The Eiger Express is the new cable car from Grindelwald to Eigergletscher.

 

The cable car can transport 2'200 people per hour to the Eigergletscher station.

 

A ride takes 15 minutes.

JB BDhe 4/8 Between Eigergletscher and Kleine Scheidegg

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Eiger, Mönch und Jungfrau

 

seen from Morgenberghorn. In the foreground you can see the Saxettal (Saxet valley).

 

gesehen vom Morgenberghorn. Im Vordergrund sieht man das Saxettal.

 

The Morgenberghorn is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland. It lies at the northern end of the chain between the valleys of Frutigen and Lauterbrunnen, north of the Schwalmere.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

The Eiger (German pronunciation: [ˈaɪ̯ɡɐ]) is a 3,967-metre (13,015 ft) mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m (13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its nearly 1,800-metre-high (5,900 ft) north face of rock and ice, named Eiger-Nordwand, Eigerwand or just Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps.] This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the eponymous pass connecting the two valleys.

 

The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington, who climbed the west flank on August 11, 1858. The north face, the "last problem" of the Alps, considered amongst the most challenging and dangerous ascents, was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition.The Eiger has been highly publicized for the many tragedies involving climbing expeditions. Since 1935, at least 64 climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally "murder(ous) wall"—a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall).

 

Although the summit of the Eiger can be reached by experienced climbers only, a railway tunnel runs inside the mountain, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows carved into the rock face. They are both part of the Jungfrau Railway line, running from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, at the highest railway station in Europe. The two stations within the Eiger are Eigerwand (behind the north face) and Eismeer (behind the south face), at around 3,000 metres. The Eigerwand station has not been regularly served since 2016.

 

Etymology

 

The first mention of Eiger, appearing as "mons Egere", was found in a property sale document of 1252, but there is no clear indication of how exactly the peak gained its name. The three mountains of the ridge are commonly referred to as the Virgin (German: Jungfrau – translates to "virgin" or "maiden"), the Monk (Mönch), and the Ogre (Eiger; the standard German word for ogre is Oger). The name has been linked to the Latin term acer, meaning "sharp" or "pointed".

 

Geographic setting and description

 

The Eiger is located above the Lauterbrunnen Valley to the west and Grindelwald to the north in the Bernese Oberland region of the canton of Bern. It forms a renowned mountain range of the Bernese Alps together with its two companions: the Jungfrau (4,158 m (13,642 ft)) about 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) southwest of it and the Mönch (4,107 m (13,474 ft)) about in the middle of them. The nearest settlements are Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen (795 m (2,608 ft)) and Wengen (1,274 m (4,180 ft)). The Eiger has three faces: north (or more precisely NNW), east (or more precisely ESE), and west (or more precisely WSW). The northeastern ridge from the summit to the Ostegg (lit.: eastern corner, 2,709 m (8,888 ft)), called Mittellegi, is the longest on the Eiger. The north face overlooks the gently rising Alpine meadow between Grindelwald (943 m (3,094 ft)) and Kleine Scheidegg (2,061 m (6,762 ft)), a mountain railways junction and a pass, which can be reached from both sides, Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen/Wengen – by foot or train.

 

Politically, the Eiger (and its summit) belongs to the Bernese municipalities of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. The Kleine Scheidegg (literally, the small parting corner) connects the Männlichen-Tschuggen range with the western ridge of the Eiger. The Eiger does not properly form part of the main chain of the Bernese Alps, which borders the canton of Valais and forms the watershed between the Rhine and the Rhône, but constitutes a huge limestone buttress, projecting from the crystalline basement of the Mönch across the Eigerjoch. Consequently, all sides of the Eiger feed finally the same river, namely the Lütschine.

 

Eiger's water is connected through the Weisse Lütschine (the white one) in the Lauterbrunnen Valley on the west side (southwestern face of the Eiger), and through the Schwarze Lütschine (the black one) running through Grindelwald (northwestern face), which meet each other in Zweilütschinen (lit.: the two Lütschinen) where they form the proper Lütschine. The east face is covered by the glacier called Ischmeer, (Bernese German for Ice Sea), which forms one upper part of the fast-retreating Lower Grindelwald Glacier. These glaciers' water forms a short creek, which is also confusingly called the Weisse Lütschine, but enters the black one already in Grindelwald together with the water from the Upper Grindelwald Glacier. Therefore, all the water running down the Eiger converges at the northern foot of the Männlichen (2,342 m (7,684 ft)) in Zweilütschinen (654 m (2,146 ft)), about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northwest of the summit, where the Lütschine begins its northern course to Lake Brienz and the Aare (564 m (1,850 ft)).

 

Although the north face of the Eiger is almost free of ice, significant glaciers lie at the other sides of the mountain. The Eiger Glacier flows on the southwestern side of the Eiger, from the crest connecting it to the Mönch down to 2,400 m (7,900 ft), south of Eigergletscher railway station, and feeds the Weisse Lütschine through the Trümmelbach. On the east side, the Ischmeer–well visible from the windows of Eismeer railway station–flows eastwards from the same crest then turns to the north below the impressive wide Fiescherwand, the north face of the Fiescherhörner triple summit (4,049 m (13,284 ft)) down to about 1,600 m (5,200 ft) of the Lower Grindelwald Glacier system.

 

The massive composition of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau constitutes an emblematic sight of the Swiss Alps and is visible from many places on the Swiss Plateau and the Jura Mountains in the northwest. The higher Finsteraarhorn (4,270 m (14,010 ft)) and Aletschhorn (4,190 m (13,750 ft)), which are located about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the south, are generally less visible and situated in the middle of glaciers in less accessible areas. As opposed to the north side, the south and east sides of the range consist of large valley glaciers extending for up to 22 kilometres (14 mi), the largest (beyond the Eiger drainage basin) being those of Grand Aletsch, Fiesch, and Aar Glaciers, and is thus uninhabited. The whole area, the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area, comprising the highest summits and largest glaciers of the Bernese Alps, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.

 

In July 2006, a piece of the Eiger, amounting to approximately 700,000 cubic metres of rock, fell from the east face. As it had been noticeably cleaving for several weeks and fell into an uninhabited area, there were no injuries and no buildings were hit.

 

Climbing history

 

While the summit was reached without much difficulty in 1858 by a complex route on the west flank, the battle to climb the north face has captivated the interest of climbers and non-climbers alike. Before it was successfully climbed, most of the attempts on the face ended tragically and the Bernese authorities even banned climbing it and threatened to fine any party that should attempt it again. But the enthusiasm which animated the young talented climbers from Austria and Germany finally vanquished its reputation of unclimbability when a party of four climbers successfully reached the summit in 1938 by what is known as the "1938" or "Heckmair" route.

 

The climbers that attempted the north face could be easily watched through the telescopes from the Kleine Scheidegg, a pass between Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, connected by rail. The contrast between the comfort and civilization of the railway station and the agonies of the young men slowly dying a short yet uncrossable distance away led to intensive coverage by the international media.

 

After World War II, the north face was climbed twice in 1947, first by a party of two French guides, Louis Lachenal and Lionel Terray, then by a Swiss party consisting of H. Germann, with Hans and Karl Schlunegger.

 

First ascent

 

In 1857, a first recorded attempt was made by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann guiding the Austrian alpinist Sigismund Porges. They did manage the first ascent of neighboring Mönch instead. Porges, however, successfully made the second ascent of the Eiger in July 1861 with the guides Christian Michel, Hans and Peter Baumann.

 

The first ascent was made by the western flank on August 11, 1858 by Charles Barrington with guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren. On the previous afternoon, the party walked up to the Wengernalp hotel. From there they started the ascent of the Eiger at 3:30 a.m. Barrington describes the route much as it is followed today, staying close to the edge of the north face much of the way. They reached the summit at about noon, planted a flag, stayed for some 10 minutes and descended in about four hours. Barrington describes the reaching of the top, saying, "the two guides kindly gave me the place of first man up." After the descent, the party was escorted to the Kleine Scheidegg hotel, where their ascent was confirmed by observation of the flag left on the summit. The owner of the hotel then fired a cannon to celebrate the first ascent. According to Harrer's The White Spider, Barrington was originally planning to make the first ascent of the Matterhorn, but his finances did not allow him to travel there as he was already staying in the Eiger region.

 

Mittellegi ridge

 

Although the Mittellegi ridge had already been descended by climbers (since 1885) with the use of ropes in the difficult sections, it remained unclimbed until 1921. On the 10th of September of that year, Japanese climber Yuko Maki, along with Swiss guides Fritz Amatter, Samuel Brawand and Fritz Steuri made the first successful ascent of the ridge. The previous day, the party approached the ridge from the Eismeer railway station of the Jungfrau Railway and bivouacked for the night. They started the climb at about 6:00 a.m. and reached the summit of the Eiger at about 7:15 p.m., after an over 13 hours gruelling ascent. Shortly after, they descended the west flank. They finally reached Eigergletscher railway station at about 3:00 a.m. the next day.

 

Attempts on the north face

 

1935

 

In 1935, two young German climbers from Bavaria, Karl Mehringer and Max Sedlmeyer, arrived at Grindelwald to attempt the ascent of the north face. After waiting some time for the weather to improve, they set off, reaching the height of the Eigerwand station before stopping for their first bivouac. The following day, facing greater difficulties, they gained little height. On the third day, they made hardly any vertical gain. That night, the weather deteriorated, bringing snow and low cloud that shrouded the mountain from the observers below. Avalanches began to sweep the face. Two days later, the weather briefly cleared, and the two men were glimpsed a little higher and about to bivouac for the fifth night, before clouds descended again. A few days later, the weather finally cleared, revealing a completely white north face.: 225  Weeks later, the German World War I ace Ernst Udet went searching for the missing men with his aircraft, eventually spotting one of them frozen to death in what became known as the "Death Bivouac". Sedlmeyer's body was found at the foot of the face the following year by his brothers Heinrich and Martin Meier, who were part of a group looking for the victims of the 1936 climbing disaster. Mehringer's remains were found in 1962 by Swiss climbers below the "Flat Iron" (Bügeleisen) at the lefthand end of the second ice field. 

 

1936

 

The next year ten young climbers from Austria and Germany came to Grindelwald and camped at the foot of the mountain. Before their attempts started one of them was killed during a training climb, and the weather was so bad during that summer that, after waiting for a change and seeing none on the way, several members of the party gave up. Of the four that remained, two were Bavarians, Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz, and two were Austrians, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer. When the weather improved they made a preliminary exploration of the lowest part of the face. Hinterstoisser fell 37 metres (121 ft) but was not injured. A few days later the four men finally began the ascent of the face. They climbed quickly, but on the next day, after their first bivouac, the weather changed; clouds came down and hid the group to the observers. They did not resume the climb until the following day, when, during a break, the party was seen descending, but the climbers could be seen only intermittently from the ground. The group had no choice but to retreat, since Angerer had suffered serious injuries from falling rock. The party became stuck on the face when they could not recross the difficult Hinterstoisser Traverse, from which they had taken the rope they had first used to climb it. The weather then deteriorated for two days. They were ultimately swept away by an avalanche, which only Kurz survived, hanging on a rope. Three guides started on an extremely perilous rescue attempt. They failed to reach him but came within shouting distance and learned what had happened. Kurz explained the fate of his companions: one had fallen down the face, another was frozen above him, and the third had fractured his skull in falling and was hanging dead on the rope.

 

In the morning the three guides came back, traversing the face from a hole near the Eigerwand station and risking their lives under incessant avalanches. Toni Kurz was still alive but almost helpless, with one hand and one arm completely frozen. Kurz hauled himself off the cliff after cutting loose the rope that bound him to his dead teammate below and climbed back onto the face. The guides were not able to pass an unclimbable overhang that separated them from Kurz. They managed to give him a rope long enough to reach them by tying two ropes together. While descending, Kurz could not get the knot to pass through his carabiner. He tried for hours to reach his rescuers who were only a few metres below him. Then he began to lose consciousness. One of the guides, climbing on another's shoulders, was able to touch the tip of Kurz's crampons with his ice-axe but could not reach higher. Kurz was unable to descend further and, completely exhausted, died slowly.

 

1937

 

An attempt was made in 1937 by Mathias Rebitsch and Ludwig Vörg. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, they were nonetheless the first climbers who returned alive from a serious attempt on the face. They started the climb on 11 August and reached a high point of a few rope lengths above Death Bivouac. A storm then broke and after three days on the wall they had to retreat. This was the first successful withdrawal from a significant height on the wall.

 

First ascent of the north face

 

The north face was first climbed on July 24, 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek in a German–Austrian party. The party had originally consisted of two independent teams: Harrer (who did not have a pair of crampons on the climb) and Kasparek were joined on the face by Heckmair and Vörg, who had started their ascent a day later and had been helped by the fixed rope that the lead team had left across the Hinterstoisser Traverse. The two groups, led by the experienced Heckmair, decided to join their forces and roped together as a single group of four. Heckmair later wrote: "We, the sons of the older Reich, united with our companions from the Eastern Border to march together to victory."

 

The expedition was constantly threatened by snow avalanches and climbed as quickly as possible between the falls. On the third day a storm broke and the cold was intense. The four men were caught in an avalanche as they climbed "the Spider," the snow-filled cracks radiating from an ice-field on the upper face, but all possessed sufficient strength to resist being swept off the face. The members successfully reached the summit at four o'clock in the afternoon. They were so exhausted that they only just had the strength to descend by the normal route through a raging blizzard.

 

Other notable events

 

1864 (Jul 27): Fourth ascent, and first ascent by a woman, Lucy Walker, who was part of a group of six guides (including Christian Almer and Melchior Anderegg) and five clients, including her brother Horace Walker[

1871: First ascent by the southwest ridge, 14 July (Christian Almer, Christian Bohren, and Ulrich Almer guiding W. A. B. Coolidge and Meta Brevoort).

1890: First ascent in winter, Ulrich Kaufmann and Christian Jossi guiding C. W. Mead and G. F. Woodroffe.

1924: First ski ascent and descent via the Eiger glacier by Englishman Arnold Lunn and the Swiss Fritz Amacher, Walter Amstutz and Willy Richardet.

1932: First ascent of the northeast face ("Lauper route") by Hans Lauper, Alfred Zürcher, Alexander Graven and Josef Knubel

1970: First ski descent over the west flank, by Sylvain Saudan.

1986: Welshman Eric Jones becomes the first person to BASE jump from the Eiger.

1988: Original Route (ED2), north face, Eiger (3970m), Alps, Switzerland, first American solo (nine and a half hours) by Mark Wilford.

1991: First ascent, Metanoia Route, North Face, solo, winter, without bolts, Jeff Lowe.

1992 (18 July): Three BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA clients died in a fall down the West Flank: Willie Dunnachie; Douglas Gaines; and Phillip Davies. They had ascended the mountain via the Mittellegi Ridge.

2006 (14 June): François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger.

2006 (15 July): Approximately 700,000 cubic metres (20 million cubic feet) of rock from the east side collapses. No injuries or damage were reported.

2015 (23 July): A team of British Para-Climbers reached the summit via the West Flank Route. The team included John Churcher, the world's first blind climber to summit the Eiger, sight guided by the team leader Mark McGowan. Colin Gourlay enabled the ascent of other team members, including Al Taylor who has multiple sclerosis, and the young autistic climber Jamie Owen from North Wales. The ascent was filmed by the adventure filmmakers Euan Ryan & Willis Morris of Finalcrux Films.

 

Books and films

 

The 1959 book The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer describes the first successful ascent of the Eiger north face.

The Climb Up To Hell, 1962, by Jack Olson, an account of the ill-fated 1957 attempted climb of the north face by an Italian four-man team and the dramatic rescue of the sole survivor mounted by an international all-volunteer group of rescuers.

Eiger Direct, 1966, by Dougal Haston and Peter Gillman, London: Collins, also known as Direttissima; the Eiger Assault

The 1971 novel The Ice Mirror by Charles MacHardy describes the second attempted ascent of the Eiger north face by the main character.

The 1972 novel The Eiger Sanction is an action/thriller novel by Rodney William Whitaker (writing under the pseudonym Trevanian), based around the climbing of the Eiger. This was then made into the 1975 film The Eiger Sanction starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy. The Eiger Sanction film crew included very experienced mountaineers (e.g., Mike Hoover, Dougal Haston, and Hamish MacInnes, see Summit, 52, Spring 2010) as consultants, to ensure accuracy in the climbing footage, equipment and techniques.

The Eiger, 1974, by Dougal Haston, London: Cassell

The 1982 book Eiger, Wall of Death by Arthur Roth is an historical account of first ascents of the north face.

The 1982 book Traverse of The Gods by Bob Langley is a World War II spy thriller where a group escaping from Nazi Germany is trapped and the only possible exit route is via the Nordwand.

Eiger, 1983, a documentary film by Leo Dickinson of Eric Jones' 1981 solo ascent of the north face.

Eiger Dreams, 1990, a collection of essays by Jon Krakauer, begins with an account of Krakauer's own attempt to climb the north face.

Eiger: The Vertical Arena (German edition, 1998; English edition, 2000), edited by Daniel Anker, a comprehensive climbing history of the north face authored by 17 climbers, with numerous photographs and illustrations.

The IMAX film The Alps features John Harlin III's climb up the north face in September 2005. Harlin's father, John Harlin II, set out 40 years earlier to attempt a direct route (the direttissima) up the 6,000-foot (1,800 m) face, the so-called "John Harlin route". At 1300 m, his rope broke, and he fell to his death. Composer James Swearingen created a piece named Eiger: Journey to the Summit in his memory.

The 2007 docu/drama film The Beckoning Silence featuring mountaineer Joe Simpson, recounting—with filmed reconstructions—the ill-fated 1936 expedition up the north face of the Eiger and how Heinrich Harrer's book The White Spider inspired him to take up climbing. The film followed Simpson's eponymous 2003 book. Those playing the parts of the original climbing team were Swiss mountain guides Roger Schäli (Toni Kurz), Simon Anthamatten (Andreas Hinterstoisser), Dres Abegglen (Willy Angerer) and Cyrille Berthod (Edi Rainer). The documentary won an Emmy Award the subsequent year.

The 2008 German historical fiction film Nordwand is based on the 1936 attempt to climb the Eiger north face. The film is about the two German climbers, Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser, involved in a competition with an Austrian duo to be the first to scale the north face of Eiger.

The 2010 documentary Eiger: Wall of Death by Steve Robinson.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

The Mönch (German pronunciation: [ˈmœnç] German: "monk") at 4,110 metres (13,480 ft) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland. Together with the Eiger and the Jungfrau, it forms a highly recognisable group of mountains, visible from far away.

 

The Mönch lies on the border between the cantons of Valais and Bern, and forms part of a mountain ridge between the Jungfrau and Jungfraujoch to the west, and the Eiger to the east. It is west of Mönchsjoch, a pass at 3,650 metres (11,980 ft), Mönchsjoch Hut, and north of the Jungfraufirn and Ewigschneefäld, two affluents of the Great Aletsch Glacier. The north side of the Mönch forms a step wall above the Lauterbrunnen valley.

 

The Jungfrau railway tunnel runs right under the summit, at an elevation of approximately 3,300 metres (10,830 ft).

 

The summit was first climbed on record on 15 August 1857 by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann (1831-1861), Ulrich Kaufmann and Sigismund Porges.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

The Jungfrau (YOONG-frow, German pronunciation: [ˈjʊŋˌfʁaʊ̯], transl. "maiden, virgin"), at 4,158 meters (13,642 ft) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall of mountains overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps.

 

The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811, by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened.

 

The construction of the Jungfrau Railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.

 

Etymology

 

The name Jungfrau ("maiden, virgin"), which refers to the highest of the three prominent mountains overlooking the Interlaken region, along with the Mönch ("monk") and the Eiger ("ogre"), is most likely derived from the name Jungfrauenberg given to Wengernalp, the alpine meadow directly facing the huge northern side of the Jungfrau, across the Trummelbach gorge. Wengernalp was so named for the nuns of Interlaken Monastery, its historical owner. Contrary to popular belief, the name did not originate from the appearance of the snow-covered mountain, the latter looking like a veiled woman.

 

The "virgin" peak was heavily romanticized as "goddess" or "priestess" in late 18th to 19th century Romanticism. Its summit, considered inaccessible, remained untouched until the 19th century. After the first ascent in 1811 by Swiss alpinist Johann Rudolf Meyer, the peak was jokingly referred to as "Mme Meyer" (Mrs. Meyer).

 

Geographic setting

 

Politically, the Jungfrau (and its massif) is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km (7.5 and 5 mi) away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m (11,800 ft) between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.

 

The Jungfrau is the westernmost and highest point of a gigantic 10 km (6.2 mi) wall dominating the valleys of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. The wall is formed by the alignment of some of the biggest north faces in the Alps, with the Mönch (4,107 m or 13,474 ft) and Eiger (3,967 m or 13,015 ft) to the east of the Jungfrau, and overlooks the valleys to its north by a height of up to 3 km (1.9 mi). The Jungfrau is approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) from the Eiger; with the summit of the Mönch between the two mountains, 3.5 km (2.2 mi) from the Jungfrau. The Jungfraujoch is the saddle between the Jungfrau and the Mönch and the Eigerjoch is the saddle between the Mönch and the Eiger. The wall is extended to the east by the Fiescherwand and to the west by the Lauterbrunnen Wall, although it follows different directions from the Jungfrau and the Eiger.

 

The difference of altitude between the deep valley of Lauterbrunnen (800 m or 2,600 ft) and the summit is particularly visible from the area of Mürren. From the valley floor, west of the massif, the altitude gain is more than 3 km (1.9 mi) for a horizontal distance of 4 km (2.5 mi).

 

The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. In contrast to the vertiginous precipices of its northwest, the mountain's southeastern side emerges from the upper snows of the Jungfraufirn, one of the main feeders of the Aletsch Glacier, at around 3,500 meters (11,500 ft). The 20-kilometer-long (12 mi) valley of Aletsch on the southeast is completely uninhabited, and is surrounded by neighboring valleys with similar landscapes. The area as a whole constitutes the largest glaciated area not just in the Alps, but in Europe as well.

 

Climbing history

 

In 1811, the brothers Johann Rudolf (1768–1825) and Hieronymus Meyer, sons of Johann Rudolf Meyer (1739–1813), the head of a rich merchant family of Aarau, along with several servants and a porter picked up at Guttannen, first reached the Valais by way of the Grimsel, and crossed the Beich Pass, a glacier pass over the Oberaletsch Glacier, to the head of the Lötschen valley. There, they added two local chamois hunters, Alois Volken and Joseph Bortis, to their party and traversed the Lötschenlücke before reaching the Aletschfirn (the west branch of the Aletsch Glacier), where they established the base camp, north of the Aletschhorn. After the Guttannen porter was sent back alone over the Lötschenlücke, the party finally reached the summit of the Jungfrau by the Rottalsattel on August 3. They then recrossed the two passes named to their point of departure in Valais, and went home again over the Grimsel.

 

The journey was a most extraordinary one for the time, and some persons threw doubts at its complete success. To settle these, another expedition was undertaken in 1812. In this the two sons, Rudolf (1791–1833) and Gottlieb (1793–1829), of Johann Rudolf Meyer, played the chief parts. After an unsuccessful attempt, defeated by bad weather, in the course of which the Oberaarjoch was crossed twice (this route being much more direct than the long detour through the Lötschental), Rudolf, with the two Valais hunters (Alois Volker and Joseph Bortis), a Guttannen porter named Arnold Abbühl, and a Hasle man, bivouacked on a depression on the southeast ridge of the Finsteraarhorn. Next day (August 16) the whole party attempted the ascent of the Finsteraarhorn from the Studer névé on the east by way of the southeast ridge, but Meyer, exhausted, remained behind. The following day the party crossed the Grünhornlücke to the Aletsch Glacier, but bad weather then put an end to further projects. At a bivouac, probably just opposite the present Konkordia Hut, the rest of the party, having come over the Oberaarjoch and the Grünhornlücke, joined the Finsteraarhorn party. Gottlieb, Rudolf's younger brother, had more patience than the rest and remained longer at the huts near the Märjelensee, where the adventurers had taken refuge. He could make the second ascent (September 3) of the Jungfrau, the Rottalsattel being reached from the east side as is now usual, and his companions being the two Valais hunters.

 

The third ascent dates from 1828, when several men from Grindelwald, headed by Peter Baumann, planted their flag upon the summit. Next came the ascent by Louis Agassiz, James David Forbes, Heath, Desor, and Duchatelier in 1841, recounted by Desor in his Excursions et Séjours dans les Glaciers. Gottlieb Samuel Studer published an account of the next ascent made by himself and Bürki in 1842.

 

In 1863, a party consisting of three young Oxford University graduates and three Swiss guides successfully reached the summit and returned to the base camp of the Faulberg (located near the present position of the Konkordia Hut) in less than 11 hours (see the section below, The 1863 Ascent). In the same year Mrs Stephen Winkworth became the first woman to climb the Jungfrau. She also slept overnight in the Faulberg cave prior to the ascent as there was no hut at that time.

 

Before the construction of the Jungfraujoch railway tunnel, the approach from the glaciers on the south side was very long. The first direct route from the valley of Lauterbrunnen was opened in 1865 by Geoffrey Winthrop Young, H. Brooke George with the guide Christian Almer. They had to carry ladders with them in order to cross the many crevasses on the north flank. Having spent the night on the rocks of the Schneehorn (3,402 m or 11,161 ft) they gained next morning the Silberlücke, the depression between the Jungfrau and Silberhorn, and thence in little more than three hours reached the summit. Descending to the Aletsch Glacier they crossed the Mönchsjoch, and passed a second night on the rocks, reaching Grindelwald next day. This route became a usual until the opening of the Jungfraujoch.

 

The first winter ascent was made on 23 January 1874, by Meta Brevoort and W. A. B. Coolidge with guides Christian and Ulrich Almer. They used a sled to reach the upper Aletsch Glacier, and were accompanied by Miss Brevoort's favorite dog, Tschingel.

 

The Jungfrau was climbed via the west side for the first time in 1885 by Fritz and Heinrich von Allmen, Ulrich Brunner, Fritz Graf, Karl Schlunegger and Johann Stäger—all from Wengen. They ascended the Rottal ridge (Innere Rottalgrat) and reached the summit on 21 September. The more difficult and dangerous northeast ridge that connects the summit from the Jungfraujoch was first climbed on 30 July 1911 by Albert Weber and Hans Schlunegger.

 

In July 2007, six Swiss Army recruits, part of the Mountain Specialists Division 1, died in an accident on the normal route. Although the causes of the deaths was not immediately clear, a report by the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research concluded that the avalanche risk was unusually high due to recent snowfall, and that there was "no other reasonable explanation" other than an avalanche for the incident.

 

The 1863 Ascent

 

The Führerbuch of the Alpine guide Peter Baumann records an ascent of the Jungfrau made by himself with three men from England in July 1863. The foreign climbers were long thought to have been John Tyndall, J.J. Hornby and T.H. Philpott, until in 1958 the records were checked by the Alpine Club and the following conclusion was reached:

 

On July 23, 1963, Phillpotts, with James Robertson and H.J. Chaytor, climbed the Jungfrau (the entry shown in A.J. 32. 227 was wrongly transcribed by Montagnier, who says ‘T.H. Philpott’ for J.S. Phillpotts). The entry in Peter Baumann’s Führerbuch (facsimile in A.C. archives) says that the trio crossed the Strahlegg Pass and the Oberaarjoch, and then climbed the Jungfrau from the Eggishorn.

 

Tyndall, Hornby and Philpott were well-known Alpinists, but there is no record of their having attempted the Jungfrau in 1863. Robertson, Chaytor and Phillpotts were novices; they had recently graduated from Oxford University where they had all been keen members of the Oxford University Boat Club.

 

William Robertson (1839–1892), the leader of the expedition (wrongly called ‘James’ in the Note quoted above), was an Australian by birth, and the first non-British national to take part in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. He later became a barrister and member of parliament in Australia. He and H.J. Chaytor (possibly the father of the medievalist Henry John Chaytor) were both members of the victorious Oxford team in the 1861 Boat Race. James Surtees Phillpotts (1839–1930) was the third member of the team; he would later become headmaster of Bedford School. The trio had three Swiss guides, Peter Baumann, Peter Kaufmann ("Grabipeter", father of Peter Kaufmann the younger) and Rubi.

 

A description of the ascent of the Jungfrau is contained in a letter dated Sunday 26 July which Phillpotts wrote to his friend Alexander Potts (later to become the first headmaster of Fettes College). The letter is now in the possession of the Alpine Club. The following extracts are from that letter.

 

The Virgin certainly did not smile on the poor "fools who rushed in" on her sacred heights, i.e. in plain British, we had the treadmill slog, the biting wind, the half frost-bitten feet and the flayed faces that generally attend an Alpine ascent.

 

We got to the Faulberg hole about dark, and enjoyed the coffee the longman (Kauffmann) made, as one would in a hole in a rock in a cold evening. The "Faulberg Nachtlager" consists of two holes and a vestibule to the upper hole. The Upper Hole in which we lodged just contained Chay[tor], the Guv [Robertson] and myself, stretched at full length on a little hay over a hard rock mattress, convex instead of concave at the point where one likes to rest one's weight. Chaytor was in the middle, and as we were very close was warm and slept. The Guv and I courted Nature's soft nurse in vain. At two we got up and methodically put our feet into the stocks, i.e. our boots, breakfasted and shivered, then started (unwashed of course, as the cold gave us malignant hydrophobia) a little after 3:30.

 

The hole was about 150 feet [46 m] up one of the loose stone cliffs one now knows so well. So we groped our way down it and over the moraine – the stars still lingering, as day was just dawning. We could not start at 1:30, the proper time, as there was no moon and we wanted light as we had to tramp the glacier at once. Rubi led, and off we went, roped and in Indian file, in the old treadmill way over the slippery plowed-field-like snow that lay on the upper glacier, for a pull without a check of one or two hours.

 

At last we came to the region of bergschrunds and crevasses. They seemed to form at first an impassable labyrinth, but gradually the guides wound in and out between the large rifts, which were exquisitely lovely with their overhanging banks of snow and glittering icicles, and then trod as on pins and needles over a snowbridge here and there, or had to take a jump over the more feasible ones – and we found ourselves at the foot of the mountain; trudged up on the snow which ought to have been crisp but was even then more or less fresh fallen and sloppy; had to creep over about three crevasses, and after a tiresome pull, dragging one leg after another out of ankle or knee deep snow, we got on a crest of snow at right angles to the slope we had just come up. That slope with its crevasses on one side, and on the other a shorter and much steeper one which led in a few steps to a precipice.

 

All along this crest went a snakelike long crevasse, for which we had continually to sound, and go first one side and then the other; then we got to the foot of the saddle. Some twenty or thirty steps, some cut, some uncut, soon took us up a kind of hollow, and we got on a little sloping plateau of some six feet [1.8 m] large, where we left the grub and the knapsack, keeping my small flask of cognac only. Then up a steep ice slope, very steep I should say, down which the bits of ice cut out of the steps hopped and jumped at full gallop and then bounded over to some bottomless place which we could not see down. Their pace gave one an unpleasant idea of the possible consequence of a slip.

 

Here we encountered a biting bitter wind. Peter Baumann cut magnificent steps, at least he and Rubi did between them, the one improving on the other's first rough blows. After Rubi came Chaytor with Kauffmann behind him, then the Guv, and then myself, the tail of the string. Each step was a long lift from the last one, and as the snow was shallow they had to be cut in the ice which was like rock on this last slope.

 

Suddenly there burst upon us, on lifting our heads over the ridge, the green and cheerful valleys of Lauterbrunnen and Interlaken, of Grindelwald and a distant view of others equally beautiful stretching on for ever in one vast panorama. On the other side in grim contrast there was a wild and even awful scene. One gazed about one and tried in vain to see to the bottom of dark yawning abysses and sheer cliffs of ice or rock.

 

Tourism

 

Named after the Jungfrau, the Jungfrau Region of the Bernese Oberland is a major tourist destination in the Alps and includes a large number of railways and other facilities. While the mountain peak was once difficult to access, the Jungfrau Railway, a rack railway, now goes to the Jungfraujoch railway station at 3,454 m (11,332 ft), therefore providing an easy access to the upper Aletsch Glacier and a relatively short access to the Jungfrau itself, the height difference between the station and the summit being only 704 metres and the horizontal distance being slightly less than 2 kilometres. As a result, in the popular mind, the Jungfrau has become a mountain associated with the Bernese Oberland and Interlaken, rather than with Upper Valais and Fiesch.

 

In 1893, Adolf Guyer-Zeller conceived of the idea of a railway tunnel to the Jungfraujoch to make the glaciated areas on its south side more accessible. The building of the tunnel took 16 years and the summit station was not opened before 1912. The goal was in fact to reach the summit of the Jungfrau with an elevator from the highest railway station, located inside the mountain. The complete project was not realized because of the outbreak of the World War I. Nevertheless, it was at the time one of the highest railways in the world and remains today the highest in Europe and the only (non-cable) railway on Earth going well past the perennial snow-line.

 

The Jungfrau Railway leaves from Kleine Scheidegg, which can be reached from both sides by trains from Grindelwald, and Lauterbrunnen via Wengen. The train enters the Jungfrau Tunnel running eastward through the Eiger just above Eigergletscher, which is, since 2020, also accessible by aerial tramway from Grindelwald. Before arriving at the Jungfraujoch, it stops for a few minutes at two other stations, Eigerwand (on the north face of the Eiger) and Eismeer (on the south side), where passengers can see through the holes excavated from the mountain. The journey from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch takes approximately 50 minutes including the stops; the downhill return journey taking only 35 minutes.

 

A large complex of tunnels and buildings has been constructed at the Jungfraujoch, referred to as the "Top of Europe". There are several restaurants and bars, shops, multimedia exhibitions, a post office, and a research station with dedicated accommodation facilities. An elevator enables access to the top of the Sphinx and its observatory, at 3,571 m (11,716 ft), the highest viewing platform of the area. Outside, at the level of the Jungfraujoch, there is a ski school, and the "Ice Palace", a collection of elaborate ice sculptures displayed inside the Aletsch Glacier. Another tunnel leads to the east side of the Sphinx, where one can walk on the glacier up to the Mönchsjoch Hut, the only hotel infrastructure in the area.

 

Apart from the Jungfraujoch, many facilities have been built in the Jungfrau Region, including numerous mountain railways. In 1908, the first public cable car in the world, the Wetterhorn Elevator, opened at the foot of the Wetterhorn, but was closed seven years later. The Schilthorn above Mürren, the Männlichen above Wengen, and the Schynige Platte above Wilderswil, offer good views of the Jungfrau and the Lauterbrunnen valley. On the south side, the Eggishorn above Fiesch also offers views of the Jungfrau, across the Aletsch Glacier.

 

Climbing routes

 

The normal route follows the traces of the first climbers, but the long approach on the Aletsch Glacier is no longer necessary. From the area of the Jungfraujoch the route to the summit takes only a few hours. Most climbers start from the Mönchsjoch Hut. After a traverse of the Jungfraufirn the route heads to the Rottalsattel (3,885 m or 12,746 ft), from where the southern ridge leads to the Jungfrau. It is not considered a very difficult climb but it can be dangerous on the upper section above the Rottalsattel, where most accidents happen. The use of the Jungfrau Railway instead of the much more gradual approach from Fiesch (or Fieschertal), via the Konkordia Hut, can cause some acclimatization troubles as the difference of altitude between the railway stations of Interlaken and Jungfraujoch is almost 3 km (1.9 mi).

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Das Morgenberghorn ist ein 2249 m ü. M. hoher Berg am Südufer des Thunersees im Berner Oberland in der Schweiz. Es liegt im Westen des Saxettals.

 

Der Gipfel des Morgenberghorns ist nur zu Fuss erreichbar. Der Aufstieg erfordert keine Bergsteigerkenntnisse, jedoch Trittsicherheit. Aufstiegsmöglichkeiten bestehen ab Leissigen und Aeschi über den Nordwestgrat und von Saxeten aus über den Rengglipass und den Südgrat. Der Nordostgrat von Interlaken aus weist sehr schmale und ausgesetzte Stellen auf und ist keine offizielle Aufstiegsroute.

 

Südlich des Morgenbergs erhebt sich die Schwalmere (2777 m ü. M.), durch den Rengglipass (1879 m ü. M.) getrennt.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

The Morgenberghorn is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland. It lies at the northern end of the chain between the valleys of Frutigen and Lauterbrunnen, north of the Schwalmere.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Der Eiger ist ein Berg in den Berner Alpen mit einer Höhe von 3967 m ü. M. Er ist dem Hauptkamm der Berner Alpen etwas nördlich vorgelagert und steht vollständig auf dem Territorium des Schweizer Kantons Bern. Zusammen mit Mönch und Jungfrau, deren Gipfel auf der Grenze zum Kanton Wallis liegen, dominiert der Eiger die Landschaft des zentralen Berner Oberlandes. Die etwa 3000 Meter über dem Tal aufragenden Nordflanken dieser Berge stellen die Schauseite einer der bekanntesten je als ein «Dreigestirn» bezeichneten Gipfel-Dreiergruppen in den Alpen dar.

 

Insbesondere die Nordwand des Eigers fasziniert sowohl Bergsteiger als auch Alpin-Laien. Durch dramatische Begehungsversuche und gelungene Begehungen dieser Wand wurde der Eiger weltweit bekannt und immer wieder ins Blickfeld der Öffentlichkeit gerückt – nicht zuletzt, da die gesamte Wand von Grindelwald und der Bahnstation Kleine Scheidegg aus einsehbar ist. Die Jungfraubahn mit ihrem Tunnel durch den Eigerfels ist seit ihrer Eröffnung im Jahr 1912 ein Touristenmagnet.

 

Namensherkunft

 

Die erste urkundliche Erwähnung des Eigers stammt aus dem Jahre 1252 – dies ist die zweitfrüheste urkundliche Erwähnung eines Schweizer Bergs nach dem Bietschhorn (1233). Am 24. Juli 1252 wurde in einer Verkaufsurkunde zwischen Ita von Wädiswyl und der Propstei Interlaken ein Grundstück mit den Worten «ad montem qui nominatur Egere» (dt.: Bis zum Berg, der Eiger genannt wird) abgegrenzt. Ein halbes Jahrhundert später wird der Eiger in einem Belehnungsbrief erstmals in deutscher Sprache erwähnt: «under Eigere».

 

Für die Herkunft des Namens gibt es drei gängige Erklärungen. Eine erste ist der althochdeutsche Name Agiger oder Aiger, wie der erste Siedler unterhalb des Eigers geheissen haben soll. Der Berg über dessen Weiden wurde deshalb Aigers Geissberg oder auch nur Geissberg genannt. Hieraus entwickelten sich dann im Laufe der Zeit die direkten Vorgänger der heutigen Bezeichnung. Die Herkunft des Namens könnte auch von dem lateinischen Wort acer kommen, woraus sich im Französischen aigu entwickelte. Beide Worte haben die Bedeutung scharf beziehungsweise spitz – in Anlehnung an die Form des Eigers. Die dritte Erklärung stammt von der früher gebräuchlichen Schreibweise Heiger, was sich aus dem Dialektausdruck «dr hej Ger» entwickelt haben könnte (hej bedeutet hoch, Ger war ein germanischer Wurfspiess). Wiederum wäre hier die Form des Eigers ausschlaggebend für seine Bezeichnung.

 

Im Zusammenhang mit dem Eiger wird auch des Öfteren die Namensähnlichkeit mit dem Oger, einem menschenähnlichen Unhold, genannt. In Anlehnung an das Dreigestirn «Eiger–Mönch–Jungfrau» gibt es die Erzählung, der Unhold Eiger wolle seine lüsternen Pranken auf die Jungfrau legen, woran er aber vom fröhlichen Mönch gehindert werde. Zu dieser Geschichte sind in Grindelwald alte Karikaturen und neuere Postkarten zu kaufen.

 

Lage und Umgebung

 

Der Eiger erhebt sich direkt südwestlich von Grindelwald (Amtsbezirk Interlaken). Die bekannte Nordwand ist genaugenommen eine Nordwestwand. Neben dieser existiert in der berühmten «Eiger-Nordansicht» auch noch die Nordostwand. Sie bildet die Basis für den scharfen Mittellegigrat, der vom Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher zum Gipfel zieht. Auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite begrenzt der Westgrat die Nordwand. Ihm folgt die Westflanke, in welcher sich der Eigergletscher und der Klein Eiger befinden. An diesen schliessen sich der Südwestgrat und noch ein Stück östlicher der Südgrat an, der wiederum die Südostwand begrenzt, welche bis zum Mittellegigrat reicht. Südöstlich des Eigers liegt der Grindelwald-Fieschergletscher.

 

In der Umgebung des Eigers befinden sich einige Viertausender des Aarmassivs. Im Osten ist er umgeben von Schreckhorn (4078 m ü. M.) und Lauteraarhorn (4042 m ü. M.), im Südosten vom Grossen Fiescherhorn (4049 m ü. M.), und im Südwesten ist der Mönch (4107 m ü. M.) durch das Nördliche und Südliche Eigerjoch vom Eiger getrennt. Zusammen mit dem Mönch und der Jungfrau (4158 m ü. M.) bildet der Eiger das «Dreigestirn», bei dem der Eiger den nordöstlichen und die Jungfrau den südwestlichen Endpunkt bildet. Entgegen der steil abfallenden Nordseite des Berges befindet sich im Süden des Eigers die Hochfläche und Gletscherwelt der Berner Alpen. Seit Ende 2001 gehört der Eiger zum Gebiet des UNESCO-Weltnaturerbes Schweizer Alpen Jungfrau-Aletsch.

 

Geologie

 

Der Eiger ist ein Teil des helvetischen Systems, das im Grossraum um den Thunersee die Decken des Alpennordrandes bildet. In einer späten Phase der alpidischen Gebirgsfaltung wurden die helvetischen Kalk-Sedimente von ihrer kristallinen Basis abgeschürft und in Form einer Abscherungsdecke nach Nordwesten verschoben. Während des Faltungsprozesses in der Alpenentstehung brachen die Kalkbänke auf und Kluft- sowie Faltensysteme entstanden, die später mit ausgefälltem Calcit geschlossen wurden. Wichtigste Bestandteile der Sedimente sind der Schrattenkalk der Kreidezeit und der Malmkalk. Als Füll- und Schmiermaterial dienten Mergel und Tonschiefer.

 

Die klar erkennbare Faltung des Helvetikums mit seinen gebänderten, plattigen Kalkschichten zeigt sich auch am Eiger. Das Massiv des Eigers besteht komplett aus Kalk der helvetischen Zone und schliesst die Flyschschichten und die Molasse des Grindelwaldbeckens steil nach Süden hin ab. Weil der Talkessel von Grindelwald so reich gegliedert ist, finden hier die verschiedensten Tiere einen Lebensraum.[6] Südlich des Eigers schliesst sich das Aarmassiv mit seinem Innertkirchner-Lauterbrunner-Kristallin an. Teilweise hat sich dieses über die Sedimente des Eiger geschoben. Im Bereich des Mönchs treffen die Sedimente auf Altkristallin. Die typischen Gesteine des helvetischen Systems im Bereich des Eigers entstanden während des Jura, dem mittleren Zeitabschnitts des Mesozoikums. Der vorherrschende Kalk ist dabei mit verschiedenen Gesteinen durchmischt. Es zeigen sich Mergel-Kalke und -Schiefer, Ton-Schiefer, Eisenoolith sowie kalkige Sandsteine.

 

Die Kalkschichten des Eigers lagern auf Gneis und sind um 60–70° nach Norden geneigt. Geprägt wurde die heutige Form des Eigers durch die Eiszeiten. Während der Riss-Kaltzeit reichte die Vergletscherung bis an den Fuss der Nordwand. In der Würm-Kaltzeit war die Mächtigkeit des Eises um 200 Meter geringer. Durch die Bewegung der Gletscher wurde die Erdoberfläche umgestaltet. Vom Eis überlagerte Landschaften wurden abgeschliffen, wohingegen unbedeckte Bereiche durch Verwitterung und andere Formen der Erosion verändert wurden. Mit dem Rückzug des Eises änderten sich auch die Druckverhältnisse im Gestein, was sich durch Entlastungsbewegungen formgebend auswirkte. Prägend für den Eiger und seine Form war die allseitige Umlagerung von Eismassen, welche für einen recht gleichmässigen und markanten Abrieb aller Wände sorgte. Darüber hinaus war die Nordwand durch ihre Exposition den Abtragungsprozessen wie Frostverwitterung mehr ausgesetzt.

 

Felssturz

 

2006 ereignete sich am Eiger ein grosser Bergsturz, der öffentliches Interesse auf sich zog. An der Ostseite des Berges, unterhalb des Mittellegigrates, war durch Felsbewegungen ein rund 250 Meter langer Spalt entstanden, der eine Breite von etwa 7 Metern erreichte.Danach senkten sich die äusseren Teile mehrere Zentimeter pro Tag ab. Eine Ursache dieser Felsabspaltung könnte sowohl das massive Eindringen von Schmelzwasser in den Felsen gewesen sein, als auch eine Instabilität des Gesteins durch den Rückgang des Gletschers unterhalb des Felsabbruchs infolge der globalen Erwärmung. Am 13. Juli 2006 um 19:24 Uhr stürzten rund 500'000 Kubikmeter Felsbrocken auf den Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher. Über der Gemeinde Grindelwald schwebte stundenlang eine Staubwolke. Bereits am Nachmittag desselben Tages war die sogenannte «Madonna vom Eiger» zu Tal gestürzt. Hierbei handelte es sich um einen ungefähr 30 Meter hohen schlanken Felsturm mit rund 600 Kubikmeter Volumen.

 

Seit diesen Ereignissen wird die Felsnase (Gesamtvolumen: ungefähr eine Million Kubikmeter Gestein), aus der die Gesteinsmasse abbrach, von der Universität Lausanne beobachtet. Die Beobachtungen ergaben, dass sich die Nase von Juli 2007 bis August 2008 auf einer nach Osten geneigten Gleitfläche um 15 Meter talwärts bewegte. Zusätzlich kippte die Gesteinsmasse um zwei Grad nach Nordosten. Die Kluft zwischen Berg und Felsbrocken betrug im August 2008 50 Meter. Immer wieder brechen Gesteinsteile ab und stürzen zu Tal. Gebremst und stabilisiert wird die Masse vom Gletschereis, in das die Felsnase gleitet. Dies verhindert, dass die Nase als kompakte Masse zu Tal stürzt. So gilt es als wahrscheinlicher, dass der Gesteinsblock in sich selbst zusammenfallen wird.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Der Mönch ist ein 4107 m ü. M. hoher Berg der Berner Alpen in der Schweiz. Zusammen mit dem Eiger und der Jungfrau bildet er eine markante, von weit her sichtbare Dreiergruppe, ein sogenanntes „Dreigestirn“.

 

Seine Erstbesteigung fand am 15. August 1857 durch Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann und Sigismund Porges statt.

 

Südöstlich des Mönch liegt die Mönchsjochhütte, eine 3657 m ü. M. hoch gelegene Berghütte wenig oberhalb des oberen Mönchsjochs, das den Mönch vom Trugberg trennt.

 

Höhenbestimmung

 

1935 wurde die Höhe des Mönchs mit 4099 m ü. M. bestimmt. Diese Zahl ist noch heute häufig in der Literatur zu finden. 1993 ergaben jedoch Messungen per Luftfotogrammetrie eine Höhe von 4107 m ü. M.. Daraufhin wurde der Wert auf der Landeskarte der Schweiz korrigiert. Mit einer Messung per GPS ermittelte man 1997 eine Höhe von 4109,4 m ü. M.; und bei einer erneuten luftfotogrammetrischen Messung von 1999 resultierte sogar eine Höhe von 4110 m ü. M.. Diese neuen Messwerte wurden jedoch nicht auf den amtlichen Karten berücksichtigt. Für diese abweichenden Werte sind nicht nur Messfehler verantwortlich, sondern auch die Tatsache, dass der Mönch eine Kuppe aus Firn besitzt, welche in den letzten Jahren gewachsen ist.

 

Name

 

Am Fusse des Mönchs befinden sich Alpweiden, auf welchen früher Wallache, sogenannte „Münche“, gesömmert wurden. So hat man den über den Münchenalpen gelegenen Berg Münchenberg genannt und schliesslich nur noch Münch oder Mönch.

 

Routen

 

Südarm des Ostgrates (Normalroute)

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS-, mit II. UIAA-Grad Felskletterei

Zeitaufwand: 2½–3½ Std. von der Mönchsjochhütte, 3–4 Std. vom Jungfraujoch

Ausgangspunkt: Mönchsjochhütte (3657 m ü. M.)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m ü. M.)

 

Südwestgrat

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS-, mit III-. UIAA-Grad Felskletterei

Zeitaufwand: 3–4 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Jungfraujoch (3454 m ü. M.)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m ü. M.)

 

Nordostarm des Ostgrates

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS, mit III+. UIAA-Grad Felskletterei

Zeitaufwand: 4–5 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Mönchsjochhütte (3657 m ü. M.)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m ü. M.)

 

Nordostgrat

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS

Zeitaufwand: 4–5 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Mönchsjochhütte (3657 m ü. M.)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m ü. M.)

 

Nordwestbollwerk (Nollen)

 

Schwierigkeit: S

Zeitaufwand: 6–10 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Guggihütte (2791 m ü. M.)

Talort: Kleine Scheidegg (2061 m ü. M.)

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Die Jungfrau ist ein Berg in der Schweiz. Sie ist mit 4158 m ü. M. der dritthöchste Berg der Berner Alpen und bildet zusammen mit Eiger und Mönch eine markante Dreiergruppe, ein sogenanntes «Dreigestirn».

 

Am 13. Dezember 2001 wurde die Jungfrau zusammen mit südlich angrenzenden Gebieten als Schweizer Alpen Jungfrau-Aletsch in die Liste als UNESCO-Weltnaturerbe aufgenommen.

 

Lage und Umgebung

 

Über den Jungfrau-Gipfel verläuft die Grenze zwischen den Kantonen Bern und Wallis. Der Berg ist ausserordentlich vielgestaltig. Im Norden und Nordwesten, auf ihrer „weiblichen“ Schauseite (vgl. Foto) sind ihr Wengen-Jungfrau, Schneehorn, das Silberhorn, das Chly Silberhoren und der „Schwarzmönch“ vorgelagert sowie die zerrissenen Kühlauenen- und Giessengletscher. Im Westen erhebt sie sich fast eisfrei volle 3250 Meter über dem hinteren Lauterbrunnental. Es ist dies (nach dem Mont Blanc) der zweithöchste direkte Abhang in den Alpen. Ihre Südwand erhebt sich über dem versteckten Rottalgletscher und ihre Ostwand über den Firnen am Jungfraujoch.

 

Die Pläne, auf die Jungfrau eine Bergbahn zu bauen, wurden aufgrund finanzieller Schwierigkeiten nicht realisiert. Die ursprünglich bis unter den Gipfel geplante Jungfraubahn wurde bis 1912 mit Endstation Jungfraujoch fertiggestellt.

 

Auf dem untersten Absatz des Nordostgrats haben die PTT einen Funk-Umsetzer auf 3777 m ü. M. installiert.

 

Geologie

 

Die Jungfrau liegt im nördlichen Randbereich des Aarmassivs, eines der sogenannten Zentralmassive der Schweizer Alpen. Ihre höheren Lagen (Silberhorn, Wengen-Jungfrau und Hauptgipfel) sowie ihre Westflanke bis hinunter zum oberen Ende des Lauterbrunnentals sind weit überwiegend aus kristallinem Grundgebirge (prä-triassische Gneise, Glimmerschiefer u. ä.) der Helvetischen Zone aufgebaut. Die Nordwestflanke hingegen, der ganze «Vorbau» (Schwarzmönch, Rotbrett und Schneehorn) besteht aus sedimentärem, überwiegend jurassischem und kretazischem Deckgebirge des Helvetikums. Eine Besonderheit der Jungfrau ist, dass dort zwischen dem prinzipiell autochthonen Gipfel-Kristallin und dessen Deckschichten ein Überschiebungs-kontakt besteht; somit ist das Grundgebirge geringfügig auf sein Deckgebirge überschoben worden.

 

Name

 

Der Name Jungfrau dürfte sich von der Wengernalp am Fusse des Berges ableiten, die – nach den Besitzerinnen, den Nonnen vom Kloster Interlaken – früher Jungfrauenberg genannt wurde. Einer anderen Quelle zufolge leitet sich der Name vom Aussehen des Nordhanges des Berges ab, der aus der Ferne dem Schleier eines Mädchens ähneln soll.

 

Nach dem Berg ist die Jungfrau-Region benannt, die Tourismusorganisation der Orte Grindelwald, Wengen, Mürren und Lauterbrunnen, ausserdem die Jungfraubahn Holding AG, die neben der Jungfraubahn selbst auch die anderen Bergbahnen in der Region betreibt.

 

Besteigungsgeschichte

 

Bergsteiger auf dem Gipfel im Jahr 1878

Erstbesteiger waren Johann Rudolf Meyer und sein Bruder Hieronymus mit den Führern Joseph Bortis und Alois Volken, die am 3. August 1811 vom Lötschental her den Berg von Süden erklommen hatten. Sie folgten ungefähr der heutigen Normalroute. Der Volksmund taufte daraufhin die bis dahin unberührte Jungfrau «Madame Meyer».

 

1874 erfolgte die Winter-Erstbesteigung durch die Alpinistin Margaret Claudia Brevoort.

 

Die Jungfrau gilt, obwohl leicht erreichbar, als unfallträchtiger Berg. Bei einem der schwersten Unglücke stürzten am 12. Juli 2007 sechs Rekruten der Gebirgsspezialisten-Rekrutenschule Andermatt vom Rottalsattel 1000 Meter auf den darunterliegenden Rottalgletscher in den Tod, nachdem sie eine Lawine ausgelöst hatten. Das urteilende Militärgericht ging von einem falsch eingeschätzten, heimtückischen Lawinenrisiko aus und sprach in der Folge die verantwortlichen Bergführer frei.

 

Routen

 

Rottalsattel und Südostgrat (Normalroute)

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS-

Zeitaufwand: 4–5 Std. von der Mönchsjochhütte, 3½–4½ Std. vom Jungfraujoch

Ausgangspunkt: Mönchsjochhütte (3657 m)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m)

 

Innere Rottalgrat

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS

Zeitaufwand: 6–7 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Rottalhütte (2755 m)

Talort: Stechelberg (919 m)

 

Nordwestgrat oder „Rotbrettgrat“

 

Schwierigkeit: S

Zeitaufwand: 8–12 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Silberhornhütte (2663 m)

Talort: Stechelberg (919 m)

 

Nordostgrat

 

Schwierigkeit: S+, mit IV. UIAA-Grad Felskletterei

Zeitaufwand: 8–10 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Jungfraujoch (3454 m)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m)

 

Kunst

 

Erwähnt ist die Jungfrau unter anderem bei Friedrich Schiller, Wilhelm Tell, Vers 628 (1804). Lord Byrons Drama Manfred (1817) spielt am Fuss und auf dem Gipfel des Massivs. Ferdinand Hodler hat die Jungfrau mehrfach gemalt, darunter die perspektivisch verfremdete «Jungfrau über dem Nebelmeer». Alex Diggelmann gab 1958 eine Lithographienmappe unter dem Titel Die Jungfrau, mein Berg heraus. Stephan Bundi gestaltete 2005 eine Schweizer Gedenkmünze mit dem Bergmotiv.

 

Im Januar 2012 wurde zum 100-jährigen bestehen der Jungfraubahn eine übergrosse Schweizer Flagge vom Lichtkünstler Gerry Hofstetter an den Gipfel projiziert. Zeitweise waren neben dem Schweizer Kreuz auch ein Porträt des Zürcher Unternehmers Adolf Guyer-Zeller sowie ein Bild von einem der Züge zu sehen.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Das Morgenberghorn ist ein 2249 m ü. M. hoher Berg am Südufer des Thunersees im Berner Oberland in der Schweiz. Es liegt im Westen des Saxettals.

 

Der Gipfel des Morgenberghorns ist nur zu Fuss erreichbar. Der Aufstieg erfordert keine Bergsteigerkenntnisse, jedoch Trittsicherheit. Aufstiegsmöglichkeiten bestehen ab Leissigen und Aeschi über den Nordwestgrat und von Saxeten aus über den Rengglipass und den Südgrat. Der Nordostgrat von Interlaken aus weist sehr schmale und ausgesetzte Stellen auf und ist keine offizielle Aufstiegsroute.

 

Südlich des Morgenbergs erhebt sich die Schwalmere (2777 m ü. M.), durch den Rengglipass (1879 m ü. M.) getrennt.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Das Saxettal ist ein Tal am Nordrand der Berner Alpen in der Schweiz.

 

Geografie

 

Das Tal liegt zum grössten Teil im Gebiet der Gemeinde Saxeten und hat eine Länge von acht Kilometern. Es befindet sich im nordwestlichen Teil der Lütschinentäler und ist von Südwesten nach Nordosten gerichtet. Der Saxetbach mündet bei Wilderswil in die Lütschine. Das Gebiet der Gemeinde Wilderswil umfasst den unteren Abschnitt des Tales und des Saxetbachs.

 

Im Südosten, im Süden und im Nordwesten ist das Tal von hohen Bergketten abgeschlossen. Zur Bergreihe im Südosten, die das Saxettal vom Soulstal abgrenzt, gehören der Bällehöchst (2095 m ü. M.), die Sulegg (2413 m ü. M.) und das Kleine Lobhorn (2519 m ü. M.). Der nördliche Vorgipfel der Schwalmere (2725 m ü. M.) im Süden ist die höchste Erhebung am Saxettal. Das Morgenberghorn (2249 m ü. M.) liegt ganz im Westen des Tals. Den Sattel zwischen Schwalmere und Morgenberghorn überquert der Wanderweg über den Rengglipass (1884 m ü. M.). Vom Morgenberghorn zieht sich die mehrere Kilometer lange, scharfe Gratkante des Leissiggrats und des Därliggrats über dem Saxettal zum Birchizand (2095 m ü. M.) hin, von wo aus sich der Bergrücken zum Rugen bei Interlaken senkt. Der Leissiggrat trennt das Saxettal vom Becken des Thunersees im Norden.

 

Das Saxettal ist von Wilderswil aus bis zur Ortschaft Saxeten mit einer Kantonsstrasse erschlossen. Von Wilderswil und Saxeten aus führen Bergwege auf die umliegenden Höhen und Aussichtsberge und zudem über den Rengglipass sowie bei der Suls-Lobhornhütte in die Nachbartäler.

 

Unterhalb der Hochgebirgsregion ist das Saxettal zum grössten Teil von Wald bedeckt. Der Bergwald schützt auch die Siedlungen und die Talstrasse vor Naturgefahren. Im oberen Talbereich liegen Wiesen und Weidegebiet bei Saxeten und auf höheren Landschaftsstufen mehrere Alpweiden (Bergschaft Bällen und Bergschaft Innerberg).

 

Im Saxettal betreiben die Industriellen Betriebe Interlaken (IBI) Kleinkraftwerke an den Trinkwasserleitungen.

 

(Wikipedia)

Hiking along the Eiger trail from Alpiglen to Eigergletscher station

 

Kodak Retina IIIC, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50mm f/2

Kodak Portra 400

Nikon Coolscan 9000ED

Kodak Retina IIIC (1958 or so), 50mm f/2.0 Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Xenon lens, Portra 160. Eiger hiking from Alpiglen to Eigergletscher rail station.

 

For those of you curious, this camera is pre-electronics (no battery) but does have a CdS light meter. The S-K-X is a wickedly sharp lens.

 

No Photoshop.

The Fallbodensee is located at an altitude of around 2100 metres above sea level, on the Fallboden hill, where the ski lifts between the Kleine Scheidegg and Eigergletscher stations are located. It is also a "mirror lake". The reflection of the Eiger and Mönch in the mountain lake is simply amazing, depending on the weather.

Looking across from the Eigergletscher train station towards the Lauterbrunnen valley

Train station under the mighty Eiger. Canton of Bern, Switzerland. No. 7774.

 

The Jungfrau railway (German: Jungfraubahn, JB) is a metre gauge (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in gauge) rack railway which runs 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) from Kleine Scheidegg to the highest railway station in Europe at Jungfraujoch (3,454 m), between the Bernese Oberland and Valais in Switzerland. The railway runs almost entirely within the Jungfrau Tunnel, built into the Eiger and Mönch mountains and containing two stations in the middle of the tunnel, where passengers can disembark to observe the neighbouring mountains through windows built into the mountainside. The initial open-air section culminates at Eigergletscher (2,320 m), which makes it the second highest open-air railway in Switzerland. The line is electrified at 3-phase 1,125 volts 50 Hertz, and is one of four lines in the world using three-phase electric power.

 

At Kleine Scheidegg the JB connects with the Wengernalpbahn (WAB), which has two routes down the mountain, running respectively to the villages of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. From both villages, branches of the Berner Oberland Bahn (BOB) connect to the Swiss Federal Railways at Interlaken.

 

The line is owned by the Jungfraubahn Holding AG, a holding company that also owns the Wengernalpbahn and Lauterbrunnen–Mürren mountain railway railways. Through that holding company it is part of the Allianz - Jungfrau Top of Europe marketing alliance, which also includes the separately owned Berner Oberland Bahn and Schynige Platte railways.

  

Die Jungfraubahn (JB) ist eine elektrische Zahnradbahn im Berner Oberland in der Schweiz. Sie führt von der Kleinen Scheidegg durch Eiger und Mönch bis auf das Jungfraujoch mit der höchsten Eisenbahnstation Europas (Tunnelstation, 3454 m) und überwindet auf einer Länge von 9,34 Kilometern fast 1400 Höhenmeter. Etwas mehr als sieben Kilometer der Strecke liegen im Tunnel. Sie feierte 2012 ihren 100. Geburtstag (Jungfernfahrt im August 1912).

  

Le Chemin de fer de la Jungfrau (allemand : Jungfraubahn) est une ligne de chemin de fer suisse reliant la gare de Kleine Scheidegg au Jungfraujoch, il traverse en tunnel l'Eiger et le Mönch pour s'arrêter au Jungfraujoch, un col entre le Mönch et la Jungfrau. Située à 3 454 mètres d'altitude, la station de chemin de fer du Jungfraujoch est la plus haute d'Europe ."

  

Wikipédia .

 

Fallbodensee is an artificial lake located between Kleine Scheidegg and Eigergletscher Station in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland. The water of the reservoir is used to produce snow for skiing in winter times.

Thank you for your visits / comments / faves!

The posts tell the history of the North Face of The Eiger. We were heading from Kleine Scheidegg to Fallbodensee, and then towards Eigergletscher railway station, where we would join the Eiger trail, that goes below the North Face of The Eiger.

 

However it was the shadow that took most of my interest...it the end we decided it must be the shadow of the higher peaks onto cloud.

The hike starts at Eigergletscher Station and ends 2 to 3 hours later at Alpiglen Station (or the other way round). The trail leads directly underneath the iconic north face of Eiger. A great experience. I can highly recommend this hike!

Mount Wetterhorn is visible in the background. Down in the valley one can see the village and tourist destination of Grindelwald.

Thank you for your visits / comments / faves!

Climb every mountain,the Eiger Trail. Walking to Grindelwald. Looking at the Wetterhorn and the Grosse Scheidegg. Canton of Bern. Switzerland. No. 8076.

  

No trail comes closer to the famous Eiger North Face – with the Eiger Trail you are guaranteed two hours of top notch thrills

 

Description

The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau (the Ogre, Monk and Maiden) – the world famous trio of mountain peaks – is the impressive backdrop to the Jungfrau region and has attracted tourists and mountaineers to the Bernese Oberland since pioneering days. The Jungfrau Railway is no less impressive, while the northern flank of the Eiger, with its vertical drop of more than 1600 metres, has always attracted the world's best climbers.

 

Those with the courage and the desire to get just that little bit closer to the breathtaking Eiger North Face and tackle a superlative high alpine adventure can take the Jungfrau Railway to the station at Eigergletscher and set out on the Eiger Trail. Shortly after starting on this route, you'll find yourself right in front of the famous rock face itself, and above you to the right you'll notice the metal ladders that climbers to the Eiger-Rotstock Via Ferrata use to gain access. From here on, the trail runs for an hour along the foot of the Eiger North Face, sparkling with a beautiful view over the Wetterhorn and the Grosse Scheidegg.

 

Difficult sections are secured with ropes. If you have brought your binoculars, you'll be able to see the climbers up against the rock face. The train station sells postcards that show all the routes up this mountain. Towards the end of the tour the trail zigzags boldly down to Alpiglen train station.

  

"Short, medium-level hike through some of Switzerland's most iconic scenery.

Hike through the glorious high alpine pasture and lakeland scenery of the Grindelwald, pass a wonderful waterfall and come within touching distance of the Eiger's iconic north wall.

Easy public transport to both trailheads from Grindelwald make this stunning walk an easy excursion; hardier walkers have many options to extend."

"Aucun chemin n’approche autant de la célèbre face nord de l’Eiger: cette randonnée vous promet deux heures de frisson au plus haut niveau."

  

"Näher an die berühmte Eiger Nordwand führt kein Weg: Der Eiger Trail garantiert zwei Stunden Nervenkitzel auf höchstem Niveau."

 

www.google.ch/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&so...

  

My Switzerland.

  

The Eiger Express between Grindelwald Terminal, and Eigergletscher in the low hanging clouds.

Fallbodensee in the foreground is an artificial lake located between Kleine Scheidegg and Eigergletscher Station in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland. The water of the reservoir is used to produce snow for skiing in winter times.

Thank you for your visits / comments / faves!

The V-Bahn or V cable car is the new mega cable car from Grindelwald Terminal to Männlichen and Eigergletscher.

 

These gondolas have 12 seats and take you in around 30 minutes up to the Männlichen.

1425

"The Jungfrau railway (German: Jungfraubahn, JB) is a metre gauge (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in gauge) rack railway which runs 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) from Kleine Scheidegg to the highest railway station in Europe at Jungfraujoch (3,454 m), between the Bernese Oberland and Valais in Switzerland. The railway runs almost entirely within the Jungfrau Tunnel, built into the Eiger and Mönch mountains and containing two stations in the middle of the tunnel, where passengers can disembark to observe the neighbouring mountains through windows built into the mountainside. The initial open-air section culminates at Eigergletscher (2,320 m), which makes it the second highest open-air railway in Switzerland. The line is electrified at 3-phase 1,125 volts 50 Hertz, and is one of four lines in the world using three-phase electric power.

 

At Kleine Scheidegg the JB connects with the Wengernalpbahn (WAB), which has two routes down the mountain, running respectively to the villages of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. From both villages, branches of the Berner Oberland Bahn (BOB) connect to the Swiss Federal Railways at Interlaken.

 

The line is owned by the Jungfraubahn Holding AG, a holding company that also owns the Wengernalpbahn and Lauterbrunnen–Mürren mountain railway railways. Through that holding company it is part of the Allianz - Jungfrau Top of Europe marketing alliance, which also includes the separately owned Berner Oberland Bahn and Schynige Platte railways.

  

Die Jungfraubahn (JB) ist eine elektrische Zahnradbahn im Berner Oberland in der Schweiz. Sie führt von der Kleinen Scheidegg durch Eiger und Mönch bis auf das Jungfraujoch mit der höchsten Eisenbahnstation Europas (Tunnelstation, 3454 m) und überwindet auf einer Länge von 9,34 Kilometern fast 1400 Höhenmeter. Etwas mehr als sieben Kilometer der Strecke liegen im Tunnel. Sie feierte 2012 ihren 100. Geburtstag (Jungfernfahrt im August 1912).

  

Le Chemin de fer de la Jungfrau (allemand : Jungfraubahn) est une ligne de chemin de fer suisse reliant la gare de Kleine Scheidegg au Jungfraujoch, il traverse en tunnel l'Eiger et le Mönch pour s'arrêter au Jungfraujoch, un col entre le Mönch et la Jungfrau. Située à 3 454 mètres d'altitude, la station de chemin de fer du Jungfraujoch est la plus haute d'Europe ."

  

Wikipédia .

 

The hike starts at Eigergletscher Station and ends 2 to 3 hours later at Alpiglen Station (or the other way round). The trail leads directly underneath the iconic north face of Eiger. A great experience. I can highly recommend this hike!

Mount Wetterhorn is visible in the background.

Thank you for your visits / comments / faves!

The empty Bench In front of The mighty Eiger mountain the Bernese Oberland region. No. 1456.

 

"The Kleine Scheidegg is a mountain pass at an elevation of 2,061 m (6,762 ft), situated below and between the Eiger and Lauberhorn peaks in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. The name means "minor watershed", even though it is actually higher than the neighbouring Grosse Scheidegg. Possibly this is because Kleine Scheidegg is a watershed between the two arms of the Lütschine river, while Grosse Scheidegg divides the Lütschine from the Reichenbach stream.

 

The pass is traversed by a walking trail and the Wengernalp railway, which both connect the villages of Grindelwald with Lauterbrunnen, passing through Wengen between the pass summit and Lauterbrunnen. In winter, Kleine Scheidegg is the centre of the ski area around Grindelwald and Wengen. In summer, it is a popular hiking destination, and is one of the passes crossed by the Alpine Pass Route between Sargans and Montreux. The Jungfrau Marathon, a mountain race that takes place every year in early September, ends at Kleine Scheidegg.

The Kleine Scheidegg railway station is sited at the summit of the pass. Besides being an intermediate stop on the Wengernalp railway, the station is also the lower terminus of the Jungfrau railway, which climbs steeply through tunnels inside the Eiger and Mönch mountains up to its terminal at the Jungfraujoch, the highest point reachable by rail in Europe. Both railways operate year-round, and any passengers travelling to the Jungfraujoch must change trains at Kleine Scheidegg. The pass is linked to the summit of the Lauberhorn and to Arvengarten, on the approach to the pass from Grindelwald, by chairlifts.

 

There are also several restaurants and hotels at the summit of the pass, including the historic Hotel Bellevue des Alpes that dates back to 1840.

 

Die Kleine Scheidegg ist die Passhöhe (2'061 m ü. M.) zwischen Eiger (3'970 m ü. M.) und Lauberhorn (2'472 m ü. M.) im Berner Oberland in der Schweiz, die Grindelwald mit Lauterbrunnen verbindet. Auf der Kleinen Scheidegg befinden sich Hotels, Restaurants, Skilifte sowie der Bahnhof der beiden Zahnradbahnen Wengernalpbahn und Jungfraubahn.

 

Die Wengernalpbahn führt von Lauterbrunnen und Wengen über die Kleine Scheidegg nach Grindelwald, die Jungfraubahn fährt durch Eiger und Mönch hinauf zum Jungfraujoch. Erstere wurde im Jahr 1893 fertiggestellt. Im Sommer 1896 wurde mit dem Bau der Jungfraubahn begonnen. Zwei Jahre später konnte der Abschnitt bis zum Bahnhof Eigergletscher in Betrieb genommen werden. Erst 1912 konnte die ganze, neun Kilometer lange Strecke bis zum Jungfraujoch in Betrieb genommen werden. Der Tourismus hatte sich aber schon vor dem Bau der Bahnen entwickelt: Seit dem Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts besuchten Reisende auf Grand Tour das Berner Oberland und wanderten über die Kleine Scheidegg. Ein erstes Hotel für die vorbeikommenden Touristen wurde 1840 erbaut. Mitte der 1920er Jahre waren die Hotels erstmals auch den Winter über geöffnet. 1941 wurde der Skilift aufs Lauberhorn erbaut.[1][2]

 

Die Kleine Scheidegg ist bekannt für das eindrückliche Panorama mit dem Dreigestirn Eiger, Mönch (4'107 m ü. M.) und Jungfrau (4'158 m ü. M.) und zahlreichen Gletschern. Zudem bietet sich hier eine gute Einsicht in die Eiger-Nordwand, um Bergsteiger in der Wand mit dem Fernglas zu verfolgen.

 

Im Winter ist die Kleine Scheidegg – zusammen mit dem Männlichen – Mittelpunkt eines ausgedehnten Skigebiets rund um Grindelwald und Wengen. Am oberhalb der Scheidegg gelegenen Lauberhorn befindet sich der Start des bekannten Lauberhornrennens.

 

Seit 1993 ist die Kleine Scheidegg jedes Jahr im September Ziel des Jungfrau-Marathons, der in Interlaken startet.

Il Kleine Scheidegg (2.061 m s.l.m.) è un valico alpino dello svizzero Canton Berna che collega le località di Lauterbrunnen e Grindelwald.

La Kleine Scheidegg (la petite Scheidegg) est un col ferroviaire suisse entre l'Eiger et le Lauberhorn dans l'Oberland bernois à 2 061 m d'altitude. Il est situé à la frontière des communes de Lauterbrunnen (Wengen) et de Grindelwald."

  

Wikipedia

The sound of music or If You want to Climb the Eiger this is the beginning point. No. 7881.

 

The walls of the Eiger Mountain , the Wetterhorn. The Grosse Scheidegg and Grindelwald. The Eigertrail.

  

."No trail comes closer to the famous Eiger North Face – with the Eiger Trail you are guaranteed two hours of top notch thrills

 

Description

The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau (the Ogre, Monk and Maiden) – the world famous trio of mountain peaks – is the impressive backdrop to the Jungfrau region and has attracted tourists and mountaineers to the Bernese Oberland since pioneering days. The Jungfrau Railway is no less impressive, while the northern flank of the Eiger, with its vertical drop of more than 1600 metres, has always attracted the world's best climbers.

 

Those with the courage and the desire to get just that little bit closer to the breathtaking Eiger North Face and tackle a superlative high alpine adventure can take the Jungfrau Railway to the station at Eigergletscher and set out on the Eiger Trail. Shortly after starting on this route, you'll find yourself right in front of the famous rock face itself, and above you to the right you'll notice the metal ladders that climbers to the Eiger-Rotstock Via Ferrata use to gain access. From here on, the trail runs for an hour along the foot of the Eiger North Face, sparkling with a beautiful view over the Wetterhorn and the Grosse Scheidegg.

 

Difficult sections are secured with ropes. If you have brought your binoculars, you'll be able to see the climbers up against the rock face. The train station sells postcards that show all the routes up this mountain. Towards the end of the tour the trail zigzags boldly down to Alpiglen train station.

  

"Short, medium-level hike through some of Switzerland's most iconic scenery.

Hike through the glorious high alpine pasture and lakeland scenery of the Grindelwald, pass a wonderful waterfall and come within touching distance of the Eiger's iconic north wall.

Easy public transport to both trailheads from Grindelwald make this stunning walk an easy excursion; hardier walkers have many options to extend."

"Aucun chemin n’approche autant de la célèbre face nord de l’Eiger: cette randonnée vous promet deux heures de frisson au plus haut niveau."

  

"Näher an die berühmte Eiger Nordwand führt kein Weg: Der Eiger Trail garantiert zwei Stunden Nervenkitzel auf höchstem Niveau."

 

www.google.ch/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&so...

  

My Switzerland.

 

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Eiger

 

seen from Fallbodensee

 

The Eiger (German pronunciation: [ˈaɪ̯ɡɐ]) is a 3,967-metre (13,015 ft) mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m (13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its nearly 1,800-metre-high (5,900 ft) north face of rock and ice, named Eiger-Nordwand, Eigerwand or just Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps.] This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the eponymous pass connecting the two valleys.

 

The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington, who climbed the west flank on August 11, 1858. The north face, the "last problem" of the Alps, considered amongst the most challenging and dangerous ascents, was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition.The Eiger has been highly publicized for the many tragedies involving climbing expeditions. Since 1935, at least 64 climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally "murder(ous) wall"—a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall).

 

Although the summit of the Eiger can be reached by experienced climbers only, a railway tunnel runs inside the mountain, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows carved into the rock face. They are both part of the Jungfrau Railway line, running from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, at the highest railway station in Europe. The two stations within the Eiger are Eigerwand (behind the north face) and Eismeer (behind the south face), at around 3,000 metres. The Eigerwand station has not been regularly served since 2016.

 

Etymology

 

The first mention of Eiger, appearing as "mons Egere", was found in a property sale document of 1252, but there is no clear indication of how exactly the peak gained its name. The three mountains of the ridge are commonly referred to as the Virgin (German: Jungfrau – translates to "virgin" or "maiden"), the Monk (Mönch), and the Ogre (Eiger; the standard German word for ogre is Oger). The name has been linked to the Latin term acer, meaning "sharp" or "pointed".

 

Geographic setting and description

 

The Eiger is located above the Lauterbrunnen Valley to the west and Grindelwald to the north in the Bernese Oberland region of the canton of Bern. It forms a renowned mountain range of the Bernese Alps together with its two companions: the Jungfrau (4,158 m (13,642 ft)) about 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) southwest of it and the Mönch (4,107 m (13,474 ft)) about in the middle of them. The nearest settlements are Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen (795 m (2,608 ft)) and Wengen (1,274 m (4,180 ft)). The Eiger has three faces: north (or more precisely NNW), east (or more precisely ESE), and west (or more precisely WSW). The northeastern ridge from the summit to the Ostegg (lit.: eastern corner, 2,709 m (8,888 ft)), called Mittellegi, is the longest on the Eiger. The north face overlooks the gently rising Alpine meadow between Grindelwald (943 m (3,094 ft)) and Kleine Scheidegg (2,061 m (6,762 ft)), a mountain railways junction and a pass, which can be reached from both sides, Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen/Wengen – by foot or train.

 

Politically, the Eiger (and its summit) belongs to the Bernese municipalities of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. The Kleine Scheidegg (literally, the small parting corner) connects the Männlichen-Tschuggen range with the western ridge of the Eiger. The Eiger does not properly form part of the main chain of the Bernese Alps, which borders the canton of Valais and forms the watershed between the Rhine and the Rhône, but constitutes a huge limestone buttress, projecting from the crystalline basement of the Mönch across the Eigerjoch. Consequently, all sides of the Eiger feed finally the same river, namely the Lütschine.

 

Eiger's water is connected through the Weisse Lütschine (the white one) in the Lauterbrunnen Valley on the west side (southwestern face of the Eiger), and through the Schwarze Lütschine (the black one) running through Grindelwald (northwestern face), which meet each other in Zweilütschinen (lit.: the two Lütschinen) where they form the proper Lütschine. The east face is covered by the glacier called Ischmeer, (Bernese German for Ice Sea), which forms one upper part of the fast-retreating Lower Grindelwald Glacier. These glaciers' water forms a short creek, which is also confusingly called the Weisse Lütschine, but enters the black one already in Grindelwald together with the water from the Upper Grindelwald Glacier. Therefore, all the water running down the Eiger converges at the northern foot of the Männlichen (2,342 m (7,684 ft)) in Zweilütschinen (654 m (2,146 ft)), about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northwest of the summit, where the Lütschine begins its northern course to Lake Brienz and the Aare (564 m (1,850 ft)).

 

Although the north face of the Eiger is almost free of ice, significant glaciers lie at the other sides of the mountain. The Eiger Glacier flows on the southwestern side of the Eiger, from the crest connecting it to the Mönch down to 2,400 m (7,900 ft), south of Eigergletscher railway station, and feeds the Weisse Lütschine through the Trümmelbach. On the east side, the Ischmeer–well visible from the windows of Eismeer railway station–flows eastwards from the same crest then turns to the north below the impressive wide Fiescherwand, the north face of the Fiescherhörner triple summit (4,049 m (13,284 ft)) down to about 1,600 m (5,200 ft) of the Lower Grindelwald Glacier system.

 

The massive composition of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau constitutes an emblematic sight of the Swiss Alps and is visible from many places on the Swiss Plateau and the Jura Mountains in the northwest. The higher Finsteraarhorn (4,270 m (14,010 ft)) and Aletschhorn (4,190 m (13,750 ft)), which are located about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the south, are generally less visible and situated in the middle of glaciers in less accessible areas. As opposed to the north side, the south and east sides of the range consist of large valley glaciers extending for up to 22 kilometres (14 mi), the largest (beyond the Eiger drainage basin) being those of Grand Aletsch, Fiesch, and Aar Glaciers, and is thus uninhabited. The whole area, the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area, comprising the highest summits and largest glaciers of the Bernese Alps, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.

 

In July 2006, a piece of the Eiger, amounting to approximately 700,000 cubic metres of rock, fell from the east face. As it had been noticeably cleaving for several weeks and fell into an uninhabited area, there were no injuries and no buildings were hit.

 

Climbing history

 

While the summit was reached without much difficulty in 1858 by a complex route on the west flank, the battle to climb the north face has captivated the interest of climbers and non-climbers alike. Before it was successfully climbed, most of the attempts on the face ended tragically and the Bernese authorities even banned climbing it and threatened to fine any party that should attempt it again. But the enthusiasm which animated the young talented climbers from Austria and Germany finally vanquished its reputation of unclimbability when a party of four climbers successfully reached the summit in 1938 by what is known as the "1938" or "Heckmair" route.

 

The climbers that attempted the north face could be easily watched through the telescopes from the Kleine Scheidegg, a pass between Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, connected by rail. The contrast between the comfort and civilization of the railway station and the agonies of the young men slowly dying a short yet uncrossable distance away led to intensive coverage by the international media.

 

After World War II, the north face was climbed twice in 1947, first by a party of two French guides, Louis Lachenal and Lionel Terray, then by a Swiss party consisting of H. Germann, with Hans and Karl Schlunegger.

 

First ascent

 

In 1857, a first recorded attempt was made by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann guiding the Austrian alpinist Sigismund Porges. They did manage the first ascent of neighboring Mönch instead. Porges, however, successfully made the second ascent of the Eiger in July 1861 with the guides Christian Michel, Hans and Peter Baumann.

 

The first ascent was made by the western flank on August 11, 1858 by Charles Barrington with guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren. On the previous afternoon, the party walked up to the Wengernalp hotel. From there they started the ascent of the Eiger at 3:30 a.m. Barrington describes the route much as it is followed today, staying close to the edge of the north face much of the way. They reached the summit at about noon, planted a flag, stayed for some 10 minutes and descended in about four hours. Barrington describes the reaching of the top, saying, "the two guides kindly gave me the place of first man up." After the descent, the party was escorted to the Kleine Scheidegg hotel, where their ascent was confirmed by observation of the flag left on the summit. The owner of the hotel then fired a cannon to celebrate the first ascent. According to Harrer's The White Spider, Barrington was originally planning to make the first ascent of the Matterhorn, but his finances did not allow him to travel there as he was already staying in the Eiger region.

 

Mittellegi ridge

 

Although the Mittellegi ridge had already been descended by climbers (since 1885) with the use of ropes in the difficult sections, it remained unclimbed until 1921. On the 10th of September of that year, Japanese climber Yuko Maki, along with Swiss guides Fritz Amatter, Samuel Brawand and Fritz Steuri made the first successful ascent of the ridge. The previous day, the party approached the ridge from the Eismeer railway station of the Jungfrau Railway and bivouacked for the night. They started the climb at about 6:00 a.m. and reached the summit of the Eiger at about 7:15 p.m., after an over 13 hours gruelling ascent. Shortly after, they descended the west flank. They finally reached Eigergletscher railway station at about 3:00 a.m. the next day.

 

Attempts on the north face

 

1935

 

In 1935, two young German climbers from Bavaria, Karl Mehringer and Max Sedlmeyer, arrived at Grindelwald to attempt the ascent of the north face. After waiting some time for the weather to improve, they set off, reaching the height of the Eigerwand station before stopping for their first bivouac. The following day, facing greater difficulties, they gained little height. On the third day, they made hardly any vertical gain. That night, the weather deteriorated, bringing snow and low cloud that shrouded the mountain from the observers below. Avalanches began to sweep the face. Two days later, the weather briefly cleared, and the two men were glimpsed a little higher and about to bivouac for the fifth night, before clouds descended again. A few days later, the weather finally cleared, revealing a completely white north face.: 225  Weeks later, the German World War I ace Ernst Udet went searching for the missing men with his aircraft, eventually spotting one of them frozen to death in what became known as the "Death Bivouac". Sedlmeyer's body was found at the foot of the face the following year by his brothers Heinrich and Martin Meier, who were part of a group looking for the victims of the 1936 climbing disaster. Mehringer's remains were found in 1962 by Swiss climbers below the "Flat Iron" (Bügeleisen) at the lefthand end of the second ice field. 

 

1936

 

The next year ten young climbers from Austria and Germany came to Grindelwald and camped at the foot of the mountain. Before their attempts started one of them was killed during a training climb, and the weather was so bad during that summer that, after waiting for a change and seeing none on the way, several members of the party gave up. Of the four that remained, two were Bavarians, Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz, and two were Austrians, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer. When the weather improved they made a preliminary exploration of the lowest part of the face. Hinterstoisser fell 37 metres (121 ft) but was not injured. A few days later the four men finally began the ascent of the face. They climbed quickly, but on the next day, after their first bivouac, the weather changed; clouds came down and hid the group to the observers. They did not resume the climb until the following day, when, during a break, the party was seen descending, but the climbers could be seen only intermittently from the ground. The group had no choice but to retreat, since Angerer had suffered serious injuries from falling rock. The party became stuck on the face when they could not recross the difficult Hinterstoisser Traverse, from which they had taken the rope they had first used to climb it. The weather then deteriorated for two days. They were ultimately swept away by an avalanche, which only Kurz survived, hanging on a rope. Three guides started on an extremely perilous rescue attempt. They failed to reach him but came within shouting distance and learned what had happened. Kurz explained the fate of his companions: one had fallen down the face, another was frozen above him, and the third had fractured his skull in falling and was hanging dead on the rope.

 

In the morning the three guides came back, traversing the face from a hole near the Eigerwand station and risking their lives under incessant avalanches. Toni Kurz was still alive but almost helpless, with one hand and one arm completely frozen. Kurz hauled himself off the cliff after cutting loose the rope that bound him to his dead teammate below and climbed back onto the face. The guides were not able to pass an unclimbable overhang that separated them from Kurz. They managed to give him a rope long enough to reach them by tying two ropes together. While descending, Kurz could not get the knot to pass through his carabiner. He tried for hours to reach his rescuers who were only a few metres below him. Then he began to lose consciousness. One of the guides, climbing on another's shoulders, was able to touch the tip of Kurz's crampons with his ice-axe but could not reach higher. Kurz was unable to descend further and, completely exhausted, died slowly.

 

1937

 

An attempt was made in 1937 by Mathias Rebitsch and Ludwig Vörg. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, they were nonetheless the first climbers who returned alive from a serious attempt on the face. They started the climb on 11 August and reached a high point of a few rope lengths above Death Bivouac. A storm then broke and after three days on the wall they had to retreat. This was the first successful withdrawal from a significant height on the wall.

 

First ascent of the north face

 

The north face was first climbed on July 24, 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek in a German–Austrian party. The party had originally consisted of two independent teams: Harrer (who did not have a pair of crampons on the climb) and Kasparek were joined on the face by Heckmair and Vörg, who had started their ascent a day later and had been helped by the fixed rope that the lead team had left across the Hinterstoisser Traverse. The two groups, led by the experienced Heckmair, decided to join their forces and roped together as a single group of four. Heckmair later wrote: "We, the sons of the older Reich, united with our companions from the Eastern Border to march together to victory."

 

The expedition was constantly threatened by snow avalanches and climbed as quickly as possible between the falls. On the third day a storm broke and the cold was intense. The four men were caught in an avalanche as they climbed "the Spider," the snow-filled cracks radiating from an ice-field on the upper face, but all possessed sufficient strength to resist being swept off the face. The members successfully reached the summit at four o'clock in the afternoon. They were so exhausted that they only just had the strength to descend by the normal route through a raging blizzard.

 

Other notable events

 

1864 (Jul 27): Fourth ascent, and first ascent by a woman, Lucy Walker, who was part of a group of six guides (including Christian Almer and Melchior Anderegg) and five clients, including her brother Horace Walker[

1871: First ascent by the southwest ridge, 14 July (Christian Almer, Christian Bohren, and Ulrich Almer guiding W. A. B. Coolidge and Meta Brevoort).

1890: First ascent in winter, Ulrich Kaufmann and Christian Jossi guiding C. W. Mead and G. F. Woodroffe.

1924: First ski ascent and descent via the Eiger glacier by Englishman Arnold Lunn and the Swiss Fritz Amacher, Walter Amstutz and Willy Richardet.

1932: First ascent of the northeast face ("Lauper route") by Hans Lauper, Alfred Zürcher, Alexander Graven and Josef Knubel

1970: First ski descent over the west flank, by Sylvain Saudan.

1986: Welshman Eric Jones becomes the first person to BASE jump from the Eiger.

1988: Original Route (ED2), north face, Eiger (3970m), Alps, Switzerland, first American solo (nine and a half hours) by Mark Wilford.

1991: First ascent, Metanoia Route, North Face, solo, winter, without bolts, Jeff Lowe.

1992 (18 July): Three BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA clients died in a fall down the West Flank: Willie Dunnachie; Douglas Gaines; and Phillip Davies. They had ascended the mountain via the Mittellegi Ridge.

2006 (14 June): François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger.

2006 (15 July): Approximately 700,000 cubic metres (20 million cubic feet) of rock from the east side collapses. No injuries or damage were reported.

2015 (23 July): A team of British Para-Climbers reached the summit via the West Flank Route. The team included John Churcher, the world's first blind climber to summit the Eiger, sight guided by the team leader Mark McGowan. Colin Gourlay enabled the ascent of other team members, including Al Taylor who has multiple sclerosis, and the young autistic climber Jamie Owen from North Wales. The ascent was filmed by the adventure filmmakers Euan Ryan & Willis Morris of Finalcrux Films.

 

Books and films

 

The 1959 book The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer describes the first successful ascent of the Eiger north face.

The Climb Up To Hell, 1962, by Jack Olson, an account of the ill-fated 1957 attempted climb of the north face by an Italian four-man team and the dramatic rescue of the sole survivor mounted by an international all-volunteer group of rescuers.

Eiger Direct, 1966, by Dougal Haston and Peter Gillman, London: Collins, also known as Direttissima; the Eiger Assault

The 1971 novel The Ice Mirror by Charles MacHardy describes the second attempted ascent of the Eiger north face by the main character.

The 1972 novel The Eiger Sanction is an action/thriller novel by Rodney William Whitaker (writing under the pseudonym Trevanian), based around the climbing of the Eiger. This was then made into the 1975 film The Eiger Sanction starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy. The Eiger Sanction film crew included very experienced mountaineers (e.g., Mike Hoover, Dougal Haston, and Hamish MacInnes, see Summit, 52, Spring 2010) as consultants, to ensure accuracy in the climbing footage, equipment and techniques.

The Eiger, 1974, by Dougal Haston, London: Cassell

The 1982 book Eiger, Wall of Death by Arthur Roth is an historical account of first ascents of the north face.

The 1982 book Traverse of The Gods by Bob Langley is a World War II spy thriller where a group escaping from Nazi Germany is trapped and the only possible exit route is via the Nordwand.

Eiger, 1983, a documentary film by Leo Dickinson of Eric Jones' 1981 solo ascent of the north face.

Eiger Dreams, 1990, a collection of essays by Jon Krakauer, begins with an account of Krakauer's own attempt to climb the north face.

Eiger: The Vertical Arena (German edition, 1998; English edition, 2000), edited by Daniel Anker, a comprehensive climbing history of the north face authored by 17 climbers, with numerous photographs and illustrations.

The IMAX film The Alps features John Harlin III's climb up the north face in September 2005. Harlin's father, John Harlin II, set out 40 years earlier to attempt a direct route (the direttissima) up the 6,000-foot (1,800 m) face, the so-called "John Harlin route". At 1300 m, his rope broke, and he fell to his death. Composer James Swearingen created a piece named Eiger: Journey to the Summit in his memory.

The 2007 docu/drama film The Beckoning Silence featuring mountaineer Joe Simpson, recounting—with filmed reconstructions—the ill-fated 1936 expedition up the north face of the Eiger and how Heinrich Harrer's book The White Spider inspired him to take up climbing. The film followed Simpson's eponymous 2003 book. Those playing the parts of the original climbing team were Swiss mountain guides Roger Schäli (Toni Kurz), Simon Anthamatten (Andreas Hinterstoisser), Dres Abegglen (Willy Angerer) and Cyrille Berthod (Edi Rainer). The documentary won an Emmy Award the subsequent year.

The 2008 German historical fiction film Nordwand is based on the 1936 attempt to climb the Eiger north face. The film is about the two German climbers, Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser, involved in a competition with an Austrian duo to be the first to scale the north face of Eiger.

The 2010 documentary Eiger: Wall of Death by Steve Robinson.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Der Eiger ist ein Berg in den Berner Alpen mit einer Höhe von 3967 m ü. M. Er ist dem Hauptkamm der Berner Alpen etwas nördlich vorgelagert und steht vollständig auf dem Territorium des Schweizer Kantons Bern. Zusammen mit Mönch und Jungfrau, deren Gipfel auf der Grenze zum Kanton Wallis liegen, dominiert der Eiger die Landschaft des zentralen Berner Oberlandes. Die etwa 3000 Meter über dem Tal aufragenden Nordflanken dieser Berge stellen die Schauseite einer der bekanntesten je als ein «Dreigestirn» bezeichneten Gipfel-Dreiergruppen in den Alpen dar.

 

Insbesondere die Nordwand des Eigers fasziniert sowohl Bergsteiger als auch Alpin-Laien. Durch dramatische Begehungsversuche und gelungene Begehungen dieser Wand wurde der Eiger weltweit bekannt und immer wieder ins Blickfeld der Öffentlichkeit gerückt – nicht zuletzt, da die gesamte Wand von Grindelwald und der Bahnstation Kleine Scheidegg aus einsehbar ist. Die Jungfraubahn mit ihrem Tunnel durch den Eigerfels ist seit ihrer Eröffnung im Jahr 1912 ein Touristenmagnet.

 

Namensherkunft

 

Die erste urkundliche Erwähnung des Eigers stammt aus dem Jahre 1252 – dies ist die zweitfrüheste urkundliche Erwähnung eines Schweizer Bergs nach dem Bietschhorn (1233). Am 24. Juli 1252 wurde in einer Verkaufsurkunde zwischen Ita von Wädiswyl und der Propstei Interlaken ein Grundstück mit den Worten «ad montem qui nominatur Egere» (dt.: Bis zum Berg, der Eiger genannt wird) abgegrenzt. Ein halbes Jahrhundert später wird der Eiger in einem Belehnungsbrief erstmals in deutscher Sprache erwähnt: «under Eigere».

 

Für die Herkunft des Namens gibt es drei gängige Erklärungen. Eine erste ist der althochdeutsche Name Agiger oder Aiger, wie der erste Siedler unterhalb des Eigers geheissen haben soll. Der Berg über dessen Weiden wurde deshalb Aigers Geissberg oder auch nur Geissberg genannt. Hieraus entwickelten sich dann im Laufe der Zeit die direkten Vorgänger der heutigen Bezeichnung. Die Herkunft des Namens könnte auch von dem lateinischen Wort acer kommen, woraus sich im Französischen aigu entwickelte. Beide Worte haben die Bedeutung scharf beziehungsweise spitz – in Anlehnung an die Form des Eigers. Die dritte Erklärung stammt von der früher gebräuchlichen Schreibweise Heiger, was sich aus dem Dialektausdruck «dr hej Ger» entwickelt haben könnte (hej bedeutet hoch, Ger war ein germanischer Wurfspiess). Wiederum wäre hier die Form des Eigers ausschlaggebend für seine Bezeichnung.

 

Im Zusammenhang mit dem Eiger wird auch des Öfteren die Namensähnlichkeit mit dem Oger, einem menschenähnlichen Unhold, genannt. In Anlehnung an das Dreigestirn «Eiger–Mönch–Jungfrau» gibt es die Erzählung, der Unhold Eiger wolle seine lüsternen Pranken auf die Jungfrau legen, woran er aber vom fröhlichen Mönch gehindert werde. Zu dieser Geschichte sind in Grindelwald alte Karikaturen und neuere Postkarten zu kaufen.

 

Lage und Umgebung

 

Der Eiger erhebt sich direkt südwestlich von Grindelwald (Amtsbezirk Interlaken). Die bekannte Nordwand ist genaugenommen eine Nordwestwand. Neben dieser existiert in der berühmten «Eiger-Nordansicht» auch noch die Nordostwand. Sie bildet die Basis für den scharfen Mittellegigrat, der vom Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher zum Gipfel zieht. Auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite begrenzt der Westgrat die Nordwand. Ihm folgt die Westflanke, in welcher sich der Eigergletscher und der Klein Eiger befinden. An diesen schliessen sich der Südwestgrat und noch ein Stück östlicher der Südgrat an, der wiederum die Südostwand begrenzt, welche bis zum Mittellegigrat reicht. Südöstlich des Eigers liegt der Grindelwald-Fieschergletscher.

 

In der Umgebung des Eigers befinden sich einige Viertausender des Aarmassivs. Im Osten ist er umgeben von Schreckhorn (4078 m ü. M.) und Lauteraarhorn (4042 m ü. M.), im Südosten vom Grossen Fiescherhorn (4049 m ü. M.), und im Südwesten ist der Mönch (4107 m ü. M.) durch das Nördliche und Südliche Eigerjoch vom Eiger getrennt. Zusammen mit dem Mönch und der Jungfrau (4158 m ü. M.) bildet der Eiger das «Dreigestirn», bei dem der Eiger den nordöstlichen und die Jungfrau den südwestlichen Endpunkt bildet. Entgegen der steil abfallenden Nordseite des Berges befindet sich im Süden des Eigers die Hochfläche und Gletscherwelt der Berner Alpen. Seit Ende 2001 gehört der Eiger zum Gebiet des UNESCO-Weltnaturerbes Schweizer Alpen Jungfrau-Aletsch.

 

Geologie

 

Der Eiger ist ein Teil des helvetischen Systems, das im Grossraum um den Thunersee die Decken des Alpennordrandes bildet. In einer späten Phase der alpidischen Gebirgsfaltung wurden die helvetischen Kalk-Sedimente von ihrer kristallinen Basis abgeschürft und in Form einer Abscherungsdecke nach Nordwesten verschoben. Während des Faltungsprozesses in der Alpenentstehung brachen die Kalkbänke auf und Kluft- sowie Faltensysteme entstanden, die später mit ausgefälltem Calcit geschlossen wurden. Wichtigste Bestandteile der Sedimente sind der Schrattenkalk der Kreidezeit und der Malmkalk. Als Füll- und Schmiermaterial dienten Mergel und Tonschiefer.

 

Die klar erkennbare Faltung des Helvetikums mit seinen gebänderten, plattigen Kalkschichten zeigt sich auch am Eiger. Das Massiv des Eigers besteht komplett aus Kalk der helvetischen Zone und schliesst die Flyschschichten und die Molasse des Grindelwaldbeckens steil nach Süden hin ab. Weil der Talkessel von Grindelwald so reich gegliedert ist, finden hier die verschiedensten Tiere einen Lebensraum.[6] Südlich des Eigers schliesst sich das Aarmassiv mit seinem Innertkirchner-Lauterbrunner-Kristallin an. Teilweise hat sich dieses über die Sedimente des Eiger geschoben. Im Bereich des Mönchs treffen die Sedimente auf Altkristallin. Die typischen Gesteine des helvetischen Systems im Bereich des Eigers entstanden während des Jura, dem mittleren Zeitabschnitts des Mesozoikums. Der vorherrschende Kalk ist dabei mit verschiedenen Gesteinen durchmischt. Es zeigen sich Mergel-Kalke und -Schiefer, Ton-Schiefer, Eisenoolith sowie kalkige Sandsteine.

 

Die Kalkschichten des Eigers lagern auf Gneis und sind um 60–70° nach Norden geneigt. Geprägt wurde die heutige Form des Eigers durch die Eiszeiten. Während der Riss-Kaltzeit reichte die Vergletscherung bis an den Fuss der Nordwand. In der Würm-Kaltzeit war die Mächtigkeit des Eises um 200 Meter geringer. Durch die Bewegung der Gletscher wurde die Erdoberfläche umgestaltet. Vom Eis überlagerte Landschaften wurden abgeschliffen, wohingegen unbedeckte Bereiche durch Verwitterung und andere Formen der Erosion verändert wurden. Mit dem Rückzug des Eises änderten sich auch die Druckverhältnisse im Gestein, was sich durch Entlastungsbewegungen formgebend auswirkte. Prägend für den Eiger und seine Form war die allseitige Umlagerung von Eismassen, welche für einen recht gleichmässigen und markanten Abrieb aller Wände sorgte. Darüber hinaus war die Nordwand durch ihre Exposition den Abtragungsprozessen wie Frostverwitterung mehr ausgesetzt.

 

Felssturz

 

2006 ereignete sich am Eiger ein grosser Bergsturz, der öffentliches Interesse auf sich zog. An der Ostseite des Berges, unterhalb des Mittellegigrates, war durch Felsbewegungen ein rund 250 Meter langer Spalt entstanden, der eine Breite von etwa 7 Metern erreichte.Danach senkten sich die äusseren Teile mehrere Zentimeter pro Tag ab. Eine Ursache dieser Felsabspaltung könnte sowohl das massive Eindringen von Schmelzwasser in den Felsen gewesen sein, als auch eine Instabilität des Gesteins durch den Rückgang des Gletschers unterhalb des Felsabbruchs infolge der globalen Erwärmung. Am 13. Juli 2006 um 19:24 Uhr stürzten rund 500'000 Kubikmeter Felsbrocken auf den Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher. Über der Gemeinde Grindelwald schwebte stundenlang eine Staubwolke. Bereits am Nachmittag desselben Tages war die sogenannte «Madonna vom Eiger» zu Tal gestürzt. Hierbei handelte es sich um einen ungefähr 30 Meter hohen schlanken Felsturm mit rund 600 Kubikmeter Volumen.

 

Seit diesen Ereignissen wird die Felsnase (Gesamtvolumen: ungefähr eine Million Kubikmeter Gestein), aus der die Gesteinsmasse abbrach, von der Universität Lausanne beobachtet. Die Beobachtungen ergaben, dass sich die Nase von Juli 2007 bis August 2008 auf einer nach Osten geneigten Gleitfläche um 15 Meter talwärts bewegte. Zusätzlich kippte die Gesteinsmasse um zwei Grad nach Nordosten. Die Kluft zwischen Berg und Felsbrocken betrug im August 2008 50 Meter. Immer wieder brechen Gesteinsteile ab und stürzen zu Tal. Gebremst und stabilisiert wird die Masse vom Gletschereis, in das die Felsnase gleitet. Dies verhindert, dass die Nase als kompakte Masse zu Tal stürzt. So gilt es als wahrscheinlicher, dass der Gesteinsblock in sich selbst zusammenfallen wird.

 

(Wikipedia)

These cabins to the Eigergletscher have 26 seats. This is often more than in many systems with just two cabins installed.

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Eigergletscher

 

seen from Mürren

 

gesehen von Mürren

 

The Eiger Glacier (German: Eigergletscher) is a glacier situated on the north-west side of the Eiger in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland. The glacier is within the municipality of Lauterbrunnen in the canton of Bern.

 

In 1973 it had an area of 2.13 km2 (0.82 sq mi), and a length of 2.6 km (1.6 mi).[2] By 2005 its length had reduced to 2.5 km.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Der Eigergletscher ist ein Gletscher am Westhang des Eigers, im Schweizer Kanton Bern. Er erstreckt sich ab einer Höhe von 3700 m ü. M. hinter dem Kleinen Eiger (Nebengipfel im Westen des Eigers) herum und zieht zum Tal in Richtung Station Eigergletscher. Eine weitere Zunge (3'200 bis 3500 m ü. M.) liegt in Form eines Hängegletschers zwischen dem Eiger und dem Kleinen Eiger. Er hat eine Länge von rund 2,6 km und nimmt eine Fläche von knapp 1,54 km² ein (Stand 2011). Von 1993 bis 2017 hat er sich im Zuge der Gletscherschmelze um etwa 500 m zurückgezogen.

 

1990 wurde bei einem Helikopterflug ein durchgehender, grosser Spalt entdeckt. Daraufhin begann die Versuchsanstalt für Wasserbau, Hydrologie und Glaziologie der ETH Zürich (VAW) mit Forschungsarbeiten am Eigergletscher. Forschungsziele waren Erkenntnisse über Hängegletscher und Massnahmen zum Schutz der Jungfraubahnstation. Der drohende Absturz erfolgte 1990, jedoch ohne Schaden anzurichten. Eine automatische Kamera macht seitdem jeden Tag ein Foto des Gletschers.

 

(Wikipedia)

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Kleine Scheidegg

 

In the background you can see the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.

 

Im Hintergrund sieht man die Eiger, Mönch und Jungfrau.

 

The Kleine Scheidegg (English: Little Scheidegg) is a mountain pass at an elevation of 2,061 m (6,762 ft), situated below and between the Eiger and Lauberhorn peaks in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. The name means "minor watershed", as it only divides the two arms of the Lütschine river, both converging at Zweilütschinen, while the nearby Grosse Scheidegg divides the Lütschine from the Rychenbach stream.

 

The pass is traversed by a walking trail and the Wengernalp Railway, which both connect the villages of Grindelwald with Lauterbrunnen, passing through Wengen between the pass summit and Lauterbrunnen. In winter, Kleine Scheidegg is the centre of the ski area around Grindelwald and Wengen. In summer, it is a popular hiking destination, and is one of the passes crossed by the Alpine Pass Route between Sargans and Montreux. The Jungfrau Marathon, a mountain race that takes place every year in early September, ends at Kleine Scheidegg.

 

The Kleine Scheidegg railway station is sited at the summit of the pass. Besides being an intermediate stop on the Wengernalp Railway, the station is also the lower terminus of the Jungfrau Railway, which climbs steeply through tunnels inside the Eiger and Mönch mountains up to its terminal at the Jungfraujoch, the highest point reachable by rail in Europe. Both railways operate year-round, and any passengers travelling to the Jungfraujoch must change trains at Kleine Scheidegg. The pass is linked to the summit of the Lauberhorn and to Arvengarten, on the approach to the pass from Grindelwald, by chairlifts.

 

There are also several restaurants and hotels at the summit of the pass, including the historic Hotel Bellevue des Alpes that dates back to 1840.

 

History

 

Prior to the coming of the railways and the introduction of tourism to the area, the twin passes of Kleine Scheidegg and Grosse Scheidegg provided access for local livestock and dairy farmers to the important export route to Italy over the Grimsel Pass. With the coming of tourism and the opening of the first mountain hotels in the 1830s, the transit of the Kleine Scheidegg became busier, and more important than the Grosse Scheidegg.

 

In 1840, Christian Seiler built the inn Zur Gemse on the summit of the pass. Guests and supplies reached the inn by mule train over the pass tracks, and the inn grew into the internationally famous Hotel Bellevue. The Wengernalp co-operative opened the competing Hotel des Alps alongside the Hotel Bellevue, but sold out to the Seiler family, thus creating the merged Hotel Bellevue des Alps.

 

In order to satisfy tourist demand, construction of the Wengernalp Railway across the pass commenced in 1891, and the line opened in 1893, as a steam hauled summer only service. The line was electrified in 1909/10, and year-round operation started in 1925 (to Lauterbrunnen) and 1960 (to Grindelwald). Construction of the Jungfrau Railway started in 1896, and it opened in stages from 1898 to 1912. Since the 1930s, Kleine Scheidegg has been the base of expeditions on the north face of the Eiger.

 

Geography

 

Kleine Scheidegg is among the most celebrated mountain passes in the Swiss Alps because of its position just north of the point where the Bernese Alps makes a salient angle, whose apex is the Eiger. From there, a series of high peaks rise in line towards the northeast, on the left side of the trail that follows a direct route from Meiringen, southwest across the Grosse Scheidegg, to Kleine Scheidegg. On the south side of the apex at the Eiger, the still higher summits of the Mönch, Jungfrau, Gletscherhorn, and Mittaghorn follow in succession from north to south.

 

Hidden by the Eiger from the vantage point of Grindelwald, the Mönch and Jungfrau break upon the traveller at Kleine Scheidegg in full grandeur, rising from the narrow gorge of the Trümmletental. Three comparatively large glaciers, with several minor accumulations of ice, are found in the hollows and on the shelving ledges of the three peaks that rise above the Trümmletental. The Eiger Glacier lies in the recess between the Eiger and the Mönch. This is separated by a huge projecting buttress of the latter mountain from the Guggi Glacier. Farther on is the Giessen Glacier, formed, at a higher level than the two last, on a shelf of the northwest side of the Jungfrau.

 

Politically, the pass at Kleine Scheidegg marks the boundary between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald, both of which are within the canton of Bern.

 

In popular culture

 

The film Kleine Scheidegg (1937) was set on the eponymous pass, directed by Richard Schweizer, and starring Susanne Baader, Leopold Biberti and Emil Hegetschweiler.

 

In the summer of 1974, Clint Eastwood and his cast and crew stayed at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg while filming The Eiger Sanction (1975). Several scenes were filmed in and around the hotel.

 

The 2008 film North Face, about Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser's 1936 attempt to climb the Eiger north face, was shot to a great extent at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes. Footage of the mountain's profile was also shot from Kleine Scheidegg's vantage point, though the climbing scenes were created mostly using computer generated imagery and green screen technology.

 

The hiking track in the area is the basis for the fictional Eiger Nordwand tracks in the racing video games Gran Turismo HD Concept, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Gran Turismo 5, and Gran Turismo 6.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Die Kleine Scheidegg ist die Passhöhe (2061 m ü. M.) zwischen Eiger (3967 m ü. M.) und Lauberhorn (2472 m ü. M.) im Berner Oberland in der Schweiz, die Grindelwald mit Lauterbrunnen verbindet. Auf der Kleinen Scheidegg befinden sich Hotels, Restaurants, Skilifte sowie der Bahnhof der beiden Zahnradbahnen Wengernalpbahn und Jungfraubahn.

 

Die Wengernalpbahn führt von Lauterbrunnen und Wengen über die Kleine Scheidegg nach Grindelwald. Die Jungfraubahn führt von dort durch Eiger und Mönch hinauf zum Jungfraujoch. Erstere wurde im Jahr 1893 fertiggestellt. Im Sommer 1896 wurde mit dem Bau der Jungfraubahn begonnen. 1898 wurde der Abschnitt bis zum Bahnhof Eigergletscher in Betrieb genommen; 1912 wurde die ganze neun Kilometer lange Strecke bis zum Jungfraujoch in Betrieb genommen. Der Tourismus hatte sich aber schon vor dem Bau der Bahnen entwickelt: Seit dem Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts besuchten Reisende auf Grand Tour das Berner Oberland und wanderten über die Kleine Scheidegg. Ein erstes Hotel für Touristen wurde 1840 erbaut. Mitte der 1920er Jahre waren die Hotels erstmals auch den Winter über geöffnet. 1941 wurde der Skilift aufs Lauberhorn erbaut.

 

«Die Kleine Scheidegg wird alljährlich von ungezählten Touristenscharen besucht, welchen so schon lebhaften Verkehr die Eröffnung der Jungfraubahn noch bedeutend gesteigert hat.»

– Geographisches Lexikon der Schweiz (1906)

 

Die Kleine Scheidegg ist bekannt für das eindrückliche Panorama mit dem Dreigestirn Eiger, Mönch (4110 m ü. M.) und Jungfrau (4158 m ü. M.) und zahlreichen Gletschern. Zudem bietet sich hier eine gute Einsicht in die Eiger-Nordwand, um Bergsteiger in der Wand mit dem Fernglas zu verfolgen.

 

Im Winter ist die Kleine Scheidegg – zusammen mit dem Männlichen – Mittelpunkt eines ausgedehnten Skigebiets rund um Grindelwald und Wengen. Am oberhalb der Scheidegg gelegenen Lauberhorn befindet sich der Start des bekannten Lauberhornrennens.

 

Seit 1993 ist die Kleine Scheidegg jedes Jahr im September Ziel des Jungfrau-Marathons, der in Interlaken startet. Von 1998 bis 2020 wurde auf der Kleinen Scheidegg jeweils zum Abschluss der Wintersaison das Snowpenair mit bis zu 10.000 Zuschauern veranstaltet. Eine Einigung bezüglich einer Einsprache gegen den Bau der V-Bahn sah vor, das Festival nicht länger durchzuführen.

 

(Wikipedia)

The mountain restaurant with its panorama terrace is located below the Eiger glacier at the foot of the Mönch and Jungfrau at 2322 metres above sea level. Restaurant Eigergletscher can be reached by mountain railway, by hiking trail and, during the ski season, with the Eigernordwand chairlift. I thought converting the image to black and white would give the image a more atmospheric feel, particularly with the low cloud sweeping in before obscuring the building from view just moments later.

Mürren above the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Bern, Switzerland seen from the Eigergletscher. Signs of autumn are evident.

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Eiger, Mönch und Jungfrau

 

seen on the way from Allmendhubel to Grütschalp

 

gesehen auf dem Weg vom Allmendhubel zur Grütschalp

 

The Eiger (German pronunciation: [ˈaɪ̯ɡɐ]) is a 3,967-metre (13,015 ft) mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m (13,642 ft), constituting one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps. While the northern side of the mountain rises more than 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above the two valleys of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, the southern side faces the large glaciers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, the most glaciated region in the Alps. The most notable feature of the Eiger is its nearly 1,800-metre-high (5,900 ft) north face of rock and ice, named Eiger-Nordwand, Eigerwand or just Nordwand, which is the biggest north face in the Alps.] This huge face towers over the resort of Kleine Scheidegg at its base, on the eponymous pass connecting the two valleys.

 

The first ascent of the Eiger was made by Swiss guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren and Irishman Charles Barrington, who climbed the west flank on August 11, 1858. The north face, the "last problem" of the Alps, considered amongst the most challenging and dangerous ascents, was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition.The Eiger has been highly publicized for the many tragedies involving climbing expeditions. Since 1935, at least 64 climbers have died attempting the north face, earning it the German nickname Mordwand, literally "murder(ous) wall"—a pun on its correct title of Nordwand (North Wall).

 

Although the summit of the Eiger can be reached by experienced climbers only, a railway tunnel runs inside the mountain, and two internal stations provide easy access to viewing-windows carved into the rock face. They are both part of the Jungfrau Railway line, running from Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, at the highest railway station in Europe. The two stations within the Eiger are Eigerwand (behind the north face) and Eismeer (behind the south face), at around 3,000 metres. The Eigerwand station has not been regularly served since 2016.

 

Etymology

 

The first mention of Eiger, appearing as "mons Egere", was found in a property sale document of 1252, but there is no clear indication of how exactly the peak gained its name. The three mountains of the ridge are commonly referred to as the Virgin (German: Jungfrau – translates to "virgin" or "maiden"), the Monk (Mönch), and the Ogre (Eiger; the standard German word for ogre is Oger). The name has been linked to the Latin term acer, meaning "sharp" or "pointed".

 

Geographic setting and description

 

The Eiger is located above the Lauterbrunnen Valley to the west and Grindelwald to the north in the Bernese Oberland region of the canton of Bern. It forms a renowned mountain range of the Bernese Alps together with its two companions: the Jungfrau (4,158 m (13,642 ft)) about 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) southwest of it and the Mönch (4,107 m (13,474 ft)) about in the middle of them. The nearest settlements are Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen (795 m (2,608 ft)) and Wengen (1,274 m (4,180 ft)). The Eiger has three faces: north (or more precisely NNW), east (or more precisely ESE), and west (or more precisely WSW). The northeastern ridge from the summit to the Ostegg (lit.: eastern corner, 2,709 m (8,888 ft)), called Mittellegi, is the longest on the Eiger. The north face overlooks the gently rising Alpine meadow between Grindelwald (943 m (3,094 ft)) and Kleine Scheidegg (2,061 m (6,762 ft)), a mountain railways junction and a pass, which can be reached from both sides, Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen/Wengen – by foot or train.

 

Politically, the Eiger (and its summit) belongs to the Bernese municipalities of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. The Kleine Scheidegg (literally, the small parting corner) connects the Männlichen-Tschuggen range with the western ridge of the Eiger. The Eiger does not properly form part of the main chain of the Bernese Alps, which borders the canton of Valais and forms the watershed between the Rhine and the Rhône, but constitutes a huge limestone buttress, projecting from the crystalline basement of the Mönch across the Eigerjoch. Consequently, all sides of the Eiger feed finally the same river, namely the Lütschine.

 

Eiger's water is connected through the Weisse Lütschine (the white one) in the Lauterbrunnen Valley on the west side (southwestern face of the Eiger), and through the Schwarze Lütschine (the black one) running through Grindelwald (northwestern face), which meet each other in Zweilütschinen (lit.: the two Lütschinen) where they form the proper Lütschine. The east face is covered by the glacier called Ischmeer, (Bernese German for Ice Sea), which forms one upper part of the fast-retreating Lower Grindelwald Glacier. These glaciers' water forms a short creek, which is also confusingly called the Weisse Lütschine, but enters the black one already in Grindelwald together with the water from the Upper Grindelwald Glacier. Therefore, all the water running down the Eiger converges at the northern foot of the Männlichen (2,342 m (7,684 ft)) in Zweilütschinen (654 m (2,146 ft)), about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northwest of the summit, where the Lütschine begins its northern course to Lake Brienz and the Aare (564 m (1,850 ft)).

 

Although the north face of the Eiger is almost free of ice, significant glaciers lie at the other sides of the mountain. The Eiger Glacier flows on the southwestern side of the Eiger, from the crest connecting it to the Mönch down to 2,400 m (7,900 ft), south of Eigergletscher railway station, and feeds the Weisse Lütschine through the Trümmelbach. On the east side, the Ischmeer–well visible from the windows of Eismeer railway station–flows eastwards from the same crest then turns to the north below the impressive wide Fiescherwand, the north face of the Fiescherhörner triple summit (4,049 m (13,284 ft)) down to about 1,600 m (5,200 ft) of the Lower Grindelwald Glacier system.

 

The massive composition of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau constitutes an emblematic sight of the Swiss Alps and is visible from many places on the Swiss Plateau and the Jura Mountains in the northwest. The higher Finsteraarhorn (4,270 m (14,010 ft)) and Aletschhorn (4,190 m (13,750 ft)), which are located about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the south, are generally less visible and situated in the middle of glaciers in less accessible areas. As opposed to the north side, the south and east sides of the range consist of large valley glaciers extending for up to 22 kilometres (14 mi), the largest (beyond the Eiger drainage basin) being those of Grand Aletsch, Fiesch, and Aar Glaciers, and is thus uninhabited. The whole area, the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area, comprising the highest summits and largest glaciers of the Bernese Alps, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.

 

In July 2006, a piece of the Eiger, amounting to approximately 700,000 cubic metres of rock, fell from the east face. As it had been noticeably cleaving for several weeks and fell into an uninhabited area, there were no injuries and no buildings were hit.

 

Climbing history

 

While the summit was reached without much difficulty in 1858 by a complex route on the west flank, the battle to climb the north face has captivated the interest of climbers and non-climbers alike. Before it was successfully climbed, most of the attempts on the face ended tragically and the Bernese authorities even banned climbing it and threatened to fine any party that should attempt it again. But the enthusiasm which animated the young talented climbers from Austria and Germany finally vanquished its reputation of unclimbability when a party of four climbers successfully reached the summit in 1938 by what is known as the "1938" or "Heckmair" route.

 

The climbers that attempted the north face could be easily watched through the telescopes from the Kleine Scheidegg, a pass between Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, connected by rail. The contrast between the comfort and civilization of the railway station and the agonies of the young men slowly dying a short yet uncrossable distance away led to intensive coverage by the international media.

 

After World War II, the north face was climbed twice in 1947, first by a party of two French guides, Louis Lachenal and Lionel Terray, then by a Swiss party consisting of H. Germann, with Hans and Karl Schlunegger.

 

First ascent

 

In 1857, a first recorded attempt was made by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann guiding the Austrian alpinist Sigismund Porges. They did manage the first ascent of neighboring Mönch instead. Porges, however, successfully made the second ascent of the Eiger in July 1861 with the guides Christian Michel, Hans and Peter Baumann.

 

The first ascent was made by the western flank on August 11, 1858 by Charles Barrington with guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren. On the previous afternoon, the party walked up to the Wengernalp hotel. From there they started the ascent of the Eiger at 3:30 a.m. Barrington describes the route much as it is followed today, staying close to the edge of the north face much of the way. They reached the summit at about noon, planted a flag, stayed for some 10 minutes and descended in about four hours. Barrington describes the reaching of the top, saying, "the two guides kindly gave me the place of first man up." After the descent, the party was escorted to the Kleine Scheidegg hotel, where their ascent was confirmed by observation of the flag left on the summit. The owner of the hotel then fired a cannon to celebrate the first ascent. According to Harrer's The White Spider, Barrington was originally planning to make the first ascent of the Matterhorn, but his finances did not allow him to travel there as he was already staying in the Eiger region.

 

Mittellegi ridge

 

Although the Mittellegi ridge had already been descended by climbers (since 1885) with the use of ropes in the difficult sections, it remained unclimbed until 1921. On the 10th of September of that year, Japanese climber Yuko Maki, along with Swiss guides Fritz Amatter, Samuel Brawand and Fritz Steuri made the first successful ascent of the ridge. The previous day, the party approached the ridge from the Eismeer railway station of the Jungfrau Railway and bivouacked for the night. They started the climb at about 6:00 a.m. and reached the summit of the Eiger at about 7:15 p.m., after an over 13 hours gruelling ascent. Shortly after, they descended the west flank. They finally reached Eigergletscher railway station at about 3:00 a.m. the next day.

 

Attempts on the north face

 

1935

 

In 1935, two young German climbers from Bavaria, Karl Mehringer and Max Sedlmeyer, arrived at Grindelwald to attempt the ascent of the north face. After waiting some time for the weather to improve, they set off, reaching the height of the Eigerwand station before stopping for their first bivouac. The following day, facing greater difficulties, they gained little height. On the third day, they made hardly any vertical gain. That night, the weather deteriorated, bringing snow and low cloud that shrouded the mountain from the observers below. Avalanches began to sweep the face. Two days later, the weather briefly cleared, and the two men were glimpsed a little higher and about to bivouac for the fifth night, before clouds descended again. A few days later, the weather finally cleared, revealing a completely white north face.: 225  Weeks later, the German World War I ace Ernst Udet went searching for the missing men with his aircraft, eventually spotting one of them frozen to death in what became known as the "Death Bivouac". Sedlmeyer's body was found at the foot of the face the following year by his brothers Heinrich and Martin Meier, who were part of a group looking for the victims of the 1936 climbing disaster. Mehringer's remains were found in 1962 by Swiss climbers below the "Flat Iron" (Bügeleisen) at the lefthand end of the second ice field. 

 

1936

 

The next year ten young climbers from Austria and Germany came to Grindelwald and camped at the foot of the mountain. Before their attempts started one of them was killed during a training climb, and the weather was so bad during that summer that, after waiting for a change and seeing none on the way, several members of the party gave up. Of the four that remained, two were Bavarians, Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz, and two were Austrians, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer. When the weather improved they made a preliminary exploration of the lowest part of the face. Hinterstoisser fell 37 metres (121 ft) but was not injured. A few days later the four men finally began the ascent of the face. They climbed quickly, but on the next day, after their first bivouac, the weather changed; clouds came down and hid the group to the observers. They did not resume the climb until the following day, when, during a break, the party was seen descending, but the climbers could be seen only intermittently from the ground. The group had no choice but to retreat, since Angerer had suffered serious injuries from falling rock. The party became stuck on the face when they could not recross the difficult Hinterstoisser Traverse, from which they had taken the rope they had first used to climb it. The weather then deteriorated for two days. They were ultimately swept away by an avalanche, which only Kurz survived, hanging on a rope. Three guides started on an extremely perilous rescue attempt. They failed to reach him but came within shouting distance and learned what had happened. Kurz explained the fate of his companions: one had fallen down the face, another was frozen above him, and the third had fractured his skull in falling and was hanging dead on the rope.

 

In the morning the three guides came back, traversing the face from a hole near the Eigerwand station and risking their lives under incessant avalanches. Toni Kurz was still alive but almost helpless, with one hand and one arm completely frozen. Kurz hauled himself off the cliff after cutting loose the rope that bound him to his dead teammate below and climbed back onto the face. The guides were not able to pass an unclimbable overhang that separated them from Kurz. They managed to give him a rope long enough to reach them by tying two ropes together. While descending, Kurz could not get the knot to pass through his carabiner. He tried for hours to reach his rescuers who were only a few metres below him. Then he began to lose consciousness. One of the guides, climbing on another's shoulders, was able to touch the tip of Kurz's crampons with his ice-axe but could not reach higher. Kurz was unable to descend further and, completely exhausted, died slowly.

 

1937

 

An attempt was made in 1937 by Mathias Rebitsch and Ludwig Vörg. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, they were nonetheless the first climbers who returned alive from a serious attempt on the face. They started the climb on 11 August and reached a high point of a few rope lengths above Death Bivouac. A storm then broke and after three days on the wall they had to retreat. This was the first successful withdrawal from a significant height on the wall.

 

First ascent of the north face

 

The north face was first climbed on July 24, 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek in a German–Austrian party. The party had originally consisted of two independent teams: Harrer (who did not have a pair of crampons on the climb) and Kasparek were joined on the face by Heckmair and Vörg, who had started their ascent a day later and had been helped by the fixed rope that the lead team had left across the Hinterstoisser Traverse. The two groups, led by the experienced Heckmair, decided to join their forces and roped together as a single group of four. Heckmair later wrote: "We, the sons of the older Reich, united with our companions from the Eastern Border to march together to victory."

 

The expedition was constantly threatened by snow avalanches and climbed as quickly as possible between the falls. On the third day a storm broke and the cold was intense. The four men were caught in an avalanche as they climbed "the Spider," the snow-filled cracks radiating from an ice-field on the upper face, but all possessed sufficient strength to resist being swept off the face. The members successfully reached the summit at four o'clock in the afternoon. They were so exhausted that they only just had the strength to descend by the normal route through a raging blizzard.

 

Other notable events

 

1864 (Jul 27): Fourth ascent, and first ascent by a woman, Lucy Walker, who was part of a group of six guides (including Christian Almer and Melchior Anderegg) and five clients, including her brother Horace Walker[

1871: First ascent by the southwest ridge, 14 July (Christian Almer, Christian Bohren, and Ulrich Almer guiding W. A. B. Coolidge and Meta Brevoort).

1890: First ascent in winter, Ulrich Kaufmann and Christian Jossi guiding C. W. Mead and G. F. Woodroffe.

1924: First ski ascent and descent via the Eiger glacier by Englishman Arnold Lunn and the Swiss Fritz Amacher, Walter Amstutz and Willy Richardet.

1932: First ascent of the northeast face ("Lauper route") by Hans Lauper, Alfred Zürcher, Alexander Graven and Josef Knubel

1970: First ski descent over the west flank, by Sylvain Saudan.

1986: Welshman Eric Jones becomes the first person to BASE jump from the Eiger.

1988: Original Route (ED2), north face, Eiger (3970m), Alps, Switzerland, first American solo (nine and a half hours) by Mark Wilford.

1991: First ascent, Metanoia Route, North Face, solo, winter, without bolts, Jeff Lowe.

1992 (18 July): Three BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA clients died in a fall down the West Flank: Willie Dunnachie; Douglas Gaines; and Phillip Davies. They had ascended the mountain via the Mittellegi Ridge.

2006 (14 June): François Bon and Antoine Montant make the first speedflying descent of the Eiger.

2006 (15 July): Approximately 700,000 cubic metres (20 million cubic feet) of rock from the east side collapses. No injuries or damage were reported.

2015 (23 July): A team of British Para-Climbers reached the summit via the West Flank Route. The team included John Churcher, the world's first blind climber to summit the Eiger, sight guided by the team leader Mark McGowan. Colin Gourlay enabled the ascent of other team members, including Al Taylor who has multiple sclerosis, and the young autistic climber Jamie Owen from North Wales. The ascent was filmed by the adventure filmmakers Euan Ryan & Willis Morris of Finalcrux Films.

 

Books and films

 

The 1959 book The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer describes the first successful ascent of the Eiger north face.

The Climb Up To Hell, 1962, by Jack Olson, an account of the ill-fated 1957 attempted climb of the north face by an Italian four-man team and the dramatic rescue of the sole survivor mounted by an international all-volunteer group of rescuers.

Eiger Direct, 1966, by Dougal Haston and Peter Gillman, London: Collins, also known as Direttissima; the Eiger Assault

The 1971 novel The Ice Mirror by Charles MacHardy describes the second attempted ascent of the Eiger north face by the main character.

The 1972 novel The Eiger Sanction is an action/thriller novel by Rodney William Whitaker (writing under the pseudonym Trevanian), based around the climbing of the Eiger. This was then made into the 1975 film The Eiger Sanction starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy. The Eiger Sanction film crew included very experienced mountaineers (e.g., Mike Hoover, Dougal Haston, and Hamish MacInnes, see Summit, 52, Spring 2010) as consultants, to ensure accuracy in the climbing footage, equipment and techniques.

The Eiger, 1974, by Dougal Haston, London: Cassell

The 1982 book Eiger, Wall of Death by Arthur Roth is an historical account of first ascents of the north face.

The 1982 book Traverse of The Gods by Bob Langley is a World War II spy thriller where a group escaping from Nazi Germany is trapped and the only possible exit route is via the Nordwand.

Eiger, 1983, a documentary film by Leo Dickinson of Eric Jones' 1981 solo ascent of the north face.

Eiger Dreams, 1990, a collection of essays by Jon Krakauer, begins with an account of Krakauer's own attempt to climb the north face.

Eiger: The Vertical Arena (German edition, 1998; English edition, 2000), edited by Daniel Anker, a comprehensive climbing history of the north face authored by 17 climbers, with numerous photographs and illustrations.

The IMAX film The Alps features John Harlin III's climb up the north face in September 2005. Harlin's father, John Harlin II, set out 40 years earlier to attempt a direct route (the direttissima) up the 6,000-foot (1,800 m) face, the so-called "John Harlin route". At 1300 m, his rope broke, and he fell to his death. Composer James Swearingen created a piece named Eiger: Journey to the Summit in his memory.

The 2007 docu/drama film The Beckoning Silence featuring mountaineer Joe Simpson, recounting—with filmed reconstructions—the ill-fated 1936 expedition up the north face of the Eiger and how Heinrich Harrer's book The White Spider inspired him to take up climbing. The film followed Simpson's eponymous 2003 book. Those playing the parts of the original climbing team were Swiss mountain guides Roger Schäli (Toni Kurz), Simon Anthamatten (Andreas Hinterstoisser), Dres Abegglen (Willy Angerer) and Cyrille Berthod (Edi Rainer). The documentary won an Emmy Award the subsequent year.

The 2008 German historical fiction film Nordwand is based on the 1936 attempt to climb the Eiger north face. The film is about the two German climbers, Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser, involved in a competition with an Austrian duo to be the first to scale the north face of Eiger.

The 2010 documentary Eiger: Wall of Death by Steve Robinson.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

The Mönch (German pronunciation: [ˈmœnç] German: "monk") at 4,110 metres (13,480 ft) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland. Together with the Eiger and the Jungfrau, it forms a highly recognisable group of mountains, visible from far away.

 

The Mönch lies on the border between the cantons of Valais and Bern, and forms part of a mountain ridge between the Jungfrau and Jungfraujoch to the west, and the Eiger to the east. It is west of Mönchsjoch, a pass at 3,650 metres (11,980 ft), Mönchsjoch Hut, and north of the Jungfraufirn and Ewigschneefäld, two affluents of the Great Aletsch Glacier. The north side of the Mönch forms a step wall above the Lauterbrunnen valley.

 

The Jungfrau railway tunnel runs right under the summit, at an elevation of approximately 3,300 metres (10,830 ft).

 

The summit was first climbed on record on 15 August 1857 by Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann (1831-1861), Ulrich Kaufmann and Sigismund Porges.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

The Jungfrau (YOONG-frow, German pronunciation: [ˈjʊŋˌfʁaʊ̯], transl. "maiden, virgin"), at 4,158 meters (13,642 ft) is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall of mountains overlooking the Bernese Oberland and the Swiss Plateau, one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps.

 

The summit was first reached on August 3, 1811, by the Meyer brothers of Aarau and two chamois hunters from Valais. The ascent followed a long expedition over the glaciers and high passes of the Bernese Alps. It was not until 1865 that a more direct route on the northern side was opened.

 

The construction of the Jungfrau Railway in the early 20th century, which connects Kleine Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch, the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps. Along with the Aletsch Glacier to the south, the Jungfrau is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2001.

 

Etymology

 

The name Jungfrau ("maiden, virgin"), which refers to the highest of the three prominent mountains overlooking the Interlaken region, along with the Mönch ("monk") and the Eiger ("ogre"), is most likely derived from the name Jungfrauenberg given to Wengernalp, the alpine meadow directly facing the huge northern side of the Jungfrau, across the Trummelbach gorge. Wengernalp was so named for the nuns of Interlaken Monastery, its historical owner. Contrary to popular belief, the name did not originate from the appearance of the snow-covered mountain, the latter looking like a veiled woman.

 

The "virgin" peak was heavily romanticized as "goddess" or "priestess" in late 18th to 19th century Romanticism. Its summit, considered inaccessible, remained untouched until the 19th century. After the first ascent in 1811 by Swiss alpinist Johann Rudolf Meyer, the peak was jokingly referred to as "Mme Meyer" (Mrs. Meyer).

 

Geographic setting

 

Politically, the Jungfrau (and its massif) is split between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen (Bern) and Fieschertal (Valais). It is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km (7.5 and 5 mi) away. But from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Bernese Oberland peaks; with a height difference of 3,600 m (11,800 ft) between the summit and the town of Interlaken. This, and the extreme steepness of the north face, secured for it an early reputation for inaccessibility.

 

The Jungfrau is the westernmost and highest point of a gigantic 10 km (6.2 mi) wall dominating the valleys of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. The wall is formed by the alignment of some of the biggest north faces in the Alps, with the Mönch (4,107 m or 13,474 ft) and Eiger (3,967 m or 13,015 ft) to the east of the Jungfrau, and overlooks the valleys to its north by a height of up to 3 km (1.9 mi). The Jungfrau is approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) from the Eiger; with the summit of the Mönch between the two mountains, 3.5 km (2.2 mi) from the Jungfrau. The Jungfraujoch is the saddle between the Jungfrau and the Mönch and the Eigerjoch is the saddle between the Mönch and the Eiger. The wall is extended to the east by the Fiescherwand and to the west by the Lauterbrunnen Wall, although it follows different directions from the Jungfrau and the Eiger.

 

The difference of altitude between the deep valley of Lauterbrunnen (800 m or 2,600 ft) and the summit is particularly visible from the area of Mürren. From the valley floor, west of the massif, the altitude gain is more than 3 km (1.9 mi) for a horizontal distance of 4 km (2.5 mi).

 

The landscapes around the Jungfrau are extremely contrasted. In contrast to the vertiginous precipices of its northwest, the mountain's southeastern side emerges from the upper snows of the Jungfraufirn, one of the main feeders of the Aletsch Glacier, at around 3,500 meters (11,500 ft). The 20-kilometer-long (12 mi) valley of Aletsch on the southeast is completely uninhabited, and is surrounded by neighboring valleys with similar landscapes. The area as a whole constitutes the largest glaciated area not just in the Alps, but in Europe as well.

 

Climbing history

 

In 1811, the brothers Johann Rudolf (1768–1825) and Hieronymus Meyer, sons of Johann Rudolf Meyer (1739–1813), the head of a rich merchant family of Aarau, along with several servants and a porter picked up at Guttannen, first reached the Valais by way of the Grimsel, and crossed the Beich Pass, a glacier pass over the Oberaletsch Glacier, to the head of the Lötschen valley. There, they added two local chamois hunters, Alois Volken and Joseph Bortis, to their party and traversed the Lötschenlücke before reaching the Aletschfirn (the west branch of the Aletsch Glacier), where they established the base camp, north of the Aletschhorn. After the Guttannen porter was sent back alone over the Lötschenlücke, the party finally reached the summit of the Jungfrau by the Rottalsattel on August 3. They then recrossed the two passes named to their point of departure in Valais, and went home again over the Grimsel.

 

The journey was a most extraordinary one for the time, and some persons threw doubts at its complete success. To settle these, another expedition was undertaken in 1812. In this the two sons, Rudolf (1791–1833) and Gottlieb (1793–1829), of Johann Rudolf Meyer, played the chief parts. After an unsuccessful attempt, defeated by bad weather, in the course of which the Oberaarjoch was crossed twice (this route being much more direct than the long detour through the Lötschental), Rudolf, with the two Valais hunters (Alois Volker and Joseph Bortis), a Guttannen porter named Arnold Abbühl, and a Hasle man, bivouacked on a depression on the southeast ridge of the Finsteraarhorn. Next day (August 16) the whole party attempted the ascent of the Finsteraarhorn from the Studer névé on the east by way of the southeast ridge, but Meyer, exhausted, remained behind. The following day the party crossed the Grünhornlücke to the Aletsch Glacier, but bad weather then put an end to further projects. At a bivouac, probably just opposite the present Konkordia Hut, the rest of the party, having come over the Oberaarjoch and the Grünhornlücke, joined the Finsteraarhorn party. Gottlieb, Rudolf's younger brother, had more patience than the rest and remained longer at the huts near the Märjelensee, where the adventurers had taken refuge. He could make the second ascent (September 3) of the Jungfrau, the Rottalsattel being reached from the east side as is now usual, and his companions being the two Valais hunters.

 

The third ascent dates from 1828, when several men from Grindelwald, headed by Peter Baumann, planted their flag upon the summit. Next came the ascent by Louis Agassiz, James David Forbes, Heath, Desor, and Duchatelier in 1841, recounted by Desor in his Excursions et Séjours dans les Glaciers. Gottlieb Samuel Studer published an account of the next ascent made by himself and Bürki in 1842.

 

In 1863, a party consisting of three young Oxford University graduates and three Swiss guides successfully reached the summit and returned to the base camp of the Faulberg (located near the present position of the Konkordia Hut) in less than 11 hours (see the section below, The 1863 Ascent). In the same year Mrs Stephen Winkworth became the first woman to climb the Jungfrau. She also slept overnight in the Faulberg cave prior to the ascent as there was no hut at that time.

 

Before the construction of the Jungfraujoch railway tunnel, the approach from the glaciers on the south side was very long. The first direct route from the valley of Lauterbrunnen was opened in 1865 by Geoffrey Winthrop Young, H. Brooke George with the guide Christian Almer. They had to carry ladders with them in order to cross the many crevasses on the north flank. Having spent the night on the rocks of the Schneehorn (3,402 m or 11,161 ft) they gained next morning the Silberlücke, the depression between the Jungfrau and Silberhorn, and thence in little more than three hours reached the summit. Descending to the Aletsch Glacier they crossed the Mönchsjoch, and passed a second night on the rocks, reaching Grindelwald next day. This route became a usual until the opening of the Jungfraujoch.

 

The first winter ascent was made on 23 January 1874, by Meta Brevoort and W. A. B. Coolidge with guides Christian and Ulrich Almer. They used a sled to reach the upper Aletsch Glacier, and were accompanied by Miss Brevoort's favorite dog, Tschingel.

 

The Jungfrau was climbed via the west side for the first time in 1885 by Fritz and Heinrich von Allmen, Ulrich Brunner, Fritz Graf, Karl Schlunegger and Johann Stäger—all from Wengen. They ascended the Rottal ridge (Innere Rottalgrat) and reached the summit on 21 September. The more difficult and dangerous northeast ridge that connects the summit from the Jungfraujoch was first climbed on 30 July 1911 by Albert Weber and Hans Schlunegger.

 

In July 2007, six Swiss Army recruits, part of the Mountain Specialists Division 1, died in an accident on the normal route. Although the causes of the deaths was not immediately clear, a report by the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research concluded that the avalanche risk was unusually high due to recent snowfall, and that there was "no other reasonable explanation" other than an avalanche for the incident.

 

The 1863 Ascent

 

The Führerbuch of the Alpine guide Peter Baumann records an ascent of the Jungfrau made by himself with three men from England in July 1863. The foreign climbers were long thought to have been John Tyndall, J.J. Hornby and T.H. Philpott, until in 1958 the records were checked by the Alpine Club and the following conclusion was reached:

 

On July 23, 1963, Phillpotts, with James Robertson and H.J. Chaytor, climbed the Jungfrau (the entry shown in A.J. 32. 227 was wrongly transcribed by Montagnier, who says ‘T.H. Philpott’ for J.S. Phillpotts). The entry in Peter Baumann’s Führerbuch (facsimile in A.C. archives) says that the trio crossed the Strahlegg Pass and the Oberaarjoch, and then climbed the Jungfrau from the Eggishorn.

 

Tyndall, Hornby and Philpott were well-known Alpinists, but there is no record of their having attempted the Jungfrau in 1863. Robertson, Chaytor and Phillpotts were novices; they had recently graduated from Oxford University where they had all been keen members of the Oxford University Boat Club.

 

William Robertson (1839–1892), the leader of the expedition (wrongly called ‘James’ in the Note quoted above), was an Australian by birth, and the first non-British national to take part in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. He later became a barrister and member of parliament in Australia. He and H.J. Chaytor (possibly the father of the medievalist Henry John Chaytor) were both members of the victorious Oxford team in the 1861 Boat Race. James Surtees Phillpotts (1839–1930) was the third member of the team; he would later become headmaster of Bedford School. The trio had three Swiss guides, Peter Baumann, Peter Kaufmann ("Grabipeter", father of Peter Kaufmann the younger) and Rubi.

 

A description of the ascent of the Jungfrau is contained in a letter dated Sunday 26 July which Phillpotts wrote to his friend Alexander Potts (later to become the first headmaster of Fettes College). The letter is now in the possession of the Alpine Club. The following extracts are from that letter.

 

The Virgin certainly did not smile on the poor "fools who rushed in" on her sacred heights, i.e. in plain British, we had the treadmill slog, the biting wind, the half frost-bitten feet and the flayed faces that generally attend an Alpine ascent.

 

We got to the Faulberg hole about dark, and enjoyed the coffee the longman (Kauffmann) made, as one would in a hole in a rock in a cold evening. The "Faulberg Nachtlager" consists of two holes and a vestibule to the upper hole. The Upper Hole in which we lodged just contained Chay[tor], the Guv [Robertson] and myself, stretched at full length on a little hay over a hard rock mattress, convex instead of concave at the point where one likes to rest one's weight. Chaytor was in the middle, and as we were very close was warm and slept. The Guv and I courted Nature's soft nurse in vain. At two we got up and methodically put our feet into the stocks, i.e. our boots, breakfasted and shivered, then started (unwashed of course, as the cold gave us malignant hydrophobia) a little after 3:30.

 

The hole was about 150 feet [46 m] up one of the loose stone cliffs one now knows so well. So we groped our way down it and over the moraine – the stars still lingering, as day was just dawning. We could not start at 1:30, the proper time, as there was no moon and we wanted light as we had to tramp the glacier at once. Rubi led, and off we went, roped and in Indian file, in the old treadmill way over the slippery plowed-field-like snow that lay on the upper glacier, for a pull without a check of one or two hours.

 

At last we came to the region of bergschrunds and crevasses. They seemed to form at first an impassable labyrinth, but gradually the guides wound in and out between the large rifts, which were exquisitely lovely with their overhanging banks of snow and glittering icicles, and then trod as on pins and needles over a snowbridge here and there, or had to take a jump over the more feasible ones – and we found ourselves at the foot of the mountain; trudged up on the snow which ought to have been crisp but was even then more or less fresh fallen and sloppy; had to creep over about three crevasses, and after a tiresome pull, dragging one leg after another out of ankle or knee deep snow, we got on a crest of snow at right angles to the slope we had just come up. That slope with its crevasses on one side, and on the other a shorter and much steeper one which led in a few steps to a precipice.

 

All along this crest went a snakelike long crevasse, for which we had continually to sound, and go first one side and then the other; then we got to the foot of the saddle. Some twenty or thirty steps, some cut, some uncut, soon took us up a kind of hollow, and we got on a little sloping plateau of some six feet [1.8 m] large, where we left the grub and the knapsack, keeping my small flask of cognac only. Then up a steep ice slope, very steep I should say, down which the bits of ice cut out of the steps hopped and jumped at full gallop and then bounded over to some bottomless place which we could not see down. Their pace gave one an unpleasant idea of the possible consequence of a slip.

 

Here we encountered a biting bitter wind. Peter Baumann cut magnificent steps, at least he and Rubi did between them, the one improving on the other's first rough blows. After Rubi came Chaytor with Kauffmann behind him, then the Guv, and then myself, the tail of the string. Each step was a long lift from the last one, and as the snow was shallow they had to be cut in the ice which was like rock on this last slope.

 

Suddenly there burst upon us, on lifting our heads over the ridge, the green and cheerful valleys of Lauterbrunnen and Interlaken, of Grindelwald and a distant view of others equally beautiful stretching on for ever in one vast panorama. On the other side in grim contrast there was a wild and even awful scene. One gazed about one and tried in vain to see to the bottom of dark yawning abysses and sheer cliffs of ice or rock.

 

Tourism

 

Named after the Jungfrau, the Jungfrau Region of the Bernese Oberland is a major tourist destination in the Alps and includes a large number of railways and other facilities. While the mountain peak was once difficult to access, the Jungfrau Railway, a rack railway, now goes to the Jungfraujoch railway station at 3,454 m (11,332 ft), therefore providing an easy access to the upper Aletsch Glacier and a relatively short access to the Jungfrau itself, the height difference between the station and the summit being only 704 metres and the horizontal distance being slightly less than 2 kilometres. As a result, in the popular mind, the Jungfrau has become a mountain associated with the Bernese Oberland and Interlaken, rather than with Upper Valais and Fiesch.

 

In 1893, Adolf Guyer-Zeller conceived of the idea of a railway tunnel to the Jungfraujoch to make the glaciated areas on its south side more accessible. The building of the tunnel took 16 years and the summit station was not opened before 1912. The goal was in fact to reach the summit of the Jungfrau with an elevator from the highest railway station, located inside the mountain. The complete project was not realized because of the outbreak of the World War I. Nevertheless, it was at the time one of the highest railways in the world and remains today the highest in Europe and the only (non-cable) railway on Earth going well past the perennial snow-line.

 

The Jungfrau Railway leaves from Kleine Scheidegg, which can be reached from both sides by trains from Grindelwald, and Lauterbrunnen via Wengen. The train enters the Jungfrau Tunnel running eastward through the Eiger just above Eigergletscher, which is, since 2020, also accessible by aerial tramway from Grindelwald. Before arriving at the Jungfraujoch, it stops for a few minutes at two other stations, Eigerwand (on the north face of the Eiger) and Eismeer (on the south side), where passengers can see through the holes excavated from the mountain. The journey from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch takes approximately 50 minutes including the stops; the downhill return journey taking only 35 minutes.

 

A large complex of tunnels and buildings has been constructed at the Jungfraujoch, referred to as the "Top of Europe". There are several restaurants and bars, shops, multimedia exhibitions, a post office, and a research station with dedicated accommodation facilities. An elevator enables access to the top of the Sphinx and its observatory, at 3,571 m (11,716 ft), the highest viewing platform of the area. Outside, at the level of the Jungfraujoch, there is a ski school, and the "Ice Palace", a collection of elaborate ice sculptures displayed inside the Aletsch Glacier. Another tunnel leads to the east side of the Sphinx, where one can walk on the glacier up to the Mönchsjoch Hut, the only hotel infrastructure in the area.

 

Apart from the Jungfraujoch, many facilities have been built in the Jungfrau Region, including numerous mountain railways. In 1908, the first public cable car in the world, the Wetterhorn Elevator, opened at the foot of the Wetterhorn, but was closed seven years later. The Schilthorn above Mürren, the Männlichen above Wengen, and the Schynige Platte above Wilderswil, offer good views of the Jungfrau and the Lauterbrunnen valley. On the south side, the Eggishorn above Fiesch also offers views of the Jungfrau, across the Aletsch Glacier.

 

Climbing routes

 

The normal route follows the traces of the first climbers, but the long approach on the Aletsch Glacier is no longer necessary. From the area of the Jungfraujoch the route to the summit takes only a few hours. Most climbers start from the Mönchsjoch Hut. After a traverse of the Jungfraufirn the route heads to the Rottalsattel (3,885 m or 12,746 ft), from where the southern ridge leads to the Jungfrau. It is not considered a very difficult climb but it can be dangerous on the upper section above the Rottalsattel, where most accidents happen. The use of the Jungfrau Railway instead of the much more gradual approach from Fiesch (or Fieschertal), via the Konkordia Hut, can cause some acclimatization troubles as the difference of altitude between the railway stations of Interlaken and Jungfraujoch is almost 3 km (1.9 mi).

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Der Eiger ist ein Berg in den Berner Alpen mit einer Höhe von 3967 m ü. M. Er ist dem Hauptkamm der Berner Alpen etwas nördlich vorgelagert und steht vollständig auf dem Territorium des Schweizer Kantons Bern. Zusammen mit Mönch und Jungfrau, deren Gipfel auf der Grenze zum Kanton Wallis liegen, dominiert der Eiger die Landschaft des zentralen Berner Oberlandes. Die etwa 3000 Meter über dem Tal aufragenden Nordflanken dieser Berge stellen die Schauseite einer der bekanntesten je als ein «Dreigestirn» bezeichneten Gipfel-Dreiergruppen in den Alpen dar.

 

Insbesondere die Nordwand des Eigers fasziniert sowohl Bergsteiger als auch Alpin-Laien. Durch dramatische Begehungsversuche und gelungene Begehungen dieser Wand wurde der Eiger weltweit bekannt und immer wieder ins Blickfeld der Öffentlichkeit gerückt – nicht zuletzt, da die gesamte Wand von Grindelwald und der Bahnstation Kleine Scheidegg aus einsehbar ist. Die Jungfraubahn mit ihrem Tunnel durch den Eigerfels ist seit ihrer Eröffnung im Jahr 1912 ein Touristenmagnet.

 

Namensherkunft

 

Die erste urkundliche Erwähnung des Eigers stammt aus dem Jahre 1252 – dies ist die zweitfrüheste urkundliche Erwähnung eines Schweizer Bergs nach dem Bietschhorn (1233). Am 24. Juli 1252 wurde in einer Verkaufsurkunde zwischen Ita von Wädiswyl und der Propstei Interlaken ein Grundstück mit den Worten «ad montem qui nominatur Egere» (dt.: Bis zum Berg, der Eiger genannt wird) abgegrenzt. Ein halbes Jahrhundert später wird der Eiger in einem Belehnungsbrief erstmals in deutscher Sprache erwähnt: «under Eigere».

 

Für die Herkunft des Namens gibt es drei gängige Erklärungen. Eine erste ist der althochdeutsche Name Agiger oder Aiger, wie der erste Siedler unterhalb des Eigers geheissen haben soll. Der Berg über dessen Weiden wurde deshalb Aigers Geissberg oder auch nur Geissberg genannt. Hieraus entwickelten sich dann im Laufe der Zeit die direkten Vorgänger der heutigen Bezeichnung. Die Herkunft des Namens könnte auch von dem lateinischen Wort acer kommen, woraus sich im Französischen aigu entwickelte. Beide Worte haben die Bedeutung scharf beziehungsweise spitz – in Anlehnung an die Form des Eigers. Die dritte Erklärung stammt von der früher gebräuchlichen Schreibweise Heiger, was sich aus dem Dialektausdruck «dr hej Ger» entwickelt haben könnte (hej bedeutet hoch, Ger war ein germanischer Wurfspiess). Wiederum wäre hier die Form des Eigers ausschlaggebend für seine Bezeichnung.

 

Im Zusammenhang mit dem Eiger wird auch des Öfteren die Namensähnlichkeit mit dem Oger, einem menschenähnlichen Unhold, genannt. In Anlehnung an das Dreigestirn «Eiger–Mönch–Jungfrau» gibt es die Erzählung, der Unhold Eiger wolle seine lüsternen Pranken auf die Jungfrau legen, woran er aber vom fröhlichen Mönch gehindert werde. Zu dieser Geschichte sind in Grindelwald alte Karikaturen und neuere Postkarten zu kaufen.

 

Lage und Umgebung

 

Der Eiger erhebt sich direkt südwestlich von Grindelwald (Amtsbezirk Interlaken). Die bekannte Nordwand ist genaugenommen eine Nordwestwand. Neben dieser existiert in der berühmten «Eiger-Nordansicht» auch noch die Nordostwand. Sie bildet die Basis für den scharfen Mittellegigrat, der vom Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher zum Gipfel zieht. Auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite begrenzt der Westgrat die Nordwand. Ihm folgt die Westflanke, in welcher sich der Eigergletscher und der Klein Eiger befinden. An diesen schliessen sich der Südwestgrat und noch ein Stück östlicher der Südgrat an, der wiederum die Südostwand begrenzt, welche bis zum Mittellegigrat reicht. Südöstlich des Eigers liegt der Grindelwald-Fieschergletscher.

 

In der Umgebung des Eigers befinden sich einige Viertausender des Aarmassivs. Im Osten ist er umgeben von Schreckhorn (4078 m ü. M.) und Lauteraarhorn (4042 m ü. M.), im Südosten vom Grossen Fiescherhorn (4049 m ü. M.), und im Südwesten ist der Mönch (4107 m ü. M.) durch das Nördliche und Südliche Eigerjoch vom Eiger getrennt. Zusammen mit dem Mönch und der Jungfrau (4158 m ü. M.) bildet der Eiger das «Dreigestirn», bei dem der Eiger den nordöstlichen und die Jungfrau den südwestlichen Endpunkt bildet. Entgegen der steil abfallenden Nordseite des Berges befindet sich im Süden des Eigers die Hochfläche und Gletscherwelt der Berner Alpen. Seit Ende 2001 gehört der Eiger zum Gebiet des UNESCO-Weltnaturerbes Schweizer Alpen Jungfrau-Aletsch.

 

Geologie

 

Der Eiger ist ein Teil des helvetischen Systems, das im Grossraum um den Thunersee die Decken des Alpennordrandes bildet. In einer späten Phase der alpidischen Gebirgsfaltung wurden die helvetischen Kalk-Sedimente von ihrer kristallinen Basis abgeschürft und in Form einer Abscherungsdecke nach Nordwesten verschoben. Während des Faltungsprozesses in der Alpenentstehung brachen die Kalkbänke auf und Kluft- sowie Faltensysteme entstanden, die später mit ausgefälltem Calcit geschlossen wurden. Wichtigste Bestandteile der Sedimente sind der Schrattenkalk der Kreidezeit und der Malmkalk. Als Füll- und Schmiermaterial dienten Mergel und Tonschiefer.

 

Die klar erkennbare Faltung des Helvetikums mit seinen gebänderten, plattigen Kalkschichten zeigt sich auch am Eiger. Das Massiv des Eigers besteht komplett aus Kalk der helvetischen Zone und schliesst die Flyschschichten und die Molasse des Grindelwaldbeckens steil nach Süden hin ab. Weil der Talkessel von Grindelwald so reich gegliedert ist, finden hier die verschiedensten Tiere einen Lebensraum.[6] Südlich des Eigers schliesst sich das Aarmassiv mit seinem Innertkirchner-Lauterbrunner-Kristallin an. Teilweise hat sich dieses über die Sedimente des Eiger geschoben. Im Bereich des Mönchs treffen die Sedimente auf Altkristallin. Die typischen Gesteine des helvetischen Systems im Bereich des Eigers entstanden während des Jura, dem mittleren Zeitabschnitts des Mesozoikums. Der vorherrschende Kalk ist dabei mit verschiedenen Gesteinen durchmischt. Es zeigen sich Mergel-Kalke und -Schiefer, Ton-Schiefer, Eisenoolith sowie kalkige Sandsteine.

 

Die Kalkschichten des Eigers lagern auf Gneis und sind um 60–70° nach Norden geneigt. Geprägt wurde die heutige Form des Eigers durch die Eiszeiten. Während der Riss-Kaltzeit reichte die Vergletscherung bis an den Fuss der Nordwand. In der Würm-Kaltzeit war die Mächtigkeit des Eises um 200 Meter geringer. Durch die Bewegung der Gletscher wurde die Erdoberfläche umgestaltet. Vom Eis überlagerte Landschaften wurden abgeschliffen, wohingegen unbedeckte Bereiche durch Verwitterung und andere Formen der Erosion verändert wurden. Mit dem Rückzug des Eises änderten sich auch die Druckverhältnisse im Gestein, was sich durch Entlastungsbewegungen formgebend auswirkte. Prägend für den Eiger und seine Form war die allseitige Umlagerung von Eismassen, welche für einen recht gleichmässigen und markanten Abrieb aller Wände sorgte. Darüber hinaus war die Nordwand durch ihre Exposition den Abtragungsprozessen wie Frostverwitterung mehr ausgesetzt.

 

Felssturz

 

2006 ereignete sich am Eiger ein grosser Bergsturz, der öffentliches Interesse auf sich zog. An der Ostseite des Berges, unterhalb des Mittellegigrates, war durch Felsbewegungen ein rund 250 Meter langer Spalt entstanden, der eine Breite von etwa 7 Metern erreichte.Danach senkten sich die äusseren Teile mehrere Zentimeter pro Tag ab. Eine Ursache dieser Felsabspaltung könnte sowohl das massive Eindringen von Schmelzwasser in den Felsen gewesen sein, als auch eine Instabilität des Gesteins durch den Rückgang des Gletschers unterhalb des Felsabbruchs infolge der globalen Erwärmung. Am 13. Juli 2006 um 19:24 Uhr stürzten rund 500'000 Kubikmeter Felsbrocken auf den Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher. Über der Gemeinde Grindelwald schwebte stundenlang eine Staubwolke. Bereits am Nachmittag desselben Tages war die sogenannte «Madonna vom Eiger» zu Tal gestürzt. Hierbei handelte es sich um einen ungefähr 30 Meter hohen schlanken Felsturm mit rund 600 Kubikmeter Volumen.

 

Seit diesen Ereignissen wird die Felsnase (Gesamtvolumen: ungefähr eine Million Kubikmeter Gestein), aus der die Gesteinsmasse abbrach, von der Universität Lausanne beobachtet. Die Beobachtungen ergaben, dass sich die Nase von Juli 2007 bis August 2008 auf einer nach Osten geneigten Gleitfläche um 15 Meter talwärts bewegte. Zusätzlich kippte die Gesteinsmasse um zwei Grad nach Nordosten. Die Kluft zwischen Berg und Felsbrocken betrug im August 2008 50 Meter. Immer wieder brechen Gesteinsteile ab und stürzen zu Tal. Gebremst und stabilisiert wird die Masse vom Gletschereis, in das die Felsnase gleitet. Dies verhindert, dass die Nase als kompakte Masse zu Tal stürzt. So gilt es als wahrscheinlicher, dass der Gesteinsblock in sich selbst zusammenfallen wird.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Der Mönch ist ein 4107 m ü. M. hoher Berg der Berner Alpen in der Schweiz. Zusammen mit dem Eiger und der Jungfrau bildet er eine markante, von weit her sichtbare Dreiergruppe, ein sogenanntes „Dreigestirn“.

 

Seine Erstbesteigung fand am 15. August 1857 durch Christian Almer, Christian Kaufmann, Ulrich Kaufmann und Sigismund Porges statt.

 

Südöstlich des Mönch liegt die Mönchsjochhütte, eine 3657 m ü. M. hoch gelegene Berghütte wenig oberhalb des oberen Mönchsjochs, das den Mönch vom Trugberg trennt.

 

Höhenbestimmung

 

1935 wurde die Höhe des Mönchs mit 4099 m ü. M. bestimmt. Diese Zahl ist noch heute häufig in der Literatur zu finden. 1993 ergaben jedoch Messungen per Luftfotogrammetrie eine Höhe von 4107 m ü. M.. Daraufhin wurde der Wert auf der Landeskarte der Schweiz korrigiert. Mit einer Messung per GPS ermittelte man 1997 eine Höhe von 4109,4 m ü. M.; und bei einer erneuten luftfotogrammetrischen Messung von 1999 resultierte sogar eine Höhe von 4110 m ü. M.. Diese neuen Messwerte wurden jedoch nicht auf den amtlichen Karten berücksichtigt. Für diese abweichenden Werte sind nicht nur Messfehler verantwortlich, sondern auch die Tatsache, dass der Mönch eine Kuppe aus Firn besitzt, welche in den letzten Jahren gewachsen ist.

 

Name

 

Am Fusse des Mönchs befinden sich Alpweiden, auf welchen früher Wallache, sogenannte „Münche“, gesömmert wurden. So hat man den über den Münchenalpen gelegenen Berg Münchenberg genannt und schliesslich nur noch Münch oder Mönch.

 

Routen

 

Südarm des Ostgrates (Normalroute)

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS-, mit II. UIAA-Grad Felskletterei

Zeitaufwand: 2½–3½ Std. von der Mönchsjochhütte, 3–4 Std. vom Jungfraujoch

Ausgangspunkt: Mönchsjochhütte (3657 m ü. M.)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m ü. M.)

 

Südwestgrat

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS-, mit III-. UIAA-Grad Felskletterei

Zeitaufwand: 3–4 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Jungfraujoch (3454 m ü. M.)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m ü. M.)

 

Nordostarm des Ostgrates

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS, mit III+. UIAA-Grad Felskletterei

Zeitaufwand: 4–5 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Mönchsjochhütte (3657 m ü. M.)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m ü. M.)

 

Nordostgrat

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS

Zeitaufwand: 4–5 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Mönchsjochhütte (3657 m ü. M.)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m ü. M.)

 

Nordwestbollwerk (Nollen)

 

Schwierigkeit: S

Zeitaufwand: 6–10 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Guggihütte (2791 m ü. M.)

Talort: Kleine Scheidegg (2061 m ü. M.)

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Die Jungfrau ist ein Berg in der Schweiz. Sie ist mit 4158 m ü. M. der dritthöchste Berg der Berner Alpen und bildet zusammen mit Eiger und Mönch eine markante Dreiergruppe, ein sogenanntes «Dreigestirn».

 

Am 13. Dezember 2001 wurde die Jungfrau zusammen mit südlich angrenzenden Gebieten als Schweizer Alpen Jungfrau-Aletsch in die Liste als UNESCO-Weltnaturerbe aufgenommen.

 

Lage und Umgebung

 

Über den Jungfrau-Gipfel verläuft die Grenze zwischen den Kantonen Bern und Wallis. Der Berg ist ausserordentlich vielgestaltig. Im Norden und Nordwesten, auf ihrer „weiblichen“ Schauseite (vgl. Foto) sind ihr Wengen-Jungfrau, Schneehorn, das Silberhorn, das Chly Silberhoren und der „Schwarzmönch“ vorgelagert sowie die zerrissenen Kühlauenen- und Giessengletscher. Im Westen erhebt sie sich fast eisfrei volle 3250 Meter über dem hinteren Lauterbrunnental. Es ist dies (nach dem Mont Blanc) der zweithöchste direkte Abhang in den Alpen. Ihre Südwand erhebt sich über dem versteckten Rottalgletscher und ihre Ostwand über den Firnen am Jungfraujoch.

 

Die Pläne, auf die Jungfrau eine Bergbahn zu bauen, wurden aufgrund finanzieller Schwierigkeiten nicht realisiert. Die ursprünglich bis unter den Gipfel geplante Jungfraubahn wurde bis 1912 mit Endstation Jungfraujoch fertiggestellt.

 

Auf dem untersten Absatz des Nordostgrats haben die PTT einen Funk-Umsetzer auf 3777 m ü. M. installiert.

 

Geologie

 

Die Jungfrau liegt im nördlichen Randbereich des Aarmassivs, eines der sogenannten Zentralmassive der Schweizer Alpen. Ihre höheren Lagen (Silberhorn, Wengen-Jungfrau und Hauptgipfel) sowie ihre Westflanke bis hinunter zum oberen Ende des Lauterbrunnentals sind weit überwiegend aus kristallinem Grundgebirge (prä-triassische Gneise, Glimmerschiefer u. ä.) der Helvetischen Zone aufgebaut. Die Nordwestflanke hingegen, der ganze «Vorbau» (Schwarzmönch, Rotbrett und Schneehorn) besteht aus sedimentärem, überwiegend jurassischem und kretazischem Deckgebirge des Helvetikums. Eine Besonderheit der Jungfrau ist, dass dort zwischen dem prinzipiell autochthonen Gipfel-Kristallin und dessen Deckschichten ein Überschiebungs-kontakt besteht; somit ist das Grundgebirge geringfügig auf sein Deckgebirge überschoben worden.

 

Name

 

Der Name Jungfrau dürfte sich von der Wengernalp am Fusse des Berges ableiten, die – nach den Besitzerinnen, den Nonnen vom Kloster Interlaken – früher Jungfrauenberg genannt wurde. Einer anderen Quelle zufolge leitet sich der Name vom Aussehen des Nordhanges des Berges ab, der aus der Ferne dem Schleier eines Mädchens ähneln soll.

 

Nach dem Berg ist die Jungfrau-Region benannt, die Tourismusorganisation der Orte Grindelwald, Wengen, Mürren und Lauterbrunnen, ausserdem die Jungfraubahn Holding AG, die neben der Jungfraubahn selbst auch die anderen Bergbahnen in der Region betreibt.

 

Besteigungsgeschichte

 

Bergsteiger auf dem Gipfel im Jahr 1878

Erstbesteiger waren Johann Rudolf Meyer und sein Bruder Hieronymus mit den Führern Joseph Bortis und Alois Volken, die am 3. August 1811 vom Lötschental her den Berg von Süden erklommen hatten. Sie folgten ungefähr der heutigen Normalroute. Der Volksmund taufte daraufhin die bis dahin unberührte Jungfrau «Madame Meyer».

 

1874 erfolgte die Winter-Erstbesteigung durch die Alpinistin Margaret Claudia Brevoort.

 

Die Jungfrau gilt, obwohl leicht erreichbar, als unfallträchtiger Berg. Bei einem der schwersten Unglücke stürzten am 12. Juli 2007 sechs Rekruten der Gebirgsspezialisten-Rekrutenschule Andermatt vom Rottalsattel 1000 Meter auf den darunterliegenden Rottalgletscher in den Tod, nachdem sie eine Lawine ausgelöst hatten. Das urteilende Militärgericht ging von einem falsch eingeschätzten, heimtückischen Lawinenrisiko aus und sprach in der Folge die verantwortlichen Bergführer frei.

 

Routen

 

Rottalsattel und Südostgrat (Normalroute)

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS-

Zeitaufwand: 4–5 Std. von der Mönchsjochhütte, 3½–4½ Std. vom Jungfraujoch

Ausgangspunkt: Mönchsjochhütte (3657 m)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m)

 

Innere Rottalgrat

 

Schwierigkeit: ZS

Zeitaufwand: 6–7 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Rottalhütte (2755 m)

Talort: Stechelberg (919 m)

 

Nordwestgrat oder „Rotbrettgrat“

 

Schwierigkeit: S

Zeitaufwand: 8–12 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Silberhornhütte (2663 m)

Talort: Stechelberg (919 m)

 

Nordostgrat

 

Schwierigkeit: S+, mit IV. UIAA-Grad Felskletterei

Zeitaufwand: 8–10 Stunden

Ausgangspunkt: Jungfraujoch (3454 m)

Talort: Grindelwald (1034 m)

 

Kunst

 

Erwähnt ist die Jungfrau unter anderem bei Friedrich Schiller, Wilhelm Tell, Vers 628 (1804). Lord Byrons Drama Manfred (1817) spielt am Fuss und auf dem Gipfel des Massivs. Ferdinand Hodler hat die Jungfrau mehrfach gemalt, darunter die perspektivisch verfremdete «Jungfrau über dem Nebelmeer». Alex Diggelmann gab 1958 eine Lithographienmappe unter dem Titel Die Jungfrau, mein Berg heraus. Stephan Bundi gestaltete 2005 eine Schweizer Gedenkmünze mit dem Bergmotiv.

 

Im Januar 2012 wurde zum 100-jährigen bestehen der Jungfraubahn eine übergrosse Schweizer Flagge vom Lichtkünstler Gerry Hofstetter an den Gipfel projiziert. Zeitweise waren neben dem Schweizer Kreuz auch ein Porträt des Zürcher Unternehmers Adolf Guyer-Zeller sowie ein Bild von einem der Züge zu sehen.

 

(Wikipedia)

The Glacier of the Eiger , The Eigergletscher. September 10,2011. no.127.

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Bahnhof Eigergletscher

 

Eigergletscher is a railway station in the municipality of Lauterbrunnen in the canton of Bern. The station is served by trains of the Jungfrau railway, which run to the Jungfraujoch from Kleine Scheidegg, where they connect with services from Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen and Grindelwald via the Bernese Oberland railway and the Wengernalp railway.

 

The station takes its name from the adjacent Eiger Glacier, and is the Jungfraubahn's last station in the open air, before the line enters its tunnel to the summit. It is also the location of the railway's workshop.

 

History

 

The station opened on 19 September 1898, with the opening of the first open air stretch of the Jungfraubahn. After further construction, the line was extended to a temporary terminus within the tunnel at Rotstock station on 2 August 1899.

 

Jungfraubahn AG announced that a new V-cableway would be constructed to bring visitors direct to Eigergletscher from Grindelwald, shortening journey times to the Jungfraujoch by 47 minutes. Construction started in the summer of 2018 and the new service called the Eiger Express began in December 2020. It allows a connection from a new station, Grindelwald Terminal, to the new Eigergletscher gondola station, with a transfer hall where passengers can transfer from the gondola to the Jungfraubahn train to the Jungfraujoch summit.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Der Bahnhof Eigergletscher ist eine Station der Jungfraubahn in 2320 m ü. M. Höhe am Rand des Eigergletschers, der ihr den Namen gab. Dort befindet sich auch die Werkstätte der Bahn, in welcher die Unterhaltsarbeiten und Revisionen an den Fahrzeugen durchgeführt werden. Die Station Eigergletscher betreibt die höchstgelegene Betriebsküche aller Bahnen Europas. Die Station ist Teil der V-Bahn und dient als Bergstation für den Eiger-Express.

 

Geschichte

 

Bau und erste Jahre

 

Die Station Eigergletscher wurde am 19. September 1898 durch Adolf Guyer-Zeller und mit einer Bergpredigt des Grindelwalder „Gletscherpfarrers“ Gottfried Strasser, vor 400 geladenen Gästen eingeweiht. Während der 16-jährigen Bauzeit der Jungfraubahn war die Station das Zentrum des Bauprojektes. Unmittelbar oberhalb der Station beginnt der 7,2 km lange Grosse Tunnel zum Jungfraujoch. Bis zu 200 Arbeiter – davon rund 160 Italiener – waren während der Bauzeit an der Station untergebracht. Im Sommer erfolgte die Versorgung über die wenige Jahre zuvor fertiggestellte Wengernalpbahn, die zur Kleinen Scheidegg, der ersten Station der Jungfraubahn, führt. Im Winter waren die Bauarbeiter dagegen von der Aussenwelt abgeschnitten und auf sich gestellt. Mit der Inbetriebnahme der Strecke Kleine Scheidegg – Jungfraujoch am 1. August 1912 wurden die Bauarbeiten beendet und die Station verlor ihren dörflichen Charakter. Von den Arbeiterbaracken sind heute nur noch die Grundmauern zu erkennen. Für die 2 km lange Strecke von der Kleinen Scheidegg zur Station Eigergletscher benötigt die Jungfraubahn 7 Minuten.

 

Zuchtanstalt für Grönlandhunde

 

An der Station Eigergletscher befand sich seit 1912 eine von der Jungfraubahn AG betriebene Zuchtanstalt für Grönlandhunde. In den 2500 m² grossen Gehegen waren etwa 25 Hunde, die von drei Mitarbeitern betreut wurden. Die Hunde wurden unter anderem für touristische Hundeschlittenfahrten ab dem Jungfraujoch eingesetzt. Aus wirtschaftlichen Überlegungen wurde Ende 2009 die Zuchtanstalt aufgelöst.

 

V-Bahn

 

Von Sommer 2018 bis Winter 2020 wurde die Station Eigergletscher massiv ausgebaut. Als wichtiger Bestandteil des V-Bahn-Projektes dient die Station heute als Umsteigepunkt auf dem Weg zum Jungfraujoch. Damit hat die Station Kleine Scheidegg an Bedeutung verloren.

 

(Wikipedia)

The main mountain in this picture is the Lauberhorn, from the top of which the Wengen Downhill Ski Race starts. Kleine Scheidegg is the 'base camp' for mountaineering attempts on the North Face of the Eiger, which is behind the camera here. Climbers would begin their assault by walking onto the base of the North Face via the reservoir seen in the picture. There are memorials to the climbers carved into the rocks beside the reservoir. The first successful climb of the North Face Direct was in 1938, by a team of German-Austrian climbers which included Heinrich Haller, who penned the classic book, 'The White Spider', telling the often tragic story of the attempts to climb the face. The climb took the team three days. It has recently been climbed solo without ropes by Ueli Steck (2015) in less than two and a half hours. The 1938 team was Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek.

The picture shows some of the railway infrastructure at Kleine Scheidegg and Eigergletscher.

With the north face of the Eiger looming behind, a Jungfraubahn (JB) train from Jungfraujoch to Kleine Scheidegg is seen descending between Eigergletscher and Kleine Scheidegg, formed of JB BDhe4/8 units 211 and 218.

BDhe 2/4 railcar, 204, hauls a works train from Eigergletscher down to Kleine Scheidegg as the Eiger looms above it

BDhe 2/4 railcar, 201, heads up the Jungfraubahn with a service to the Jungfraujoch, Europe's highest station. It is seen here with the Eiger's Nordwand in the background as it approaches Eigergletscher

Frtiz Buhler. 1909-1980. The Father of Swiss Mountain Air Rescue Service.

The names of mountaineers have been sculpted into the stones alongside the reservoir. They are all climbers who have a part in the history of the climbs of the North Face of the Eiger mountain. The history of climbing on the North Face is told in Haller's iconic book, 'The White Spider'.

Jungfraubahn BDhe 4/8, 218, heads down from the Jungfraujoch to Kleine Scheidegg at Eigergletscher, with the Eiger rising above

Near the Eigergletscher (glacier).

The last day of the Naturetrek guided wildflower walks was wet - which added extra interest to photos.

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Wetterhorn

 

Eiger Trail

 

The Wetterhorn (3,690 m) is a peak in the Swiss Alps towering above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits on a mountain named the "Wetterhörner", the highest of which is the Mittelhorn (3,702 m) and the lowest and most distant the Rosenhorn (3,689 m). The latter peaks are mostly hidden from view from Grindelwald.

 

The Grosse Scheidegg Pass crosses the col to the north, between the Wetterhorn and the Schwarzhorn.

 

Ascents

 

The Wetterhorn summit was first reached on August 31, 1844, by the Grindelwald guides Hans Jaun and Melchior Bannholzer, three days after they had co-guided a large party organized by the geologist Édouard Desor to the first ascent of the Rosenhorn. The Mittelhorn was first summitted on 9 July 1845 by the same guides, this time accompanied by a third, Kaspar Abplanalp, and by British climber Stanhope Templeman Speer. The son of a Scottish physician, Speer lived in Interlaken, Switzerland.

 

A September 1854 summit ascent by a party that included Alfred Wills, who apparently believed he'd made the first ascent, was much celebrated in Great Britain. Wills' description of this trip in his book "Wanderings Among the High Alps" (published in 1856) helped make mountaineering fashionable in Britain and ushered in the so-called golden age of alpinism, the systematic exploration of the Alps by British mountaineers. Despite several by then well-documented earlier ascents and the fact that he was guided to the top, Willis was lauded in his 1912 obituary as "Certainly the first who can be said with any confidence to have stood upon the real highest peak of the Wetterhorn proper" (i.e. the 3,692 m summit) In a subsequent corrigendum, the editors admitted two earlier ascents, but considered his still "the first completely successful" one.

 

In 1866, Lucy Walker was the first documented female to summit the peak.

 

The 24-year-old English mountaineer William Penhall and his Meiringen guide Andreas Maurer were killed by an avalanche high on the Wetterhorn on 3 August 1882.

 

The famed guide and Grindelwald native Christian Almer climbed the mountain many times in his life, including on his first of many trips with Meta Brevoort and her nephew W. A. B. Coolidge in 1868. His last ascent was in 1896 at the age of 74 together with his 75-year-old wife Margaritha ("Gritli") to celebrate their golden anniversary on the summit.

 

Winston Churchill climbed the Wetterhorn in 1894.

 

Aerial tramway

 

The Wetterhorn summit was the intended terminal for the world's first passenger-carrying aerial tramway, but only the first quarter was built. It was in operation until the beginning of World War I.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

No trail comes closer to the famous Eiger North Face – with the Eiger Trail you are guaranteed two hours of top notch thrills.

 

Description

 

The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau (the Ogre, Monk and Maiden) – the world famous trio of mountain peaks – is the impressive backdrop to the Jungfrau region and has attracted tourists and mountaineers to the Bernese Oberland since pioneering days. The Jungfrau Railway is no less impressive, while the northern flank of the Eiger, with its vertical drop of more than 1600 metres, has always attracted the world's best climbers.

 

Those with the courage and the desire to get just that little bit closer to the breathtaking Eiger North Face and tackle a superlative high alpine adventure can take the Jungfrau Railway to the station at Eigergletscher and set out on the Eiger Trail. Shortly after starting on this route, you'll find yourself right in front of the famous rock face itself, and above you to the right you'll notice the metal ladders that climbers to the Eiger-Rotstock Via Ferrata use to gain access. From here on, the trail runs for an hour along the foot of the Eiger North Face, sparkling with a beautiful view over the Wetterhorn and the Grosse Scheidegg.

 

Difficult sections are secured with ropes. If you have brought your binoculars, you'll be able to see the climbers up against the rock face. The train station sells postcards that show all the routes up this mountain. Towards the end of the tour the trail zigzags boldly down to Alpiglen train station.

 

(myswitzerland.com)

 

Das Wetterhorn ist ein 3690 m ü. M. hoher Berggipfel der Berner Alpen (Westalpen) im Schweizer Kanton Bern und steht oberhalb von Grindelwald bzw. Rosenlaui im Berner Oberland.

 

Das Wetterhorn wurde am 31. August 1844 durch Melchior Bannholzer und Joh. Jaun zum ersten Mal bestiegen. Die erste Winterbegehung erfolgte durch Meta Brevoort 1874, einer Ausnahmealpinistin für Winterbegehungen.

 

Unter dem Begriff Wetterhörner fasst man die 3 Gipfel Wetterhorn, Mittelhorn (3702 m, von der Höhe her der Hauptgipfel) und Rosenhorn (3689 m) zusammen. Von 1908 bis 1915 war am Fuss des Wetterhorns der Wetterhorn-Aufzug als erste personenbefördernde Luftseilbahn der Schweiz in Betrieb.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Näher an die berühmte Eiger Nordwand führt kein Weg: Der Eiger Trail garantiert zwei Stunden Nervenkitzel auf höchstem Niveau.

 

Beschreibung

 

Das weltberühmte Dreigestirn Eiger, Mönch und Jungfrau bildet die imposanteste Kulisse der Jungfrauregion und lockte schon früh Touristen und Bergsteiger ins Berner Oberland. Nicht weniger eindrücklich präsentiert sich die Jungfraubahn. Und über 1600 Meter fällt die Nordflanke des Eigers senkrecht ab, was seit jeher die besten Kletterer der Welt anlockte.

 

Wer sich mutig an die atemberaubende Eiger Nordwand herantasten und ein Hochgebirgserlebnis der Superlative in Angriff nehmen möchte, fährt mit der Jungfraubahn bis zur Station Eigergletscher und macht sich auf den Eiger Trail. Nach kurzem Einstieg steht man unmittelbar vor der berühmten Wand, und man erkennt rechts oben die Metallleitern, die den Kletterern den Zugang zur Via Ferrata Eiger-Rotstock erleichtern. Von hier aus verläuft der Weg eine Stunde lang am Fuss der Eigernordwand entlang und glänzt dabei mit einer herrlichen Sicht aufs Wetterhorn und die Grosse Scheidegg.

 

Ausgesetzte Stellen sind mit Seilen gesichert. Und wer einen Feldstecher dabei hat, kann die Kletterer in der Wand beobachten; eine Postkarte, die bei der Bahnstation gekauft werden kann, zeigt sämtliche Routen durch die Wand. Am Ende der Tour geht's in verwegenem Zickzack runter zur Bahnstation Alpiglen.

 

(myswitzerland.com)

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Grindelwald

 

seen from Alpiglen

 

gesehen von Alpiglen

 

Grindelwald is a village and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itramen, Mühlebach, Schwendi, Tschingelberg and Wargistal.

 

Grindelwald village is located at 1,034 m (3,392 ft) above sea level. Mentioned for the first time in 1146, it has become an important tourist destination of both Switzerland and the Alps since the golden age of alpinism in the 19th century. It is overlooked by a section of the Bernese Alps from the Wetterhorn to the Eiger, which create a natural barrier. Together with the adjacent valley of Lauterbrunnen, the valley of Grindelwald forms part of the Jungfrau Region of the Bernese Oberland, between Interlaken and the main crest of the Bernese Alps.

 

Similarly to Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald is connected to Interlaken by the Bernese Oberland Railway and is the start of the Wengernalp Railway, leading to Kleine Scheidegg. The latter resort is the start of the Jungfrau Railway, the highest railway in Europe and a gateway to the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area.

 

History

 

Grindelwald was first mentioned in 1146 as Grindelwalt. This designation is probably derived from the Old High German words "grintil" (bar, barrier) and "walt" (forest), thus describing the nature of the valley. According to a legend, the name Grindelwald comes from two monks of the Interlaken Monastery. After exploring the Lütschinen valleys, they are said to have reported about "Grinden" and "Wald", i.e. "stones" and "forests". This was initially the explanation for the origin of the name.

 

The oldest traces of a settlement in the area are scattered neolithic tools which have been discovered around Grindelwald village. Several Roman era coins have also been found in the municipality. A castle was built on the Burgbühl hill above the village during the High Middle Ages.

 

In 1146, King Conrad III granted estates in Grindelwald to Interlaken Monastery. In the late 12th century, the barons of the alpine valleys in what became the Berner Oberland went to war against the expansionist Duke Berthold V of Zähringen. The Duke defeated a coalition of nobles in the Grindlewald valley in 1191. His victory allowed him to expand Zähringen power into the Oberland, to expand the city of Thun and found the city of Bern. Beginning in the 13th century, Interlaken Monastery began to purchase rights and land in Grindelwald and eventually forced the local nobles out of the valley. The Monastery continued to exert influence in the village and in 1315 and again in 1332 ordered the villagers to raid Unterwalden to further the political ambitions of the Abbot's patrons. In response to the raids, in 1342, Unterwalden attacked Grindelwald. A few years later, in 1348–49, the villagers joined in an unsuccessful rebellion against ecclesiastical power. In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the Protestant Reformation and proceeded to spread the new faith in Grindelwald against the populations' wishes. Berne was able to impose its will, converted the village and secularized Interlaken Abbey and the Abbey's lands. Grindelwald became part of the bailiwick of Interlaken, under a Bernese bailiff.

 

The first village church was a wooden building from the mid-12th century. The wooden building was replaced with the stone St. Mary's Church in 1180. This church was replaced in the 16th century, and the present church was built in 1793. On August 18, 1892, a large part of the village was destroyed by a fire. That day, which followed a drought period, a violent foehn storm was raging. Within two hours, 116 buildings in the Grindelwald valley were destroyed and 412 residents became homeless.

 

The tourism industry began in Grindelwald in the late 18th century as foreigners discovered the scenic town. Pictures of the vistas were widely reprinted, quickly making the village internationally famous. In the 19th century many Englishmen came to the village to climb the alpine peaks around the valley. The Finsteraarhorn (4,274 m [14,022 ft]), the Wetterhorn (3,692 m [12,113 ft]), the Eiger (3,967 m [13,015 ft]), the Schreckhorn (4,078 m [13,379 ft]) and the Gross Fiescherhorn (4,049 m [13,284 ft]) were all climbed during the 19th century, an ascent of the Wetterhorn marking the beginning of the golden age of alpinism. The ascent of the north face of the Eiger, in 1938, was also a milestone in mountaineering history.

 

The Grindelwald road was built in 1860–72, and the Bernese Oberland railway reached the village in 1890, both of which transformed an arduous journey into a simple trip and allowed tourists to flood into the village. In 1888, Grindelwald was the first resort in the Bernese Oberland to also become a winter destination, attractions being sleigh rides, curling, skating and, from 1891, skiing. The first resort opened in 1888, there were 10 hotels in 1889, and by 1914 there were 33 in Grindelwald. A rack railway was built to Kleine Scheidegg in 1893, and it was expanded to the Jungfraujoch in 1912. Numerous ski lifts, cable cars, hiking trails and alpine huts were built in the late 19th and 20th centuries to allow tourists to explore the mountains, notably the Wetterhorn Elevator, one of the first modern aerial tramways. Today, almost the entire economy of Grindelwald is based on tourism. The V-cableway, inaugurated in 2020, is the last major development in the valley.

 

The Grindelwald region has been the subject of scientific investigations, including in the "Alpine Studies" by the English alpinist W. A. B. Coolidge (1912) and in the Unesco research program Man and Biosphere of the Geographical Institute of the University of Bern on the effects of tourism (1979-1984).

 

Geography

 

The municipality is quite large and is divided into seven mountain communities. However the municipality is dominated by the large tourist center of Grindelwald, slightly above the Black Lütschine, the main river of the valley, the latter converging with the White Lütschine. The village is surrounded by the mountains of the Faulhorn, Schwarzhorn, Wellhorn, Wetterhorn, Mettenberg, Schreckhorn, Lauteraarhorn, Agassizhorn, Fiescherhorn, Mönch (the highest), Eiger, Lauberhorn and Männlichen, all of which are either within or on the border of the municipality. The Kleine Scheidegg and the Grosse Scheidegg, respectively "minor watershed" and "major watershed" are the two main passes of the valley.

 

Grindelwald has an area of 171.33 km2 (66.15 sq mi).[8] Of this area, 49.47 km2 (19.10 sq mi) or 28.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.02 km2 (10.82 sq mi) or 16.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.06 km2 (1.18 sq mi) or 1.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 1.37 km2 (0.53 sq mi) or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes, and 89.21 km2 (34.44 sq mi) or 52.1% is unproductive land.

 

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.6%. Out of the forested land, 12.9% of the total land area is heavily forested, and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.1% is pastures and 23.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 6.6% is unproductive vegetation, 24.0% is too rocky for vegetation, and 21.6% of the land is covered by glaciers.

 

The highest peaks of the valley, from the Wellhorn and Wetterhorn to the Eiger and Mönch, are part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area, a world heritage site.

 

On 31 December 2009, Amtsbezirk Interlaken, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.

 

Winter sports

 

Long famed as a winter tourist destination with slopes for beginners, intermediates and the challenges of the Eiger glacier for the experienced, there are activities for the non-skiers, from tobogganing to groomed winter hiking tracks. It is the usual starting point for ascents of the Eiger and the Wetterhorn. Nowadays Grindelwald is also a popular summer activity resort with many miles of hiking trails across the Alps.

 

The first person to ski there was Englishman, Gerald Fox (who lived at Tone Dale House) who put his skis on in his hotel bedroom in 1881 and walked out through the hotel bar to the slopes wearing them.

 

In media and movies

 

The 1969 James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service includes a chase through a skating rink and a Christmas festival in Grindelwald.

 

The 1972 movie and television series George were filmed in the village. The show features a large St. Bernard that grew up in New York and that comes for a permanent stay with his new owner in the Swiss Alps. Zsa Zsa Gabor appeared in an episode.

 

The 1975 movie The Eiger Sanction (starring Clint Eastwood) featured the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg as the film location where the group of climbers stayed during their attempt on the summit of the Eiger. In the summer of 1974, Clint Eastwood and his cast and crew stayed at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes during filming.

 

Grindelwald's mountains were used as the basis for the view of Alderaan in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).

 

Many scenes of the IMAX documentary film The Alps (2007) were shot in the region of Grindelwald, particularly on the north face of the Eiger.

 

Some of the action scenes in The Golden Compass (2007) were shot in Grindelwald.

 

The Beckoning Silence, a British 2007 television movie, retraced the 1936 Eiger north face climbing disaster. It was filmed on location.

 

North Face (2008, international), another movie retracing the 1936 disaster, was partially filmed on location.

 

The character Gellert Grindelwald features in the Harry Potter universe.

 

Grindelwald is where one of the Gran Turismo 2 circuits is set.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Grindelwald ist eine politische Gemeinde im Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli des Kantons Bern in der Schweiz.

 

Name

 

Der Name Grindelwald ist ein ursprünglicher Flurname und setzt sich aus den althochdeutschen Wörtern grintil (Riegel, Sperre) und walt (Wald) zusammen.

 

Geschichte

 

Der Burgbühl in Grindelwald ist eine hochmittelalterliche Burgstelle. Die Augustinerpropstei Interlaken erhielt 1146 von König Konrad III. mehrere Reichsgüter. Interlaken vermehrte diesen Besitz durch zahlreiche Zukäufe, verdrängte die Adelsgeschlechter von Rotenfluh, von Ringgenberg, von Eschenbach und von Habsburg-Österreich und wurde mit sechzehn Lehen zur bedeutendsten Grundherrin im Tal.[5] Der Reichsvogt Berchtold V. von Zähringen besiegte 1191 in Grindelwald den oberländischen Adel. Die Grindelwalder kämpften als Interlakner Gotteshausleute 1315 und 1332 gegen Unterwalden und litten schliesslich 1342 beim Einfall der Unterwaldner. In den Jahren 1348 und 1349 lehnten sie sich gegen das Kloster Interlaken auf. Erfolglos wehrten sich die Grindelwalder 1528 mit Waffengewalt gegen die Einführung der Reformation durch Bern. An die Stelle des Klosters Interlaken als Grundherrin trat nun die Stadt Bern.

 

Der Tourismus im Ort begann sich im 18. Jahrhundert zu entwickeln, das erste Hotel «Schwarzer Adler» wurde 1820 eröffnet, die erste Wintersaison fand 1888 statt, 1890 kam es zur Betriebsaufnahme der Berner-Oberland-Bahn. Am 18. August 1892 brannten ausgehend vom Hotel Bär am heutigen Busparkplatz 44 Wohnhäuser und 72 weitere Gebäude inklusive des neuen Bahnhofsgebäudes nieder, das alte Ortszentrum um Gydisdorf blieb aber verschont, da der Funkenflug durch starken Föhn in talwärtige Richtung stattfand und es bis in den Ort Schwendi zu Bränden kam.

 

1893 wurde der Betrieb der Wengernalpbahn aufgenommen, im gleichen Jahr wurde das neu erbaute Grandhotel Bär wiedereröffnet, es brannte dann abermal 1941 ab und wurde nicht wieder aufgebaut. 1947 wurde die Gondelbahn zum First eröffnet, die Pfingsteggbahn folgte 1967 und 1978 dann die Gondelbahn Grindelwald–Männlichen.

 

Grindelwald organisierte sich nutzungsrechtlich in den Alpen (Bergschaften). In den Einunge und Satzunge ze Grunde und an den Alpen Bach, Grindel, Holzmatten, Scheidegge, Wergistal, Intremen und zu Gletscher ordnete Propst Niklaus 1404 erstmals schriftlich die Alp-Weideverhältnisse. Die Alp Bussalp war hiervon ausgenommen, da sie sich in habsburgischem Besitz befand. 1538 fassten die Talleute bestehende Regelungen in der Taleinung zusammen. Die Bergrechte waren von da an (bis heute) an den Grundbesitz im Tal gebunden und durften nicht an Ortsfremde veräussert werden. Die bestehenden sieben Bergschaften Itramen, Wärgistal, Scheidegg, Grindel, Bach, Holzmatten und Bussalp wurden vor 1847 als Gemeinden der Talschaft Grindelwald bezeichnet. Die Bergschaften existieren heute als privatrechtliche Körperschaften nach dem Gesetz betreffend die Einführung des Schweizerischen Zivilgesetzbuches vom 28. Mai 1911 (Art. 20).

 

Geographie

 

Die Ortschaften, Weiler und Höfe der Gemeinde Grindelwald liegen verstreut im Talkessel der Schwarzen Lütschine im Berner Oberland zwischen Eiger, Wetterhorn, Fiescherwand und Faulhorn. Mit einer Fläche von 171,1 km² liegt Grindelwald an fünfundzwanzigster Stelle der flächengrössten Gemeinden der Schweiz und an dritter Stelle im Kanton Bern. Höchster Punkt ist mit 4107 m ü. M. der Gipfel des Mönch, der tiefste Punkt liegt auf 720 m ü. M.

 

Auf dem Gebiet von Grindelwald liegen der Untere Grindelwaldgletscher und der Obere Grindelwaldgletscher. Beide sind Touristenattraktionen und reichten in der Zeit von ungefähr 1590 bis 1880 bis vor das Dorf.

 

Das Tal wird entwässert durch die vom Oberen Grindelwaldgletscher gespeiste Schwarze Lütschine, die südlich des Dorfkerns die vom Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher kommende Weisse Lütschine von links aufnimmt. Ein rechter Zufluss der Schwarzen Lütschine ist der für den Bachlägerwasserfall bekannte Milibach.

 

Wirtschaft

 

Die Gemeinde lebt hauptsächlich vom Tourismus. Die Beschäftigung verteilt sich wie folgt auf die drei Wirtschaftssektoren: 9 % Landwirtschaft, 16 % Industrie und Gewerbe, 75 % Dienstleistungen (Stand: 2020). Im Jahr 2020 wurden noch 105 Landwirtschaftsbetriebe gezählt.

 

Im Winter kommen vor allem alpine Wintersportler, im Sommer Wanderer und Touristen, die wegen der Bergkulisse anreisen. Der Fremdenverkehr hat eine lange Tradition. Schon früh versuchte man, die Berge den Gästen zugänglicher zu machen. Der Wetterhorn-Aufzug gilt als eine der ältesten personentransportierenden Seilbahnen der Welt. In Grindelwald befinden sich Hotels, Ferienwohnungen und -chalets, eine Jugendherberge, ein Jugendferienlager für behinderte Kinder und zwei Campingplätze.

 

Verkehr

 

Das Tal von Grindelwald ist von Interlaken aus mit einer Strasse und einer Bahnlinie erschlossen. Die Hauptstrasse 221 führt von Bern über Thun und Interlaken bis nach Grindelwald. Fahrten weiter über die Grosse Scheidegg ins Haslital sind nur mit dem Postauto und mit dem Fahrrad möglich.

 

Die Berner Oberland-Bahnen verkehren zwischen Interlaken und Grindelwald. Vom Bahnhof Grindelwald aus führt die Wengernalpbahn über die Kleine Scheidegg nach Wengen und Lauterbrunnen. Auf der Kleinen Scheidegg besteht ein Anschluss zur Jungfraubahn, die durch den Eiger auf das Jungfraujoch fährt.

 

Das Skigebiet Kleine Scheidegg/Männlichen wird durch eine Gondelbahn bis auf den Männlichen erschlossen. Dieser ist durch eine Luftseilbahn ebenfalls mit Wengen verbunden. Eine Gondelbahn führt von Grindelwald ins Skigebiet First.

 

Im Sommer führt eine Luftseilbahn auf die Privatalp Pfingstegg am Mättenberg, Ausgangspunkt für Wanderungen zu den Grindelwalder Gletschern, zur Schreckhornhütte und zum Chalet Milchbach, das durch einen Wanderwegtunnel erreicht werden kann. Auf dem Weg liegt das Gesteinsparadies Breitlouwina.

 

Eine historische Transporteinrichtung und die erste öffentliche Luftseilbahn der Schweiz war der Wetterhorn-Aufzug.

 

Pisten-Funi

 

Ab den 1930er Jahren verfügte Grindelwald am zentrumsnahen Skischulhang Bodmi über ein spezielles Transportmittel für Wintersportler: die als Funi (Kurzform von «Funiculaire») bezeichnete Schlittenseilbahn, die 1995 als letzte ihrer Art eingestellt wurde.

 

Wanderwege

 

Das Tal und die umliegende Berglandschaft ist mit zahlreichen Wanderwegen erschlossen. Durch Grindelwald führt die Route des Fernwanderwegs 1 «Via Alpina» («Alpenpassroute») im Netz von SchweizMobil. Von der Schynigen Platte über das Faulhorn zur Grossen Scheidegg verläuft ein Abschnitt der Wanderroute 38 «ViaBerna». Der «Eigertrail» ist ein Bergweg von Alpiglen unter dem Fuss der Eigernordwand zur Bahnstation Eigergletscher.

 

Sport

 

Grindelwald war der erste Kurort im Berner Oberland, der ab 1888 auch im Winter von Touristen besucht wurde. Die Gäste konnten Wintersportaktivitäten ausüben: anfangs Schlittenfahrten, Curling und Schlittschuhlaufen, ab 1891 Skifahren; später wurde eine Bobbahn errichtet. Ab 1947 wurde der First als Skigebiet erschlossen, 1978 der Männlichen. Ab 1932 wurden in Grindelwald die vom Schweizerischen Damen-Skiclub organisierten SDS-Rennen ausgetragen, die lange Zeit zu den wichtigsten alpinen Skirennen der Damen zählten und 1967 in den Weltcup integriert wurden. Die bislang letzten alpinen Weltcuprennen fanden 1992 statt.

 

Eine Grindelwalder Erfindung ist der Velogemel, ein einspuriger, lenkbarer Sportschlitten – vergleichbar mit einem Fahrrad aus Holz, das Kufen anstelle von Rädern besitzt.

 

Drehort für Filme

 

Szenen für den James-Bond-Film Im Geheimdienst Ihrer Majestät wurden im Winter 1968/69 in Grindelwald sowie Mürren und auf dem Schilthorn gedreht.

 

1972–1974 wurde die Fernsehserie George in Grindelwald gedreht mit Marshall Thompson in der Hauptrolle, der zuvor schon einen Welterfolg mit der Serie Daktari hatte.

 

2004 wurden in der Gemeinde Aufnahmen für den Film Star Wars: Episode III – Die Rache der Sith gemacht; hier stellt die gefilmte Bergkulisse einen Teil des Planeten Alderaan dar, welcher in der vorletzten Szene des Films zu sehen ist. Die Aufnahmen wurden per Bluescreen-Technik und CGI zur Bergkulisse rund um die Hauptstadt eingesetzt.

 

(Wikipedia)

taking a superexposed horse ride... this view and shot is absolutely amazing!!!!

 

photo taken by roger, postprocessed by chris

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Kleine Scheidegg

 

In the background you can see the Eiger north face.

 

Im Hintergrund sieht man die Eiger Nordwand.

 

The Kleine Scheidegg (English: Little Scheidegg) is a mountain pass at an elevation of 2,061 m (6,762 ft), situated below and between the Eiger and Lauberhorn peaks in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. The name means "minor watershed", as it only divides the two arms of the Lütschine river, both converging at Zweilütschinen, while the nearby Grosse Scheidegg divides the Lütschine from the Rychenbach stream.

 

The pass is traversed by a walking trail and the Wengernalp Railway, which both connect the villages of Grindelwald with Lauterbrunnen, passing through Wengen between the pass summit and Lauterbrunnen. In winter, Kleine Scheidegg is the centre of the ski area around Grindelwald and Wengen. In summer, it is a popular hiking destination, and is one of the passes crossed by the Alpine Pass Route between Sargans and Montreux. The Jungfrau Marathon, a mountain race that takes place every year in early September, ends at Kleine Scheidegg.

 

The Kleine Scheidegg railway station is sited at the summit of the pass. Besides being an intermediate stop on the Wengernalp Railway, the station is also the lower terminus of the Jungfrau Railway, which climbs steeply through tunnels inside the Eiger and Mönch mountains up to its terminal at the Jungfraujoch, the highest point reachable by rail in Europe. Both railways operate year-round, and any passengers travelling to the Jungfraujoch must change trains at Kleine Scheidegg. The pass is linked to the summit of the Lauberhorn and to Arvengarten, on the approach to the pass from Grindelwald, by chairlifts.

 

There are also several restaurants and hotels at the summit of the pass, including the historic Hotel Bellevue des Alpes that dates back to 1840.

 

History

 

Prior to the coming of the railways and the introduction of tourism to the area, the twin passes of Kleine Scheidegg and Grosse Scheidegg provided access for local livestock and dairy farmers to the important export route to Italy over the Grimsel Pass. With the coming of tourism and the opening of the first mountain hotels in the 1830s, the transit of the Kleine Scheidegg became busier, and more important than the Grosse Scheidegg.

 

In 1840, Christian Seiler built the inn Zur Gemse on the summit of the pass. Guests and supplies reached the inn by mule train over the pass tracks, and the inn grew into the internationally famous Hotel Bellevue. The Wengernalp co-operative opened the competing Hotel des Alps alongside the Hotel Bellevue, but sold out to the Seiler family, thus creating the merged Hotel Bellevue des Alps.

 

In order to satisfy tourist demand, construction of the Wengernalp Railway across the pass commenced in 1891, and the line opened in 1893, as a steam hauled summer only service. The line was electrified in 1909/10, and year-round operation started in 1925 (to Lauterbrunnen) and 1960 (to Grindelwald). Construction of the Jungfrau Railway started in 1896, and it opened in stages from 1898 to 1912. Since the 1930s, Kleine Scheidegg has been the base of expeditions on the north face of the Eiger.

 

Geography

 

Kleine Scheidegg is among the most celebrated mountain passes in the Swiss Alps because of its position just north of the point where the Bernese Alps makes a salient angle, whose apex is the Eiger. From there, a series of high peaks rise in line towards the northeast, on the left side of the trail that follows a direct route from Meiringen, southwest across the Grosse Scheidegg, to Kleine Scheidegg. On the south side of the apex at the Eiger, the still higher summits of the Mönch, Jungfrau, Gletscherhorn, and Mittaghorn follow in succession from north to south.

 

Hidden by the Eiger from the vantage point of Grindelwald, the Mönch and Jungfrau break upon the traveller at Kleine Scheidegg in full grandeur, rising from the narrow gorge of the Trümmletental. Three comparatively large glaciers, with several minor accumulations of ice, are found in the hollows and on the shelving ledges of the three peaks that rise above the Trümmletental. The Eiger Glacier lies in the recess between the Eiger and the Mönch. This is separated by a huge projecting buttress of the latter mountain from the Guggi Glacier. Farther on is the Giessen Glacier, formed, at a higher level than the two last, on a shelf of the northwest side of the Jungfrau.

 

Politically, the pass at Kleine Scheidegg marks the boundary between the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald, both of which are within the canton of Bern.

 

In popular culture

 

The film Kleine Scheidegg (1937) was set on the eponymous pass, directed by Richard Schweizer, and starring Susanne Baader, Leopold Biberti and Emil Hegetschweiler.

 

In the summer of 1974, Clint Eastwood and his cast and crew stayed at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg while filming The Eiger Sanction (1975). Several scenes were filmed in and around the hotel.

 

The 2008 film North Face, about Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser's 1936 attempt to climb the Eiger north face, was shot to a great extent at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes. Footage of the mountain's profile was also shot from Kleine Scheidegg's vantage point, though the climbing scenes were created mostly using computer generated imagery and green screen technology.

 

The hiking track in the area is the basis for the fictional Eiger Nordwand tracks in the racing video games Gran Turismo HD Concept, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Gran Turismo 5, and Gran Turismo 6.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Die Kleine Scheidegg ist die Passhöhe (2061 m ü. M.) zwischen Eiger (3967 m ü. M.) und Lauberhorn (2472 m ü. M.) im Berner Oberland in der Schweiz, die Grindelwald mit Lauterbrunnen verbindet. Auf der Kleinen Scheidegg befinden sich Hotels, Restaurants, Skilifte sowie der Bahnhof der beiden Zahnradbahnen Wengernalpbahn und Jungfraubahn.

 

Die Wengernalpbahn führt von Lauterbrunnen und Wengen über die Kleine Scheidegg nach Grindelwald. Die Jungfraubahn führt von dort durch Eiger und Mönch hinauf zum Jungfraujoch. Erstere wurde im Jahr 1893 fertiggestellt. Im Sommer 1896 wurde mit dem Bau der Jungfraubahn begonnen. 1898 wurde der Abschnitt bis zum Bahnhof Eigergletscher in Betrieb genommen; 1912 wurde die ganze neun Kilometer lange Strecke bis zum Jungfraujoch in Betrieb genommen. Der Tourismus hatte sich aber schon vor dem Bau der Bahnen entwickelt: Seit dem Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts besuchten Reisende auf Grand Tour das Berner Oberland und wanderten über die Kleine Scheidegg. Ein erstes Hotel für Touristen wurde 1840 erbaut. Mitte der 1920er Jahre waren die Hotels erstmals auch den Winter über geöffnet. 1941 wurde der Skilift aufs Lauberhorn erbaut.

 

«Die Kleine Scheidegg wird alljährlich von ungezählten Touristenscharen besucht, welchen so schon lebhaften Verkehr die Eröffnung der Jungfraubahn noch bedeutend gesteigert hat.»

– Geographisches Lexikon der Schweiz (1906)

 

Die Kleine Scheidegg ist bekannt für das eindrückliche Panorama mit dem Dreigestirn Eiger, Mönch (4110 m ü. M.) und Jungfrau (4158 m ü. M.) und zahlreichen Gletschern. Zudem bietet sich hier eine gute Einsicht in die Eiger-Nordwand, um Bergsteiger in der Wand mit dem Fernglas zu verfolgen.

 

Im Winter ist die Kleine Scheidegg – zusammen mit dem Männlichen – Mittelpunkt eines ausgedehnten Skigebiets rund um Grindelwald und Wengen. Am oberhalb der Scheidegg gelegenen Lauberhorn befindet sich der Start des bekannten Lauberhornrennens.

 

Seit 1993 ist die Kleine Scheidegg jedes Jahr im September Ziel des Jungfrau-Marathons, der in Interlaken startet. Von 1998 bis 2020 wurde auf der Kleinen Scheidegg jeweils zum Abschluss der Wintersaison das Snowpenair mit bis zu 10.000 Zuschauern veranstaltet. Eine Einigung bezüglich einer Einsprache gegen den Bau der V-Bahn sah vor, das Festival nicht länger durchzuführen.

 

(Wikipedia)

The main mass is the Jungfrau, with the Silberhorn being the snowy pyramid. Paths descend from here into Lauterbrunnental.

En bas, l'Eigergletscher. Tout en haut, l'observatoire du Sphynx, Jungfraujoch. Impressionnant de savoir que le train passe sous la montagne pour y monter. Le trajet dure environ 50 minutes.

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemin_de_fer_de_la_Jungfrau

 

The Eigergletscher and the Sphynx Observatory, Jungraujoch. I'ts very impressing to know that you can access to this place by train within 50 minutes through a tunnel dig in the mountain.

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Jungfraujoch

 

View from Sphinx Observatory

 

Aussicht vom Sphinx-Observatiorium

 

The Jungfraujoch (German: lit. "maiden saddle") is a saddle connecting two major 4000ers of the Bernese Alps: the Jungfrau and the Mönch. It lies at an elevation of 3,463 metres (11,362 ft) above sea level and is directly overlooked by the rocky prominence of the Sphinx. The Jungfraujoch is a glacier saddle, on the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier, and part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, situated on the boundary between the cantons of Bern and Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch.

 

Since 1912, the Jungfraujoch has been accessible to tourists by the Jungfrau line, a railway from Interlaken and Kleine Scheidegg, running partly underground through a tunnel through the Eiger and Mönch. The Jungfraujoch railway station, at an elevation of 3,454 metres (11,332 ft) is the highest in Europe. It lies east of the saddle, below the Sphinx station, and is connected to the Top of Europe building, which includes several panoramic restaurants, shops, exhibitions, and a post office. Several tunnels lead outside, where secured hiking trails on the crevassed glacier can be followed, in particular to the Mönchsjoch Hut. The normal route to the Jungfrau and Mönch starts from there.

 

The Sphinx Observatory, one of the highest astronomical observatories in the world, provides an additional viewing platform at a height of 3,572 metres (11,719 ft), the second-highest in Switzerland. It can be reached by an elevator from the Jungfraujoch. The observatory houses one of the Global Atmosphere Watch's atmospheric research stations. The Jungfraujoch radio relay station, which is not accessible to the public, is installed west of the Jungfraujoch, on the Jungfrau ridge. It is Europe's highest radio relay station.

 

Etymology

 

Swiss and Austro-Bavarian German Joch (lit. 'yoke') is a term for 'ridge between two higher peaks' recorded in the 14th century (Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch "bereits im 14. jahrh. als ortsname: des gotzhus zwing und ban vahet an Rotenhalden und denne die roten bachtalen uf unz an den grat, und den grat obnan hin ob Grüblen hin iemerme, unz an Joch. und ab Joch unz an Stoerben. weisth. 1, 4 (Zürich)").

 

The name Jungfrau ('maiden, virgin'), which refers to the highest mountain overlooking the Jungfraujoch, is most likely derived from the name Jungfrauenberg given to Wengernalp, so named for the nuns of Interlaken Monastery, its historical owner. However, the "virgin" peak was heavily romanticized as a "goddess" or "priestess" only in late 18th- to 19th-century Romanticism. After the first ascent in 1811 by Swiss alpinist Johann Rudolf Meyer, the peak was jokingly referred to as Mme Meyer (Mrs. Meyer).

 

Geographic setting

 

The Jungfraujoch is a snow saddle located directly between the summits of Mathildespitze (west) and Sphinx (east). It is, however, most notably the lowest point between the Jungfrau and the Mönch, respectively third and fourth highest mountains in the Bernese Alps, and the key col of the former. The south side (canton of Valais), almost flat, is constituted by the Jungfraufirn, one of the branches of the Aletsch Glacier, the longest in the Alps. From the south, the Jungfraujoch can be relatively easily accessed by mountaineers in two days from the region of Fiesch, via the Konkordia Hut. The north side (canton of Bern) is almost vertical with a difference of height of nearly 3,000 metres from the bottom of the valley at Interlaken, with no easy natural access. For those reasons, the only easy and quick access to the Jungfraujoch is through the 7 kilometre-long tunnel of the Jungfrau Railway, accessed via Kleine Scheidegg on the north side, the railway pass between Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald.

 

Administrativelly, the Jungfraujoch is split between the territories of the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen and Fieschertal. Nearly all built infrastructure, including the Jungfraujoch railway station, Top of Europe complex and the Sphinx Observatory, are on the Valais side of the border, therefore in the municipality of Fieschertal. The ridge between the Jungfrau and the Mönch is a major European watershed as well. The north side is drained by the Weisse Lütschine, the Aare and the Rhine. The south side is drained by the Massa and the Rhone.

 

First crossing

 

There is a tradition in the Bernese Oberland, supported by some documentary evidence, that a pass existed between Grindelwald and Fiesch in Valais in the late medieval period, later lost to the advancing glaciers. With the early development of tourism in Switzerland and the exploration of the High Alps in the 19th century, there were once again attempts to traverse the great ridge that encloses the head of the Aletsch Glacier, and connecting Fiesch with Grindelwald and Wengernalp. Four such routes were found, with the Jungfraujoch and the Eigerjoch being among the most difficult passes in the Alps, despite the former having a relatively easy southern approach on the Aletsch Glacier.

 

The first ascent of the north side of the Jungfraujoch succeeded in July 1862, by a party of six English climbers and six Swiss guides: Leslie Stephen, F. J. Hardy, H. B. George, Living, Moore, and Morgan, with Christian Almer, Christian and Peter Michel, Ulrich Kauffmann, P. Baumann, and C. Bohren as guides. The time of ascent from Wengernalp was nine hours.

 

The party turned back on the first day at a bergschrund, returning on the following day with a ladder 25 ft (7.6 m) in length, carried by Peter Rubi, a porter from Grindelwald. The way lay at first by the rocky buttress of the Mönch, separating the Eiger and Guggi glaciers. From the buttress the route descended a short distance in order to reach the Guggi Glacier, which could be ascended to a plateau. This halting place was reached in about three hours.

 

Above the bergschrund was a second and smaller plateau which was situated immediately under the long slopes of broken neve that lay below the saddle. The final and very arduous stage in the ascent was a single patch of dark rocks jutted out from the snow in the ridge connecting the Jungfrau with the Mönch. After more than an hour of climbing, a great wall of ice, whose projecting cornice of snow was fringed by long icicles, had to be avoided bearing left in the direction of the Mönch, along the base of the wall by a slippery pathway of ice formed from the dripping from the icicles above. At a point where the pathway thinned out nearly to a point, and was cut across by a transverse crevasse, the wall became low enough to be scaled by the ladder. This was the last serious obstacle: a moderate slope of névé, unbroken by crevasses, then led up to the summit of the saddle.

 

After reaching the first patch of rocks, a short way below the saddle on the south side, the party divided: George and Moore, with C. Almer and U. Kaufmann went down to the Eggishorn and Fiesch, therefore completing the first crossing of the Jungfraujoch, while the remainder of the party returned to Grindelwald by the Mönchsjoch.

 

Jungfrau Railway

 

History

 

Adolf Guyer-Zeller first thought of the idea of a tunnel in 1893, and at that point, he had planned to have seven stations inside the tunnel before reaching the peak of the Sphinx. The building of the tunnel started on July 27, 1896 and took 16 years to complete.[6] The construction phase was troubled by many problems including monetary shortages, inclement weather and mounting deaths due to construction accidents. The worst accident occurred in 1908, when 30 tons of dynamite accidentally exploded.

 

When construction finally finished, the railway reached only to the height of the Jungfraujoch saddle, rather than the summit of the Sphinx, and had only two intermediate stations. However, even in its current state, the Jungfraubahn is a significant achievement in engineering and construction, still holding the title for highest railway in Europe.

 

Railway

 

The train into the mountain leaves from Kleine Scheidegg, which can be reached by trains from Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. The train enters the tunnel running eastward through the Eiger shortly after leaving Kleine Scheidegg.

 

It runs close behind the Eiger's north face, stopping at Eigerwand, where there is a window about 8 m long and a metre high, halfway up the face. The windows have been placed in holes used to remove excavated rock from the tunnel during construction, and are also occasionally used as access points, by climbers, and also rescue parties. This window was used for one of the final scenes of a Clint Eastwood spy movie, The Eiger Sanction. There one can get off the train to admire the view before the train continues five minutes later. The tunnel then turns west, heading towards the Jungfrau. There is a second stop at a window looking out on the Eismeer ("Sea of Ice") before the train continues to the Jungfraujoch. The tunnel was constructed between 1898 and 1912; it is about 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) long, with gradients of up to 25%. The journey from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch takes approximately 50 minutes including the stops at Eigerwand and Eismeer; the downhill return journey taking only 35 minutes.

 

The Jungfraujoch complex plays an important role in John Christopher's The Tripods novels.

 

Climate

 

Located above the permanent snow line, the Jungfraujoch is officially the coldest place in Switzerland, although other higher locations with no weather station, for example the top of the nearby Jungfrau and Finsteraarhorn, probably experience a more extreme climate. According to Köppen climate classification, the Jungfraujoch has an alpine climate on the border between tundra climate (ET) and ice cap climate (EF) with long, cold winters lasting most of the year and a brief period during summer where the average daily highs rise above freezing.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Das Jungfraujoch ist mit 3466 m ü. M. der tiefste Punkt im Verbindungsgrat zwischen dem Mönch und der Jungfrau in den Berner Alpen, auf der Grenze zwischen den Kantonen Bern und Wallis. Das Joch ist weit und stark überfirnt. Aufgrund der auch dort stattfindenden Gletscherschmelze sinkt es jedes Jahr im Schnitt einige Dezimeter ab. Es gehört zu den bedeutendsten Reisezielen in der Schweiz. Etwa 1 Million Touristen (Stand 2018) fahren jährlich zum höchstgelegenen Bahnhof Europas.

 

Umgebung

 

In der Umgebung des Jungfraujochs befinden sich einige Viertausender der Berner Alpen. Im Nordosten befinden sich der Mönch (4107 m ü. M.) sowie der Eiger (3967 m ü. M.) und im Südwesten die Jungfrau (4158 m ü. M.). Im Süden des Jungfraujochs ist hinter dem Konkordiaplatz das Aletschhorn zu sehen. 200 Meter westlich befindet sich auf dem Grat zur Jungfrau die 3557 Meter hohe Mathildespitze, etwa 600 Meter östlich des Jochs erhebt sich die Sphinx, eine markante kleine Spitze mit einer Höhe von 3571 Metern. Sie trägt eine Aussichtsplattform und ein wissenschaftliches Observatorium (Sphinx-Observatorium). In ihrem Innern befindet sich auf 3454 Metern Höhe die Endstation der Jungfraubahn. Diese Station ist der höchstgelegene Bahnhof Europas (daher der Beiname Top of Europe). Durch einen Stollen gelangt man von hier aus auf die Walliser Seite und zum Aletschgletscher. Der schnellste Aufzug der Schweiz führt auf den Gipfel der Sphinx. Ein im Sommer üblicherweise für Spaziergänger präparierter Weg führt vom Jungfraujoch zur Mönchsjochhütte. Beim Jungfraujoch selbst gibt es für Besucher keine Übernachtungsmöglichkeit. Die Stollen werden nachts verschlossen, so dass auch freies Biwakieren nicht möglich ist.

 

Passübergang

 

Als Übergang für Fuss- oder Skitouristen vom Berner Oberland ins Wallis oder umgekehrt besitzt das Jungfraujoch praktisch keine Bedeutung. Der Weg vom Wallis über den Aletschgletscher hinauf ist – von der Spaltengefahr im Jungfraufirn abgesehen – leicht. Der Aufstieg vom Berner Oberland her ist jedoch eine beschwerliche Hochtour (Steileis, G 5-6, zeitweise unmöglich).

 

Erschliessung

 

Seit dem 1. August 1912 ist das Jungfraujoch durch die Jungfraubahn erschlossen. Von Grindelwald oder Lauterbrunnen erreicht man mit der Wengernalpbahn die Station Kleine Scheidegg. Diese Station auf 2061 m ü. M. ist die „Talstation“ der Jungfraubahn. Von hier aus muss die Jungfraubahn 9,34 Kilometer bezwingen, davon verlaufen die letzten 7,32 km unterirdisch, bis sie am Jungfraujoch ankommt. Die unterirdische Endstation auf 3454 m ü. M. ist der höchste Bahnhof Europas. Auf ihrem Weg hält die Bahn an zwei Stationen: Eigergletscher (2320 m) und Eismeer (3158 m). Seit dem 11. Dezember 2016 wird die Station Eigerwand (2864 m) nicht mehr bedient.

 

Bauten und Anlagen

 

Seit 1912, mit der Eröffnung der Jungfraubahn, wird für das Wohlergehen der Besucher auf dem Jungfraujoch gesorgt. Mehrere Restaurants, aber auch spezielle Aussichtsplattformen und Erlebnisse wurden eigens dafür geplant und realisiert.

 

Restaurants

 

Bereits bei der Eröffnung weihte man das provisorische „Touristenhaus“ mit dem höchstgelegenen Restaurant Europas ein. Mit seiner Eröffnung in 1924 ergänzte das neue „Berghaus Jungfraujoch“ – mit Giebeldach und in die Felswand gebaut – dieses Touristenhaus. Es wurde als „Das Haus über den Wolken“ bekannt. Im Erdgeschoss befanden sich eine geräumige Wartehalle mit geheiztem Fussboden, Bahn- und Postschaltern und ein Bazar. Besonders ins Auge stach die „Walliserstube“, die mit der Arvenholztäfelung und Anwendung von Naturstein eine besondere Charakteristik erhielt. Gäste aus aller Welt übernachteten in einem der 18 gemütlichen, holzgetäfelten Schlafzimmer mit Waschbecken und Krügen auf dem Nachttisch. Auf der Aussichtslaube stand man am Ursprung des längsten und grössten zusammenhängenden Gletschers der Alpen, dem Aletschgletscher. 1972 wütete im Berghaus ein Feuer mit erheblichen Folgen: Lediglich das Bahnbüro, die Perronanlage in der rückwärtigen Felsenkaverne sowie die Forschungsstation konnten vor dem Feuer geschützt werden. Nach dem Unglück lud die Jungfraubahn Architekten zu einem Wettbewerb ein, ein neues Gebäude zu entwerfen. Der Gewinner war Ernst E. Anderegg mit dem im Hang eingefügten „Top of Europe“, das 1987 eingeweiht wurde.

 

Sphinx-Observatorium und Forschungsstation

 

Bereits vor Baubeginn der Jungfraubahn war die Einrichtung eines Observatoriums und einer meteorologischen Forschungsstation vom Gründer der Bahn, Adolf Guyer-Zeller, geplant. 1931 konnten die Laboratorien für Meteorologie, Glaziologie, Strahlungsforschung, Astronomie, Physiologie und Medizin auf (3571 m ü. M.) mit einem Felsenheim für 13 Forscher eingeweiht werden. 1937 wurde das Sphinx-Observatorium bezogen. 1950 wurde dem Observatorium die Kuppel für astronomische Beobachtungen aufgesetzt, die seither immer wieder den modernsten Erfordernissen der Wissenschaft angepasst wird. Das Forschungsgebäude selbst ist nicht zu besichtigen.

 

Unterhalb des Sphinx-Observatoriums und östlich des Bahnhofs und der Restaurants befindet sich die Hochalpine Forschungsstation, eine an die Universität Bern angegliederte Forschungseinrichtung der International Foundation High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat. Die Gästezimmer der Forschungsstation sind die einzige Übernachtungsmöglichkeit auf dem Jungfraujoch, aber nur Wissenschaftlern und den Betreuern vorbehalten.

 

Das Observatorium ist mit einem 111,4 Meter langen Lift erschlossen. Die Aussichtsplattform bietet den Besuchern bei schönem Wetter einen Ausblick bis in die Nachbarländer Frankreich, Deutschland und Italien. 1993 wurde die Sphinx für die Besucher renoviert. Drei Jahre waren nötig, um sie gemeinsam mit der schnellsten Liftanlage der Schweiz, der verglasten Aussichtshalle und der rund um das Gebäude verlaufenden Terrasse fertigzustellen.

 

Eispalast

 

Zwei Bergführer begannen in den 30er Jahren eine gewaltige Halle aus dem Gletschereis zu schneiden. In Handarbeit, mit Eispickel und Säge, entstand ein 1'000 Quadratmeter grosses Labyrinth – der Eispalast. Das 1934 begonnene Werk ist nie vollendet worden. Durch die Ausdünstung der tausenden Besucher muss die Grotte auf minus drei Grad künstlich klimatisiert werden. Die Decken und das Gewölbe der Gänge müssen regelmässig nachgehauen werden. 1992 bekam der Eispalast einen neuen Zugang und ist seit 2002 durch den Ice-Gateway erreichbar.

 

Post

 

Auf dem Jungfraujoch liegt auch das höchstgelegene Postbüro Europas mit der eigenen Postleitzahl 3801. Obwohl die Postleitzahl gemäss Schweizerischer Post dem Kanton Wallis zugewiesen ist, so befindet sie sich dennoch im Zahlengebiet 38xx der im Tal liegenden Gemeinden des Kantons Bern.

 

Richtstrahlstation Ostgrat

 

Am Ostgrat der Jungfrau auf nicht ganz 3700 Meter Höhe befand sich die 2011 abgebaute Richtstrahlstation Ostgrat. Vom Jungfraujoch führen eine teilweise durch den Gletscher geführte Stollenbahn sowie eine einspurige Standseilbahn zur Anlage. In der Mitte der Standseilbahnstrecke befindet sich eine Zwischenstation, welche für Forschungszwecke genutzt wird. Es existieren dort Photovoltaik-Testanlagen.

 

Versorgung

 

Die intensive Sonnenstrahlung bietet sich zur Energienutzung an. So wird die tagsüber einfallende Wärme für die Nacht gespeichert. Aber auch die zahlreichen sonst kaum beachteten Wärmequellen – von Lampen über Elektrogeräte bis zur Körperwärme der anwesenden Personen – werden in die Regulierung der Raumtemperatur einbezogen. So gibt es im gesamten Berghaus keinen Heizkörper. Sogar wenn die Sonne nicht scheint und die Aussentemperatur bei minus 30 °C liegt, kann tagsüber auf zusätzliche Heizungen verzichtet werden. Nur nachts wird über die Lüftungsanlage mit elektrischer Energie so viel Wärme zugeführt, dass eine Raumtemperatur von mindestens 18 °C erhalten bleibt.

 

Brauchwasser wird aus Schnee gewonnen und aufbereitet. In Trockenperioden muss es nach wie vor mit Zisternenwagen auf der Schiene von der Kleinen Scheidegg heraufgebracht werden. Für das Jahr 2012 ist ein neues Projekt geplant, bei dem das Wasser durch Leitungen von der Kleinen Scheidegg mit Druckluft hinauf auf das Jungfraujoch gepumpt wird. Somit können die Zisternentransporte reduziert werden.

 

Das Abwasser lässt sich nicht mehr in den Gletscherschrund einleiten. Deshalb wurde eine 9,4 Kilometer lange Abwasserleitung ins Tal installiert. Sämtliche Abwässer aus Küchen, Unterkünften und Toiletten können auf diese Weise umweltfreundlich entsorgt werden.

 

Klima

 

Auf dem Jungfraujoch herrschen extreme Klimabedingungen. Die mittlere Jahrestemperatur beträgt −6,7 °C mit Schwankungen von −37 °C bis +13 °C. Die Windgeschwindigkeit kann bis zu 260 km/h betragen. Die Sonne scheint jährlich durchschnittlich 1773 Stunden. Zu jeder Jahreszeit muss mit starken Vereisungen, Schneefall und Lawinen gerechnet werden. Die Messstation von MeteoSchweiz liegt auf einer Höhe von 3571 m ü. M.

 

Tiere

 

Bis zum Jahr 2009 waren auf dem Gletscher täglich 25 Polarhunde im Einsatz. Auf einer präparierten Piste (rund 500 Meter lang) zogen die Hunde Schlitten mit Besuchern, waren aber auch für Postsendungen und Lebensmitteltransporte von Wengen zum Eigergletscher im Einsatz. Das Rudel galt als das meistfotografierte Motiv auf dem Jungfraujoch.

 

Für Ornithologen ist die Hochgebirgsregion interessant, da verschiedene Vogelarten zum Teil auch überwintern. Der Schneefink beispielsweise nistet und schläft in den schroffen Felswänden und findet bei den Behausungen der Forscher Futter.

 

(Wikipedia)

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Grindelwald

 

Eigertrail

 

Grindelwald is a village and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itramen, Mühlebach, Schwendi, Tschingelberg and Wargistal.

 

Grindelwald village is located at 1,034 m (3,392 ft) above sea level. Mentioned for the first time in 1146, it has become an important tourist destination of both Switzerland and the Alps since the golden age of alpinism in the 19th century. It is overlooked by a section of the Bernese Alps from the Wetterhorn to the Eiger, which create a natural barrier. Together with the adjacent valley of Lauterbrunnen, the valley of Grindelwald forms part of the Jungfrau Region of the Bernese Oberland, between Interlaken and the main crest of the Bernese Alps.

 

Similarly to Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald is connected to Interlaken by the Bernese Oberland Railway and is the start of the Wengernalp Railway, leading to Kleine Scheidegg. The latter resort is the start of the Jungfrau Railway, the highest railway in Europe and a gateway to the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area.

 

History

 

Grindelwald was first mentioned in 1146 as Grindelwalt. This designation is probably derived from the Old High German words "grintil" (bar, barrier) and "walt" (forest), thus describing the nature of the valley. According to a legend, the name Grindelwald comes from two monks of the Interlaken Monastery. After exploring the Lütschinen valleys, they are said to have reported about "Grinden" and "Wald", i.e. "stones" and "forests". This was initially the explanation for the origin of the name.

 

The oldest traces of a settlement in the area are scattered neolithic tools which have been discovered around Grindelwald village. Several Roman era coins have also been found in the municipality. A castle was built on the Burgbühl hill above the village during the High Middle Ages.

 

In 1146, King Conrad III granted estates in Grindelwald to Interlaken Monastery. In the late 12th century, the barons of the alpine valleys in what became the Berner Oberland went to war against the expansionist Duke Berthold V of Zähringen. The Duke defeated a coalition of nobles in the Grindlewald valley in 1191. His victory allowed him to expand Zähringen power into the Oberland, to expand the city of Thun and found the city of Bern. Beginning in the 13th century, Interlaken Monastery began to purchase rights and land in Grindelwald and eventually forced the local nobles out of the valley. The Monastery continued to exert influence in the village and in 1315 and again in 1332 ordered the villagers to raid Unterwalden to further the political ambitions of the Abbot's patrons. In response to the raids, in 1342, Unterwalden attacked Grindelwald. A few years later, in 1348–49, the villagers joined in an unsuccessful rebellion against ecclesiastical power. In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the Protestant Reformation and proceeded to spread the new faith in Grindelwald against the populations' wishes. Berne was able to impose its will, converted the village and secularized Interlaken Abbey and the Abbey's lands. Grindelwald became part of the bailiwick of Interlaken, under a Bernese bailiff.

 

The first village church was a wooden building from the mid-12th century. The wooden building was replaced with the stone St. Mary's Church in 1180. This church was replaced in the 16th century, and the present church was built in 1793. On August 18, 1892, a large part of the village was destroyed by a fire. That day, which followed a drought period, a violent foehn storm was raging. Within two hours, 116 buildings in the Grindelwald valley were destroyed and 412 residents became homeless.

 

The tourism industry began in Grindelwald in the late 18th century as foreigners discovered the scenic town. Pictures of the vistas were widely reprinted, quickly making the village internationally famous. In the 19th century many Englishmen came to the village to climb the alpine peaks around the valley. The Finsteraarhorn (4,274 m [14,022 ft]), the Wetterhorn (3,692 m [12,113 ft]), the Eiger (3,967 m [13,015 ft]), the Schreckhorn (4,078 m [13,379 ft]) and the Gross Fiescherhorn (4,049 m [13,284 ft]) were all climbed during the 19th century, an ascent of the Wetterhorn marking the beginning of the golden age of alpinism. The ascent of the north face of the Eiger, in 1938, was also a milestone in mountaineering history.

 

The Grindelwald road was built in 1860–72, and the Bernese Oberland railway reached the village in 1890, both of which transformed an arduous journey into a simple trip and allowed tourists to flood into the village. In 1888, Grindelwald was the first resort in the Bernese Oberland to also become a winter destination, attractions being sleigh rides, curling, skating and, from 1891, skiing. The first resort opened in 1888, there were 10 hotels in 1889, and by 1914 there were 33 in Grindelwald. A rack railway was built to Kleine Scheidegg in 1893, and it was expanded to the Jungfraujoch in 1912. Numerous ski lifts, cable cars, hiking trails and alpine huts were built in the late 19th and 20th centuries to allow tourists to explore the mountains, notably the Wetterhorn Elevator, one of the first modern aerial tramways. Today, almost the entire economy of Grindelwald is based on tourism. The V-cableway, inaugurated in 2020, is the last major development in the valley.

 

The Grindelwald region has been the subject of scientific investigations, including in the "Alpine Studies" by the English alpinist W. A. B. Coolidge (1912) and in the Unesco research program Man and Biosphere of the Geographical Institute of the University of Bern on the effects of tourism (1979-1984).

 

Geography

 

The municipality is quite large and is divided into seven mountain communities. However the municipality is dominated by the large tourist center of Grindelwald, slightly above the Black Lütschine, the main river of the valley, the latter converging with the White Lütschine. The village is surrounded by the mountains of the Faulhorn, Schwarzhorn, Wellhorn, Wetterhorn, Mettenberg, Schreckhorn, Lauteraarhorn, Agassizhorn, Fiescherhorn, Mönch (the highest), Eiger, Lauberhorn and Männlichen, all of which are either within or on the border of the municipality. The Kleine Scheidegg and the Grosse Scheidegg, respectively "minor watershed" and "major watershed" are the two main passes of the valley.

 

Grindelwald has an area of 171.33 km2 (66.15 sq mi).[8] Of this area, 49.47 km2 (19.10 sq mi) or 28.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.02 km2 (10.82 sq mi) or 16.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.06 km2 (1.18 sq mi) or 1.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 1.37 km2 (0.53 sq mi) or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes, and 89.21 km2 (34.44 sq mi) or 52.1% is unproductive land.

 

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.6%. Out of the forested land, 12.9% of the total land area is heavily forested, and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.1% is pastures and 23.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 6.6% is unproductive vegetation, 24.0% is too rocky for vegetation, and 21.6% of the land is covered by glaciers.

 

The highest peaks of the valley, from the Wellhorn and Wetterhorn to the Eiger and Mönch, are part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area, a world heritage site.

 

On 31 December 2009, Amtsbezirk Interlaken, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.

 

Winter sports

 

Long famed as a winter tourist destination with slopes for beginners, intermediates and the challenges of the Eiger glacier for the experienced, there are activities for the non-skiers, from tobogganing to groomed winter hiking tracks. It is the usual starting point for ascents of the Eiger and the Wetterhorn. Nowadays Grindelwald is also a popular summer activity resort with many miles of hiking trails across the Alps.

 

The first person to ski there was Englishman, Gerald Fox (who lived at Tone Dale House) who put his skis on in his hotel bedroom in 1881 and walked out through the hotel bar to the slopes wearing them.

 

In media and movies

 

The 1969 James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service includes a chase through a skating rink and a Christmas festival in Grindelwald.

 

The 1972 movie and television series George were filmed in the village. The show features a large St. Bernard that grew up in New York and that comes for a permanent stay with his new owner in the Swiss Alps. Zsa Zsa Gabor appeared in an episode.

 

The 1975 movie The Eiger Sanction (starring Clint Eastwood) featured the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg as the film location where the group of climbers stayed during their attempt on the summit of the Eiger. In the summer of 1974, Clint Eastwood and his cast and crew stayed at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes during filming.

 

Grindelwald's mountains were used as the basis for the view of Alderaan in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).

 

Many scenes of the IMAX documentary film The Alps (2007) were shot in the region of Grindelwald, particularly on the north face of the Eiger.

 

Some of the action scenes in The Golden Compass (2007) were shot in Grindelwald.

 

The Beckoning Silence, a British 2007 television movie, retraced the 1936 Eiger north face climbing disaster. It was filmed on location.

 

North Face (2008, international), another movie retracing the 1936 disaster, was partially filmed on location.

 

The character Gellert Grindelwald features in the Harry Potter universe.

 

Grindelwald is where one of the Gran Turismo 2 circuits is set.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Grindelwald ist eine politische Gemeinde im Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli des Kantons Bern in der Schweiz.

 

Name

 

Der Name Grindelwald ist ein ursprünglicher Flurname und setzt sich aus den althochdeutschen Wörtern grintil (Riegel, Sperre) und walt (Wald) zusammen.

 

Geschichte

 

Der Burgbühl in Grindelwald ist eine hochmittelalterliche Burgstelle. Die Augustinerpropstei Interlaken erhielt 1146 von König Konrad III. mehrere Reichsgüter. Interlaken vermehrte diesen Besitz durch zahlreiche Zukäufe, verdrängte die Adelsgeschlechter von Rotenfluh, von Ringgenberg, von Eschenbach und von Habsburg-Österreich und wurde mit sechzehn Lehen zur bedeutendsten Grundherrin im Tal.[5] Der Reichsvogt Berchtold V. von Zähringen besiegte 1191 in Grindelwald den oberländischen Adel. Die Grindelwalder kämpften als Interlakner Gotteshausleute 1315 und 1332 gegen Unterwalden und litten schliesslich 1342 beim Einfall der Unterwaldner. In den Jahren 1348 und 1349 lehnten sie sich gegen das Kloster Interlaken auf. Erfolglos wehrten sich die Grindelwalder 1528 mit Waffengewalt gegen die Einführung der Reformation durch Bern. An die Stelle des Klosters Interlaken als Grundherrin trat nun die Stadt Bern.

 

Der Tourismus im Ort begann sich im 18. Jahrhundert zu entwickeln, das erste Hotel «Schwarzer Adler» wurde 1820 eröffnet, die erste Wintersaison fand 1888 statt, 1890 kam es zur Betriebsaufnahme der Berner-Oberland-Bahn. Am 18. August 1892 brannten ausgehend vom Hotel Bär am heutigen Busparkplatz 44 Wohnhäuser und 72 weitere Gebäude inklusive des neuen Bahnhofsgebäudes nieder, das alte Ortszentrum um Gydisdorf blieb aber verschont, da der Funkenflug durch starken Föhn in talwärtige Richtung stattfand und es bis in den Ort Schwendi zu Bränden kam.

 

1893 wurde der Betrieb der Wengernalpbahn aufgenommen, im gleichen Jahr wurde das neu erbaute Grandhotel Bär wiedereröffnet, es brannte dann abermal 1941 ab und wurde nicht wieder aufgebaut. 1947 wurde die Gondelbahn zum First eröffnet, die Pfingsteggbahn folgte 1967 und 1978 dann die Gondelbahn Grindelwald–Männlichen.

 

Grindelwald organisierte sich nutzungsrechtlich in den Alpen (Bergschaften). In den Einunge und Satzunge ze Grunde und an den Alpen Bach, Grindel, Holzmatten, Scheidegge, Wergistal, Intremen und zu Gletscher ordnete Propst Niklaus 1404 erstmals schriftlich die Alp-Weideverhältnisse. Die Alp Bussalp war hiervon ausgenommen, da sie sich in habsburgischem Besitz befand. 1538 fassten die Talleute bestehende Regelungen in der Taleinung zusammen. Die Bergrechte waren von da an (bis heute) an den Grundbesitz im Tal gebunden und durften nicht an Ortsfremde veräussert werden. Die bestehenden sieben Bergschaften Itramen, Wärgistal, Scheidegg, Grindel, Bach, Holzmatten und Bussalp wurden vor 1847 als Gemeinden der Talschaft Grindelwald bezeichnet. Die Bergschaften existieren heute als privatrechtliche Körperschaften nach dem Gesetz betreffend die Einführung des Schweizerischen Zivilgesetzbuches vom 28. Mai 1911 (Art. 20).

 

Geographie

 

Die Ortschaften, Weiler und Höfe der Gemeinde Grindelwald liegen verstreut im Talkessel der Schwarzen Lütschine im Berner Oberland zwischen Eiger, Wetterhorn, Fiescherwand und Faulhorn. Mit einer Fläche von 171,1 km² liegt Grindelwald an fünfundzwanzigster Stelle der flächengrössten Gemeinden der Schweiz und an dritter Stelle im Kanton Bern. Höchster Punkt ist mit 4107 m ü. M. der Gipfel des Mönch, der tiefste Punkt liegt auf 720 m ü. M.

 

Auf dem Gebiet von Grindelwald liegen der Untere Grindelwaldgletscher und der Obere Grindelwaldgletscher. Beide sind Touristenattraktionen und reichten in der Zeit von ungefähr 1590 bis 1880 bis vor das Dorf.

 

Das Tal wird entwässert durch die vom Oberen Grindelwaldgletscher gespeiste Schwarze Lütschine, die südlich des Dorfkerns die vom Unteren Grindelwaldgletscher kommende Weisse Lütschine von links aufnimmt. Ein rechter Zufluss der Schwarzen Lütschine ist der für den Bachlägerwasserfall bekannte Milibach.

 

Wirtschaft

 

Die Gemeinde lebt hauptsächlich vom Tourismus. Die Beschäftigung verteilt sich wie folgt auf die drei Wirtschaftssektoren: 9 % Landwirtschaft, 16 % Industrie und Gewerbe, 75 % Dienstleistungen (Stand: 2020). Im Jahr 2020 wurden noch 105 Landwirtschaftsbetriebe gezählt.

 

Im Winter kommen vor allem alpine Wintersportler, im Sommer Wanderer und Touristen, die wegen der Bergkulisse anreisen. Der Fremdenverkehr hat eine lange Tradition. Schon früh versuchte man, die Berge den Gästen zugänglicher zu machen. Der Wetterhorn-Aufzug gilt als eine der ältesten personentransportierenden Seilbahnen der Welt. In Grindelwald befinden sich Hotels, Ferienwohnungen und -chalets, eine Jugendherberge, ein Jugendferienlager für behinderte Kinder und zwei Campingplätze.

 

Verkehr

 

Das Tal von Grindelwald ist von Interlaken aus mit einer Strasse und einer Bahnlinie erschlossen. Die Hauptstrasse 221 führt von Bern über Thun und Interlaken bis nach Grindelwald. Fahrten weiter über die Grosse Scheidegg ins Haslital sind nur mit dem Postauto und mit dem Fahrrad möglich.

 

Die Berner Oberland-Bahnen verkehren zwischen Interlaken und Grindelwald. Vom Bahnhof Grindelwald aus führt die Wengernalpbahn über die Kleine Scheidegg nach Wengen und Lauterbrunnen. Auf der Kleinen Scheidegg besteht ein Anschluss zur Jungfraubahn, die durch den Eiger auf das Jungfraujoch fährt.

 

Das Skigebiet Kleine Scheidegg/Männlichen wird durch eine Gondelbahn bis auf den Männlichen erschlossen. Dieser ist durch eine Luftseilbahn ebenfalls mit Wengen verbunden. Eine Gondelbahn führt von Grindelwald ins Skigebiet First.

 

Im Sommer führt eine Luftseilbahn auf die Privatalp Pfingstegg am Mättenberg, Ausgangspunkt für Wanderungen zu den Grindelwalder Gletschern, zur Schreckhornhütte und zum Chalet Milchbach, das durch einen Wanderwegtunnel erreicht werden kann. Auf dem Weg liegt das Gesteinsparadies Breitlouwina.

 

Eine historische Transporteinrichtung und die erste öffentliche Luftseilbahn der Schweiz war der Wetterhorn-Aufzug.

 

Pisten-Funi

 

Ab den 1930er Jahren verfügte Grindelwald am zentrumsnahen Skischulhang Bodmi über ein spezielles Transportmittel für Wintersportler: die als Funi (Kurzform von «Funiculaire») bezeichnete Schlittenseilbahn, die 1995 als letzte ihrer Art eingestellt wurde.

 

Wanderwege

 

Das Tal und die umliegende Berglandschaft ist mit zahlreichen Wanderwegen erschlossen. Durch Grindelwald führt die Route des Fernwanderwegs 1 «Via Alpina» («Alpenpassroute») im Netz von SchweizMobil. Von der Schynigen Platte über das Faulhorn zur Grossen Scheidegg verläuft ein Abschnitt der Wanderroute 38 «ViaBerna». Der «Eigertrail» ist ein Bergweg von Alpiglen unter dem Fuss der Eigernordwand zur Bahnstation Eigergletscher.

 

Sport

 

Grindelwald war der erste Kurort im Berner Oberland, der ab 1888 auch im Winter von Touristen besucht wurde. Die Gäste konnten Wintersportaktivitäten ausüben: anfangs Schlittenfahrten, Curling und Schlittschuhlaufen, ab 1891 Skifahren; später wurde eine Bobbahn errichtet. Ab 1947 wurde der First als Skigebiet erschlossen, 1978 der Männlichen. Ab 1932 wurden in Grindelwald die vom Schweizerischen Damen-Skiclub organisierten SDS-Rennen ausgetragen, die lange Zeit zu den wichtigsten alpinen Skirennen der Damen zählten und 1967 in den Weltcup integriert wurden. Die bislang letzten alpinen Weltcuprennen fanden 1992 statt.

 

Eine Grindelwalder Erfindung ist der Velogemel, ein einspuriger, lenkbarer Sportschlitten – vergleichbar mit einem Fahrrad aus Holz, das Kufen anstelle von Rädern besitzt.

 

Drehort für Filme

 

Szenen für den James-Bond-Film Im Geheimdienst Ihrer Majestät wurden im Winter 1968/69 in Grindelwald sowie Mürren und auf dem Schilthorn gedreht.

 

1972–1974 wurde die Fernsehserie George in Grindelwald gedreht mit Marshall Thompson in der Hauptrolle, der zuvor schon einen Welterfolg mit der Serie Daktari hatte.

 

2004 wurden in der Gemeinde Aufnahmen für den Film Star Wars: Episode III – Die Rache der Sith gemacht; hier stellt die gefilmte Bergkulisse einen Teil des Planeten Alderaan dar, welcher in der vorletzten Szene des Films zu sehen ist. Die Aufnahmen wurden per Bluescreen-Technik und CGI zur Bergkulisse rund um die Hauptstadt eingesetzt.

 

(Wikipedia)