Grindelwald First to Schynige Platte: Bachalpsee, the Faulhorn and six hours of ridge

Grindelwald, Wilderswil

1. 7:05 am1

   Early train Interlaken Ost → GrindelwaldGrindelwald

   This is a point-to-point day that ends 25 km from where it starts, so leave the car wherever you are sleeping and take trains at both ends. The Grindelwald half of the BOB train splits at Zweilütschinen — get in the front carriages or you will arrive in Lauterbrunnen.

2. 8 am2

   First gondola, one way onlyGrindelwald

   Buy the single, about CHF 42, not the CHF 76 return — you are not coming back this way. The gondola is 25 minutes in three stages via Bort and Schreckfeld and starts around 08:00 in summer. Skip the Cliff Walk queue at the top today; the ridge is the reason you are here and daylight is the constraint.

   3 min walk · 0 m
3. 8:35 am3

   First → Bachalpsee → the FaulhornGrindelwald

   An hour of nearly flat gravel to Bachalpsee — this is the stretch every day-tripper does, and before 09:30 you will have the mirror to yourself. Past the lake the crowd evaporates and it becomes a real climb: about 700 m more to the Faulhorn at 2681 m. There is no water on the ridge after Bachalpsee, so fill up at the lake outflow.

   8 min by train or taxi · 4.5 km
4. 11:45 am4

   Lunch at Berghotel FaulhornGrindelwald

   Open since 1830 and the oldest mountain hotel in Europe; everything on the menu arrived by helicopter, which is why soup and a Rivella costs what a proper meal costs in the valley. Cash and cards both fine. If you would rather see it at dawn, they take overnight bookings and the sunrise off this summit is the one people come back for.

   17 min by train or taxi · 11 km
5. 12:35 pm5

   Faulhorn → Männdlenen → Schynige PlatteWilderswil

   About 16 km end to end, 6 hours moving and closer to 8 with stops — the reason to start at First and not at Schynige Platte is that this direction gives you the Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau wall dead ahead for four hours and 600 m less climbing. Weisse Fluh above Männdlenen is the exposed section: fine in dry weather, genuinely unpleasant in wet cloud. Turn back at Männdlenen if the weather has closed in; there is no escape route after it.

   8 min by train or taxi · 3.9 km
6. 4:20 pm6

   Alpine garden and a beer before the trainWilderswil

   Free with a rail ticket and about 750 alpine species in a hillside enclosure — twenty minutes is plenty after six hours of the real thing. The Berghotel terrace pours a beer at 1967 m looking down at Lake Thun, which is the correct end to this day.

   3 min walk · 0 m
7. 5:12 pm7

   Schynige Platte Bahn down, then BOB to Interlaken OstWilderswil

   Check the last departure before you commit to the ridge — the 1893 cog railway typically runs its final train down around 17:45 to 18:00 and there is no road off the top. 52 minutes at walking pace to Wilderswil, then five more minutes on the BOB. About CHF 32 one way.

   8 min by train or taxi · 4.0 km
8. 7:15 pm8

   Dinner at Restaurant Alpenblick, WilderswilWilderswil

   Four minutes' walk from the Schynige Platte station and far better than anything on Interlaken's main strip. Their thing is fire-grilled meat and Oberland lamb; the garden is where you want to be after a ridge day.