The way walkers reached the foot of the Eiger before the railway: up from car-free Wengen through flower meadows and larch woods to the Wengernalp, where the Jungfrau's ice walls hang directly across a gorge, and on to the pass at Kleine Scheidegg.
Wengen sits on a sunny shelf above the Lauterbrunnen valley, a car-free resort of chalets and old hotels. Above it, the slopes rise in a long sweep of meadow to the Wengernalp and the pass of Kleine Scheidegg.
The Wengernalp has been famous since the Romantic era. Byron came here in 1816, watching avalanches pour off the Jungfrau, and the scene went into his drama Manfred. In 1893 the Wengernalp railway, still one of the longest continuous rack railways in the world, reached the pass, and most visitors have ridden up ever since. Walking it is slower and better: meadow flowers in June, the sound of cowbells and of ice falling off the Jungfrau's north face, and a view that grows with every step.
Walk up and ride down, so the climbing is done fresh and the knees are spared. The path follows the railway loosely, so you can hop on at Wengernalp or Allmend if you tire.
Yellow signs for Wengernalp and Kleine Scheidegg from Wengen station.
Approximate profile.
From the station, climb through the village on lanes between chalets, following signs for Wengernalp. The paths leave the houses behind and enter steep meadows with the Lauterbrunnen valley dropping away to the right.
The path climbs steadily through hay meadows and larch woods, crossing and recrossing the railway, past the Allmend stop. The Jungfrau, Silberhorn and Breithorn rise across the valley; in June the grass is full of orchids, gentians and globe flowers.
The old hotel and station at Wengernalp face the Jungfrau directly across the Trümmelbach gorge. On summer afternoons you hear the boom of ice falling off its north face a few seconds before you see the white cloud of the avalanche.
The final climb past the slopes of the Lauberhorn ski run leads to Kleine Scheidegg, where the Eiger's north face rises overhead and trains leave for Grindelwald, Wengen and the Jungfraujoch. Lunch on a terrace, then ride down.
Wengen is 15 minutes by rack train from Lauterbrunnen, itself 20 minutes from Interlaken Ost. From Kleine Scheidegg, trains run down to Wengen and Lauterbrunnen, or over to Grindelwald for a full traverse of the region.
From Kleine Scheidegg, ride one stop to Eigergletscher and walk the Eiger Trail down to Alpiglen, or walk the Panorama Trail in reverse to the Männlichen.
The Eiger Trail →
Under 1,800 metres of rock and ice, from Eigergletscher to Alpiglen.
Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg, with the Eiger growing ahead.
The Northface Trail and the old mule path down to the valley.
Flat along the valley floor past Staubbach and Trümmelbach.
Fifty minutes from the gondola to a mirror under the Faulhorn.
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The great ridge walk over the Faulhorn above Lake Brienz.
Wikimedia Commons photographs are used under their Creative Commons licences; Pexels photographs under the Pexels licence.
