GRINDELWALD, WENGEN, MÜRREN AND INTERLAKEN
The magic begins the moment you board your little train, skis in hand, to ascend high into the stunning Swiss Alps, overlooked by the magnificent Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains. This traditional fondue of snowy scenery, cog trains and cowbells forms the backdrop to the Jungfrau Region—the classic resorts of Wengen, Grindelwald and Mürren, all easily reached from Interlaken.
With direct views of the ice giants and 211 km of pistes, Switzerland has a knack for cultivating the highest peaks in Europe—and its latest long, tall and sparkly lift project is right here. What does almost C$700 million get you these days? A new glittering high-tech
V-cableway starting from a joint terminal in Grindelwald with gondolas accessing both the Eiger Glacier and Männlichen ski areas. Travel time to skiing and to the Jungfraujoch (tippytop of the Alps and gateway to the awesome Aletsch Glacier, at 24 km the longest icefield in the Alps and a UNESCO heritage site) will be shortened by a hefty 47 minutes—including an eye-popping stretch tracing the fearsome foot of the Eiger’s North Wall. Traditionalists, fear not: the classic narrow-gauge railways that have long served as the area’s charming lift system from Lauterbrunnen and Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg and on to Grindelwald aren’t going anywhere fast.
Ski a classic
Check out the longest and fastest downhill course on the World Cup circuit. More than four km long, the Lauberhorn, aka black run 49, is in fact a predominantly red run peppered with two steeps and some technical treats. To begin, the Hundschopf is a narrow rock-lined chute that leads into a path no wider than a car length; racers launch a harrowing 40m over this precipice. Not long after, the Kernen-S, a bridge regularly negotiated at around 80 kph, is named for Swiss Bruno Kernen, the 2003 winner, who smashed backwards into the net at 100 kph and catapulted back onto the icy slope like a human cannonball. France’s Johan Clarey broke the World Cup record reaching 161 kph on Haneggschuss. “There’s no other downhill
as physically taxing or as taxing technically,” said two-time Lauberhorn champion Bode Miller. “To win that race you have to have every facet of downhill skiing completely dialed in.”
A good day out
Getting to the top by train isn’t cheating; it’s just Swiss. Completed in 1912, the Victorian-era miracle of engineering that is the Jungfraujoch bores through the bulk of the fearsome Eiger to its 3,454m summit. Nearly a century on more than 600,000 tourists, mountaineers and skiers disembark at the top—each year—blinking in the sunshine amid a swirl of glittering ice and superlatives, to find themselves at the head of the Aletsch Glacier.
Parts of it are a classic ski-tour day with a catchy name. The Lötschenlücke tour begins at the top of the Jungfraujoch, slides onto the Aletsch, then climbs up the Aletschfirn, and culminates in a rewardingly long, languid seven-km descent to the village of Blatten, in the Canton of Valais. The glacier is more than a kilometre wide in parts and, at its thickest, 800m deep. Ski down the wide seven-km stretch toward the Konkordiaplatz and, after three hours of building up-credit, it’s time to cash in the chips. As they say in the movies, it’s all downhill from here. Endless long arcs weaving through a yawning, sprawling valley. Kilometre after kilometre of sweet, sandy corn snow. No people, no lift towers, no signs—and no stopping.
Grindelwald Sports (grindelwaldsports.ch) offers Lötschenlücke ski tours with UIAGM mountain guides, plus train from Interlaken to Jungfraujoch and back to Interlaken from Blatten at the end of the day. Group size is between six and 11 skiers. Ski-touring kit for rent widely available.