Cowbells drift across the ridge while the Eiger holds still against the sky.
Bachalpsee
A lake that holds the Wetterhorn twice: once in the sky, once on its surface.
Bachalpsee sits at 2,265 metres above Grindelwald, a fifty-minute walk from the top of the First cable car. A natural dam splits the lake into two basins, the smaller one six metres lower, though most visitors see only the larger pool and the mountains suspended in it. On a still morning the Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn and Finsteraarhorn appear twice: once against the sky, once in the water.
The Grindelwald glacier shows itself too, further back, less obvious until pointed out. The path from First crosses open alpine pasture, an easy grade with little shade and a few remaining snow patches into early summer. Wind decides everything here. By midday the surface ripples and the reflection breaks apart; arrive before nine, or come at dusk, when the lake gives back what it takes an hour to reach on foot.
More in Grindelwald
A ridge where two valleys divide, ice fields close enough to study.
Spruce trees blur past in near silence, eleven kilometres of packed snow beneath the sledge.
A steel walkway ends in open air, forty-five metres above the valley.