Adelboden

The Last Two Walks

Each walk described is the easier choice of the two which were on offer.
Thursday The Hahnenmoos Pass : 7 miles, 850 feet of ascent.

This walk started with a short gondola ride to the lower Adelboden station where we changed to one which took us for three miles to Sillerenbuhl at 6650 feet. From there a track disappeared into the mist but we found that it contoured around a hillside and was designated as a "floral mountain trail". A series of small notice boards were placed at strategic points with a description of a particular flower, and there beneath it was the specimen described. The flower people were in their element! Our path led us through a small area of snow patches and eventually reached a very superior cafe ( a road somehow reached it ) where we took coffee during which a herd of cows some with huge cowbells were herded past by a man actually wearing a Tyrolean hat. It seems that most of the cows in these parts live very high up and sometimes are herded up extremely steep and narrow tracks to reach a particular pasture. A model aircraft club was based at this cafe and a radio controlled one was being flown, disappearing into the clouds only unerringly to return
.
There followed a long descent with a pause at a deserted mountain hut and then we returned to Adelboden the same way as we had arrived.
Friday The Elsighorn Slopes : 8 miles, 1250 feet of ascent.
We had often looked out from the hotel across to the most significant summit opposite, the Elsighorn, which separates our Engstigen valley from the Kander valley. Today the harder walkers would reach its summit while our "easy" walkers would start from a lower point.
The Elsigenalp cable car station was reached by coach and the last part of this ride was very hairaising as the upward climb on the narrow road included several hairpins with a terrific drop below to our left. We then set out in sunshine along a meadow within a valley. After many ups and downs we reached a cafe where the proprietor treated us to a performance on his Alp horn. Some of party including our leader went on to view the magnificent Lohner Waterfall following which we should have crossed a single plank bridge to walk down the other side of significant stream. However we had been falsely forewarned that the bridge was missing. So without the remainder of the party present we could not cross the plank and we returned to where they were waiting admiring the view down the valley. Our leader selected an alternative route and took us down through a very wet and remakably slippery field and somewhat to the amusement of its owner, on through the premises of a tiny farm . Then it was a long downhill road walk with new views of the town to lower Adelboden where we caught the cablecar back to near our hotel.

Return to previous page....or...Home Page

Rev 170810