Spruce trees blur past in near silence, eleven kilometres of packed snow beneath the sledge.
Große Scheidegg
A ridge where two valleys divide, ice fields close enough to study.
Grosse Scheidegg lies at 1,962 metres, a col between the Wetterhorn and the Schwarzhorn that separates Grindelwald from the Haslital above Meiringen. The road carries no private cars, only the yellow PostBus, running between May and October in a service as much part of the place as the peaks around it.
The pass forms a stretch of the Alpine Pass Route between Sargans and Montreux, and the Marmot Trail begins here, dropping toward Waldspitz through pastures where marmots are a near constant sight. Cyclists climb 1,300 metres over sixteen kilometres from Meiringen, on gradients reaching twelve percent, one of the harder ascents in the Bernese Oberland. From the ridge above the pass hotel, the Eiger's north face and the retreating glaciers of the Wetterhorn sit close enough to study in detail.
A small mountain hotel marks the summit, open through the same months as the bus.
More in Grindelwald
A steel walkway ends in open air, forty-five metres above the valley.
At the Top of Europe: A mighty glacier, permanent snow and, on clear days, France.
Two railways climb from opposite valleys and meet at 2,061 metres, under a wall of rock and ice.