Friday 21st August: Cool morning, blue skies: 10°C to 18°C and down to 5ºC.
Adelboden to Kandersteg: 19K: 9.15am to 6.30pm: 9hrs 15 mins
Morning View from BnB Bernahoff
BnB Bernahoff - home for last night
Cutting grass on steep slope with a scythe
3hrs 30mins to the Bunderchrinde Pass
Up through the meadows of freshly cut grass
Filling the water bottles with icy cold water for the warm climb
Coffee on a rock slab with a view
Looking back to Adelboden
Looking ahead to the window cut in the alps - the Bunderchrinde Pass
Track across the shaley scree
It's a steep slippery slope
Jenny and Graham tip toeing up the steep scree slope
What a magnificent view of the alps
Not much of a flat spot for lunch at the top
Lunch perched at the top of the Bundrchrinde Pass
The highlight of the day was climbing to the top of the Bunderchrinde at 2385 metres and seeing the spectacular view of the snow capped high alps. The American magazine Backpacker declared the western part of the Alpine Pass Route (100 miles (160k) between Kandersteg and Altdorf) the World’s Best Hike, in front of 5 classic routes including the Annapurna Circuit Nepal, Torres del Paine Chile and the John Muir Trail Sierra Nevada. Criteria which tipped balance: gastronomy! The 3 days of the Alpine Pass Route that we have just completed has been magnificent, but to see the towering sheer walls of the snow capped Alps looming in front of us and to know we will be there tomorrow was simply amazing!!
Breakfast at 8am is simple but more than adequate - not the usual array of 10 different cheeses, 7 different meats etc, but a small splattering of fruits, meats, cheeses and yoghurts, with a real cappachino. It's a bit late when we leave, as Graham insists on relaying to us the whole of the BBC news he has just listened to before breakfast.
It's 9.15am when we leave the B and B Bernahof, and return to the Coop for another loaf of freshly baked Swiss bread to go with the leftover cheeses. It's a 1000 metre climb today but first we have to descend 300 metres into the valley below Adelboden before climbing up the other side, making the total ascent more than 1,300 metres. The signpost in the bottom of the valley tells us it's 3hrs 30mins to the Bunderchrinde Pass, but in fact it took us almost 5hrs!
The track started through green freshly cut meadows, slashed by tractor or on the steep bits by hand with a long bladed scythe. Its a very warm day as we trudge up and up following an icy cold stream where we stop to fill up our water bottles. After 2hrs of climbing we're out of the pine forests and into the open alp meadowland where we find a rocky slab to have a cup of coffee with a spectacular view back over Adelboden village.
The track steepens until finally we see the Bunderchrinde Pass at 2385m, a window cut into the Alp crest, and still another 600 metres above us, with a very shaley scree slope laying in front. The path across the scree is steep and slippery and the last 100 metres to the top we're leaning into the steep slippery slope, pushing hard with trekking poles to stop slipping and stay balanced. It's 2pm when we reach the Bunderchrinde Pass after almost 5hrs of climbing, but the view from the top looking across the Kandersteg valley to the other side is just spectacular with sheer cliffs rising to snow capped alps in a long line. Perched in an upper valley, there's also the beautiful Lake Oeschinensee. The narrow ledge at the top of the pass makes it difficult to find a stable patch amongst the shale to sit and have lunch and enjoy the panorama. It's cold, 5ºC and windy after a sweaty climb.
The descent down the other side is worse than the ascent - very slippery shale at an angle of almost 45º making it very dangerous for the first 200 metres. For the next 2hrs, it's a downhill slog - going uphill is hard on the heart, going down is hard on the body. We'd been told by the host at the Bernahof that there was a bus at the bottom of the valley, but we think he got his valleys mixed up because there was no bus and it's already 5pm with another 1hr 30mins descent into Kandersteg. There's a major international scout camp site located to our right at the end on the valley with streams of young kids backpacking into the campsite. After assessing the options of descent, we opt to walk down the graded road rather than the steep stoney track into Kandersteg.
At 6pm, we're footsore and a bit weary but there's a seat by the road for a quick rest and a nip of drink from Graham's water bottle that is clearly not water but a cocktail of vodka and fanta. It's good. Across the valley we see the entrance to the old 14k Lotschberg train tunnel but a newer 34.5k Base tunnel has recently been built. The village of Kandersteg is spread out in the narrow valley and just as we think we're near the the centre, there's still another 2k to walk. At 6.30pm we roll into the Hotel Pension Spycher, which doubles as a Pizzerie and we make an instant decision to have beer and pizza for dinner. A quick bath (no shower, the ceiling's too low) and we're down stairs eating pizza washed down with a cold beer and already planning to catch a cable car up to the Lake Oeschinensee to take 500 metres off the 1600 metre ascent in the morning.
Bundrchrinde Pass 2385m
Blue skiees and snow on teh alps
Steep descent down the other side
The road looks better than the track at 5pm
Waiting for a non-existent bus, and drinking from a water bottle that's not water
Morning sorting at Waldrund Hotel