So the plan is to do the Jungfrau on Tuesday, 1/30, and do Kleine Matterhorn and Gornergrat Wednesday afternoon and some time Thursday.

But the forecasts call for partly cloudy or even mostly cloudy.

Grindlewald forecast:

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/world-fo...D&metric=1


Zermatt forecast:

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/world-fo...T&metric=1

So do these partly cloudy forecasts spell doom for doing these excursions?

Or is there a better way to get an idea of what visibility will be like?

There are two worst scenerios I can think of:

1. Your chosen places are in the middle of the clouds/fog. You won't see a thing.

2. It's snowing really hard. You won't see a thing.

Looking at the forecast, no. 1 is more probable.

If the clouds are high, I'd still go. You might see a beautiful mountain peeking out behind a cloud.

If it's foggy, then stay in town and enjoy a wonderful cafe Zwetchgen and a nice fondue.

When it comes to weather, there are no guarantees.

I honestly don’t think there is anyway to tell what the weather is going to be like next week in the mountains. My experience in living in Switzerland is if you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes. It could be sunny, then it could be snowing. The weather changes very fast, and even faster in the mountains. As you will be there anyway, just see what the day brings.

If it is snowing heavily in the Jungfrau valley and you cannot see the top of the mountains, you might not want to spend all that money to go up, as chances are better that it will continue to be snowing and continue to be cloudy up top; if it is a very clear day without a cloud in the sky, chances are better that it will stay that way. However, as noted above, even if it is cloudy in the valley, it can be clear at top of the Jungfrau and you can see the other mountain peaks peeking up out of the clouds. There are webcams in Wengen which will show you what the weather is like at the top of the Jungfrau, and you can make your decision then if you want to go up. (There may be webcams in the Grindelwald and even Interlaken stations, I just know the Wengen station very well). Wengen is really the last place before you need to commit to the more expensive ticket up the Jungfrau. Wengen is a very pleasant town to spend some time if you have cloudy weather and decide you don’t want to make the trip up the Jungfrau, there are several nice restaurants and some very good winter walks with packed trails, even if views are obscured by clouds. Go to the tourist office in Wengen and get their pamphlet on walks. There are several short and easy (flat) ones. Run a search for Wengen and many threads should come up. If you want a very nice lunch with a veiw, try the Caprice hotel, go to www.caprice-wengen.ch
You could also do the walk which leads out past Mary's Cafe and have a great lunch there too. I think the Alpenrose would probably be a good place as well (alpenrose.ch).

In Zermatt, I have to say that IMO while the cable car ride up the Kleine Matterhorn is fun and thrilling I don’t think the views are all the great, esp of the Matterhorn itself as you are really too close to it. It also is not nearly as high as the Jungfrau, so if it is a cloudy day and you can’t see the top of the mountains, it is about 100% that you will be in total clouds at the top of the Kleine Matterhorn. Also note that the cable cars will be full of skiers in January, so you will have to fight your way on to them.

For the Gornegrat, again it is much lower than the Jungfrau, so if it is cloudy you won’t have views, but IMO the views of the Matterhorn from the Gornegrat are the most spectacular. The train ride up is great fun as well. I think the train is much cheaper than the cable cars up the Kleine Matterhorn, I may be wrong about this having usually done this as part of a ski lift ticket, but that is my impression. In any event, if you go up the Gornegrat, there are some very good winter walks and some sledge runs (wooden runner sleds) which you could consider doing. There are several restaurants you can walk to, like the Rifflleberg Cafeteria, at the Riffleberg stop or the Kulm Gornegrat the Gornegrat Station (Go to http://www.matterhorn-group.ch/en/go...ants/index.php for info), the Riffelberg Hotel about 500 metres down hill from the Riffelberg stop, and finally the Rifflealp 2222m Hotel has several restaurants including one at a lovely outdoor terrace with a great view, you can get there by getting off at the Rifflealp stop or for some exercise, you could get out at one of the higher stations and walk down to it. (www.zermatt.ch/riffelalp_

If you have time and want a different experience, take the Sunegga Express underground train to Sunegga and walk to the wonderful Chez Vrony for one of the best lunches wit THE best view. (Even without the view its a great restaurant, go to http://www.chezvrony.ch)

There is a livecam in the Zermatt station waiting room of the Gornergratt RR so you can see what the view is up at the top before you make an ascent.

Last March, I arrived in Zermatt to nothing but clouds. We still had a great time on ethe Gornergrat. The next morning, there was sun for a few hours and we were rewarded with a great view from our balcony.

Don't be discouraged if it is cloudy during the day, you could have the same luck I did the next morning.

Barbara makes a good point.

When I first went to Zermatt it was totally overcass in the village but the manager of our hotel called up to the top and told us to hurry that the weather was clear abovew. We rushed to the Gornergratt RR and went up..she was right!

I am not sure what Cicerone menas when he says it isn't as high as the Jungfrau...surely he is not talking about the height of the Matterhorn (Mount Cervin) which is definitely higher than the Jungfrau...odd.

Well I did find this site with webcams of the BO:

http://www.swisspanorama.com/html/livecams.html

And from there, this one shows three webcams at Jungfrau:

http://www.swisspanorama.com/html/jungfraucam1.html

So right now, as of about 15:00 local time, it looks a bit hazy up there, with wisps of clouds around the peaks. Accuweather is showing partly cloudy in Grindlewald with <b>8 km visibility</b>.

Not sure how accurate the last part is because when I plugged in Bern, it also showed 8 km visibility.

The other concern is, with hazy conditions, you can see okay but the camera, especially digital cameras, may have a more difficult time capturing. I get slightly hazy, kind of faded pics. when I take pictures on a sunny day of a green landscape. That is partly due to lens flare but maybe the limited dynamic range of CCD sensors.

But thanks for the suggestions for alternatives. They sound great, if the weather turns bad. In another thread, someone suggested going to Ballenberg museum too.

Ballenberg is closed during the winter. It opens April 6.

Well Jungfraujoch was crystal clear today, not much of a breeze either, very pleasant up there -- in fact, it was colder at around 5 PM down in Interlaken.

Only thing is I went up relatively early, arriving around 10:30 AM.

So the sun was right over the glacier from the Sphinx observation point, making for some tough photography.

You wonder if the glacier has receded in recent decades. It hasn't snowed in about a week. It's interesting that a lot of the mountain faces are green (but still a lot of snow at the base) while on the other side, mountains are covered in snow. Of course, the former is exposed to sunlight the whole day.

Any sign of global climate change affecting the BO?

Clear at the Jungfrau--good for you!

As to your question, you would have to go look at the lower end of the glacier (where it has noticibly receded in just the few years I have been visiting there).

How do you get to the lower end?

One thing I noticed on the way down (I went up from Grindelwald but paid to come down the Wengen side) was several people walking down, at least between Wengenalp and Wengen.

If I had more time, that could be a neat hike, especially on a pleasant day. A guy at a ski rental shop (the sports pass prices are much better than Lake Tahoe lift tickets but the ski rental prices are astronomical!) said I might be able to rent a sled up there and ride all the way down too.

I took the Wengen to Mannlichen and down to Grindlewald cable car. Nice long ride but the views weren't any more spectacular than just riding the cog train.

You can see the lower end from several vantage points above the Rhone Valley---the towns of Bettmeralp and Riederalp have lifts to the top of the ridge above the glacier (Aletschergletscher); or you can ride a cablecar to the top of Eggishorn from Fiesch, on the train line east from Brig. You might have seen the Eggishorn from the Jungfrau; it is a pyrimidal peak south from the Jungfraujoch, directly across the Concordiaplatz.

You can find photos of these places (and of the glacier) here:

www.aletsch.ch
or try

www.bettmeralp.ch or

www.riederalp.ch


http://www.pronatura.ch/aletsch/de/n...cherklima.html

Very clear day again for Gornergrat in the afternoon. What a magnificent panorama. But with late afternoon sun, some long shadows make for difficult photography.

Once I got back down though, there was a beautiful fool moon rising right over one of the peaks. Got a good shot with a tripod but it might have been even more spectacular up at the peak.

I was planning to do Kleine Matterhorn (now Matterhorn paradise) the next day. While it's closer to the Matterhorn (of which I took so many pics today) and it looks like it's right next to a glacier, I'm leaning towards using my Swiss Pass to go to Montreux for the day and return. I was going to stop there on the way to Geneva, where I will be boarding my return flight.

But if I do Montreux next day, I can spend some afternoon time in Geneva, instead of arriving almost at sunset.

Lot of bald spots in the mountains here too. Lot more glaciers but those must have receded. I heard that in 2005, they had summer floods which shut down the train system and caused almost 2 billion in damage.

Global warming could really remake the topology of this country, as well as other countries downstream from the melting ice.

Welcome to Switzerland! You've had some very good weather this week and it should hold.

As you have noted, we need snow desperately. Our &quot;big&quot; snow from last week was just a drop in the bucket. My kids can sled on the little snow we have but skiing is poor and even the cross country trails are showing green patches again.

Thanks for info. Let us know how your trip continues!

scrb---

Since you seemed interested in seeing the lower end of the Aletschgletscher, I'll point out that you could add an excursion to the top of the Eggishorn tomorrow. A bit of a detour from Montreux, adding a couple hours to the trip, but if you're using a day of your pass anyway. . .

Leaving Zermatt at 7:30 am, you could be on top of the Eggishorn at 10:03. Leave there at 10:40 and arrive in Montreux at 13:52. You could catch a train at 6 pm and be back in Zermatt at 8:42.

I don't think your pass will cover the actual cablecar up the Eggishorn past Fiescheralp, but it may get you a reduction.

And of course the detour is only worthwhile if it is clear.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Didn't have Internet access so I missed it.

Did spend a long day going to Lausanne, Montreux and back to Zermatt. Ironically, hazy over Lake Geneva Thursday and Friday while the mountains were clear.

Yes a lot of the mountains have specks of snow while revealing a lot of rock and earth so it's not quite as scenic as it could be.

I imagine if you buy multi-day ski passes, you can go up to Gornergrat, Kleine Matterhorn, and various areas in BO (but not up to Jungfrau) on a more economical basis than 30-40 francs for one excursion?

The ski passes I've seen look more reasonable than paying $70 plus for resorts up in Tahoe. But if you have to rent ski and boots, you're paying 60 CHF and up per day.