Hi ,

I think this is a must place to hike when in Swiss ( knew about Alestch through Unesco).

Is there anyone out there in fodors who have hiked Alestch recently?

Thanks,

Have you ever done glacier hiking before?
If not, this is best undertaken with a guide and appropriate equipment!
The Loetschental is a beautiful, secluded valley which I have hiked (UP TO the beginning of the Aletsh glacier). There is also an upper level hike along the entire valley where a special type of sheep can be encountered (?black-headed). The townss of Blatten, Ried and Wiler are worth a stop if in the area...

okay, I see now that you have another thread going about Aletsch...
I'm not sure if the lift will be open for the season yet or that the Loetschentaler bus will be running the whole way ("early May") but a spectacular hike is the Loetschentaler Hoeheweg, 3.5 hours, start Fafleralp bus stop and finish a Lauchernalp cable car. See
htpp://activityworkshop.net/hiking/switzerland/loetschen
tal.html for a deatiled description
and
www.glowimages.com/search/Lotscental.html
for depictions of the grotesque wooden carnival masks made in these villages!
(Still can't find the name of that famous sheep breed

Sorry!
Spell that second site Lotschental to get to the great pics!

My profile pic is taken at the foot of Aletsch Glacier by Märjelensee Lake. My Swiss colleague who skies a lot (so he has been to many Swiss mounta areas) once told me Betteralp was the best place, out of the main tourist routes (such as Zermatt or Berner Oberland) I got curious and visited there for the first time 2 summers ago with friends. Then I returned even alone 3 times the same sumemr. And 3 times last summer again. The hike I do is on the hiking paths along the glacier. At the moment, I'm not yet interested in Glacier walk. I have seen parties doing it usually with a guide. Even without particular equipement, you can walk the edge part of the glacier, I did it but the surface did not look stable enough so I didn't dare go farther. I could have because there were no barrier, or anything to stop you. A bit scary. Anyway, you can say I'm hooked with the area at the moment. Sorry the (summer) hiking season is rather short. Cannot to wait to be back there again this summer.

http://activityworkshop.net/hiking/s...d/aletsch.html

Thanks Kappa,Mokka,
We havent ever been on snow or ice before, after your commentsm we think we should give up that idea of glacier hiking. But wont miss walking along the glacier, on the edge part for the views as Kapp mentioned.

The other thread is about the swis- italy trip overall, thi sone is specific for the Aletsch glacier.

We will be based in interlaken for two days from where we need to sort out the trip to Lotschental, Aletsch.

W

Thanks Kappa,Mokka,
We havent ever been on snow or ice before, after your commentsm we think we should give up that idea of glacier hiking. But wont miss walking along the glacier, on the edge part for the views as Kapp mentioned.

The other thread is about the swis- italy trip overall, thi sone is specific for the Aletsch glacier.

We will be based in interlaken for two days from where we need to sort out the trip to Lotschental, Aletsch.

W

Thanks Kappa,Mokka,
We havent ever been on snow or ice before, after your commentsm we think we should give up that idea of glacier hiking. But wont miss walking along the glacier, on the edge part for the views as Kapp mentioned.

The other thread is about the swis- italy trip overall, thi sone is specific for the Aletsch glacier.

We will be based in interlaken for two days from where we need to sort out the trip to Lotschental, Aletsch.

W

Hi traveluv:
Was further investigating this Wallis hike, and learned the following:
From Interlaken Ost-train to Spiez (43mins) then on to Goppenstein, where one must change to a bus (right at the same station) for the villages of the Loetschental (it IS running May 3rd). Total to this point 1 hr 55min.
For the Hoeheweg (high level hike), one disembarks at Wiler for the gondola up to Lauchernalp (22.40 RT adult).
HOWEVER, if I am reading the sbb.ch site correctly, It seems that this cable lift CLOSES for seasonal maintenance from May 2 through June 3! (Usual for maintenance closing between ski and summer hike season).
See if any other posters can learn differently, for this would be a fabulous high-level day hike.....Alternatively, one can hike the length of the floor of the valley, visiting tiny villages of Kippel (nice mask museum, but likely closed until 'high' summer season as well), Ried and Blatten. One can bus back to Goppenstein from Blatten (not Fafleralp, as the bus is not yet running this far in early May).
Check more on hikes in this area under www.myswissalps.com/hikes WALLIS area.

If the Loetschental turns out to be too much of a hassle/just not the right season, may I suggest Kandersteg (less than an hour from Interlaken Ost) and the chairlift up to Oeschinensee ( a high mountain lake) then a hike from there OR hike back down to Kandersteg (beautiful!) Oneway ticket 15 CHF, RT 21 CHF. Investigate area hikes at www.kandersteg.ch
The Gondelbahn is up and running and there is a toboggan run as well, opening May 7th...!

Hi, We plan to see Aletsch in September this year.
We can either drive to Betten, and then take cable car to Bettmeralp, and hike through the forest to see Altesch

Other option is to take cable car/gondola all the way to Eggishorn, and then just walk about a bit there, and walk back to Fiescheralp . Fiesch will be our car parking base then.

Which one do you suggest. We probably would have 2-3 hours for hiking. Would like to do the more scenic of the two. I am told that if we do eggishorn, we can actually walk to the glacier, and also see another big glacier towards the West?