was a rather scratchy alternive to the North, clearly marked but rather unpleasant. Then, a slope of hard snow down to the hut.