Ken Baldry crosses Switzerland on Foot -

Grosse Scheidegg from Meiringen to Grindelwald 2001


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This map is copied from the Official Map of the Automobil-Club der Schweiz, (with their permission) which is on this link but not to scale

Grosse Scheidegg from
Meiringen to Grindelwald

Maps LK 255 and LK 254 but better to use Zusammensetzung 5004 which will take you all the way to Kandersteg on the next page but one. I mention the 'wrong way' route because it was part of my original walk but the 'right way' one is much superior, if tougher, as there is 1400 metres of height to gain.

The Reichenbach Falls with the Wetterhorn (right) & Wellhorn (left) above.
Meiringen is below, left. 24/6/2001.

Monday 25th June 2001

I left the Hotel Hirschen (old, quite cheap & very atmospheric, which we also used in 1973) at 0741. I followed the road to Willigen & turned off & up the old pack-horse track just past the Hotel Tourist. This goes fairly steeply up, crossing the road in places & co-inciding ar Schwendi for a few hundred metres. Warning! This path is not clearly marked on LK50 5004 but is on LK25 1210 Innertkirchen. There is no way of avoiding cooking in the Sun on a nice day, because of the angle it strikes. However, one is then rewarded by much shadow after Zwirgi as the path goes through the gorge of the Reichenbach. The first view of the Wetterhorn is quite dramatic & the path avoids the road by going above it. I stopped at the quaint old Rosenlaui Hotel for a beer, as although I was carrying 2 litres of water, this is a long stage.

The Reichenbachtal (Rosenlaui Valley)
from above Alpiglen

The Eiger, end-on & with the Monch to its left,
from below Grosse Scheidegg

After & above Rosenlaui, the path is marked off on a jeep track which more or less peters out in a field of cows. Keep going to the wire fence, cross it as soon as convenient & contour round until the 'new' footpath appears. This is a splendid alternative to the road. I assume this new path was laid out after the construction of the road. It comes out at Alpiglen & then goes straight up to Grosse Scheidegg, criss-crossing the road & largely but not entirely following the old jeep track. (Note that this path is marked on the latest edition of map 5004 but not on my 1966 version). There are two false summits. Lunch at Grosse Scheidegg & then, the path goes clearly down towards Grindelwald, again largely criss-crossing the road. I had an apfelsaft at Ischboden, a last pit stop if one then follows the road until a sign off onto a footpath through Moos to the Terassenweg 1400. This leads down to the village without so much road walking as just carrying on past the Hotel Wetterhorn involves. Including stops for food & chats, it took me 9 hours, 40 minutes. I stayed at the Grindelwald Hotel Hirschen, much posher & more expensive (94 sfr per night in 2001) than the Meiringen one but you will need (deserve) a little luxury after a walk like this.

Grindelwald to Meiringen via Grosse Scheidegg 'wrong way' 1973-4

June 1973 To leave Grindelwald, my first wife Jane and I took the chairlift to First and walked the other way, East to Grosse Scheidegg 1961m on the contour path and over on a jeep track past Rosenlaui down the road to Meiringen 595m, with spectacular views up to the Rosenlaui Glacier. We saw tank traps with neat little notices saying that they were a military secret and must not be photographed! Near the Reichenbach Falls at Zwirgi (where Sherlock Holmes is alleged to have died), a clearly marked footpath resumes after the jeep track. (We walked up to Grosse Scheidegg and back - the 'right' way, the next year in September 1974 on the afternoon we arrived in Grindelwald. In the photo, Jane is on the Lauberhorn).

If you want to stay in Grindelwald a few days,
I have included some walks there on this link.

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Contact: Ken Baldry, 17 Gerrard Road, Islington, London N1 8AY +44(0)20 7359 6294 or e-mail him
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