Hikes around Grindelwald, Murren, late May

We are exited about hiking in the Grindelwald (2 days) - Murren area (2 days) from May 19-23. We have hiked extensively in the Rockies and will be coming with hiking gear for day trips 3-5 hours.

We would like suggestions for short to longer hikes in these areas. It is hard to know what a difficult hike is in this area. The options are difficult and easy. Is there also a good website/book and map to look at hikes in this area?

I know we need to prepare for some rain, variable weather (perhaps snow). If there are good rainy day hikes to take, please indicate those as well. We are coming to hike the mountains, meet the people and enjoy the local culture. Are there some special events for the first day of summer (June 21) to experience.

Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Scigirl7-

Welcome to My Swiss alps.

I am confused about dates - you mention late May, but also late June. That difference is important in the high alps.

In late May, many of the cableway accesses to higher trails will be closed, and trails above 2300 meters or thereabouts may be blocked by snow .

Cableways are listed in the timetable. Check your dates against locations. If you get a "no service" return, check the same trip in July to see if it does actually run, and that you have made the right entries.

Note that if you expand a journey, the footnotes allow you to get a map of the route.

www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

map.search.ch/?x=-22888m&y=-29584m&z=8&poi=bergbah n,mobility

In the map i have used the menus to mark mountain transport. You might play with those options under Points of Interest/Traffic.

It is hard to project tail status accurately at this time, because a lot depends on how much snow was deposited in the winter. Certainly, that is low season and many hotels ( not all) will be closed, and many cableways will be down for maintenance or lack of customers until about the first or second week in June.

These links may help you:

www.myswissalps.com/be sttimetovisit

www.myswissalps.com/be rneseoberland

www.swissholidayco.com /Public/Assets/User/fi les/Map-of-Jungfrauregion1.jpg

Your experience in the Rockies will help you understand the importance of altitude and time of year in any consideration of weather in Switzerland.

This partial trail list may help as well; note the "update" date at the bottom. Some trails are groomed for hiking in the winter but are closed in April-May, before they reopen for hiking in June/July.

www.jungfrau.ch/en/som mer/tourism/destinatio ns/kleine-scheidegg/hiking-trails/

Also,

www.myswissalps.com/hi king

Not sure what kinds of maps you like.

The absolutely best topo is:

map.geo.admin.ch/?topic=swisstopo&lang=e n&bgLayer=ch.swisstopo .pixelkarte-farbe&X=166700.00&Y=64 8300.00&zoom=4

Switzerland Mobility has lots of hikes on their web site, and if you can find one in their list, you'll be able access height profiles:

www.wanderland.ch/en/h iking-in-switzerland.html

Sometimes I have to enter place names to get a usable search of their list.

Hope that helps you get started

Slowpoke

Thanks for the quick replay..I so appreciate it. My mistake...we will be in the Alps in June...not in May. I think the options in June will be a little different than in May...all the same excellent opportunities abound.

With appreciation to all!

<<"My mistake...we will be in the Alps in June...not in May. I think the

options in June will be a little different than in May...all the same

excellent opportunities abound.">>

Good to hear.

Check those links that I gave you. There are a lot more options in June. Although, I was up at Männlichen last June 15th, and the were lots of heaps of snow still there, although the specially nice trail from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg was open. Unfortunately, we were inside a cloud and had no other days, so so we missed that walk.

www.myswissalps.com/hi king/maennlichen-kleinescheidegg

Add this link. It has a little useful information about the region.

www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/tips-about-wengen-and-the-jungfrau-region-by-kim

Slowpoke

Thank you for these fantastic resources. The electronic maps and train schedules are exactly what I need to make some decisions concerning different hikes. We so appreciate you taking the time to share this information with us.

Hi Scigirl7 -

Glad that they can help you.

As you focus in on specific hikes, let us know what you are considering. Some of the forum members are quite familiar with the hikes in the area, as you can tell if you look through Kim's tip for one example.

There are, in fact a quite a number of books that have been published over the years on hikes in the Alps. I do have some on my shelf, even if I have not made most of the hikes because they make one climb too much at high altitude for me.

If you like to carry paper maps while hiking or for planning, as I do, I can recommend the many different scales and series of topographic maps available from the Swiss Federation Land Office. They are the "gold standard."

The most useful ones are readily available in convenience stores, sporting goods stores and major bookstores throughout Switzerland. Usually, in the smaller stores, the emphasis is on maps of the nearby regions.

I like to plan from the 1:50,000 Wanderkarten, (hiking maps) which have the well marked "Wanderwege" trails shown in red.

Recently, they have added Wanderkarten ( hiking maps) in 1:25,000 and 1:33,000. Not sure how good the coverage is for different regions.

For detail, I sometimes also use the 1:25,000, most of which are "National Maps" (not Wnderkarten), which are particularly helpful in steep terrain.

This link shows what is available. Study the menu on the left.

www.swisstopo.admin.ch /internet/swisstopo/en /home/products/maps.ht ml

If it does not get you there, go to the SwissTopo home page, look under products, then maps, then leisure maps, then hiking maps.

Generally, I buy in Switzerland. Since I come in through Zürich, I go down the stairs one flight from the main level toward track 2 and walk into the Barth Bücherei facing me with my list of maps, and pick up any I do not have. They have a map showing which individual map niumbers you can get for a region. In Luzern, Orell Füssli close to the main station is useful. In Bern, Stauffacher is half a block from the main station.

I have attached a few of my favorite pictures of the area near Wengen in another thread. Look toward the end.

www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/is-my-planned-itinerary-possible

Slowpoke