A steel walkway ends in open air, forty-five metres above the valley.
Pintenfritz toboggan
Spruce trees blur past in near silence, eleven kilometres of packed snow beneath the sledge.
Big Pintenfritz starts at around 2,600 metres, near the summit of the Faulhorn, reached only on foot. A two-hour hike from First follows a marked winter trail past Lake Bachalpsee, the Wetterhorn's north face ahead and the Schreckhorn holding its line further east.
The descent begins where the walk ends. Eleven kilometres of toboggan run drop 1,400 metres through open slope and spruce forest to Bussalp, then on to Grindelwald. Deer sometimes show at the forest's edge along the lower stretch. The run takes its name from Fritz Bohren, known as Pintenfritz, who ran the Faulhorn hotel and the Bellevue tavern in Grindelwald and was known to sledge down after closing time. How he made it back up by morning was never explained.
SwitzerlandMobility rates the route technically difficult. The hike comes first; the speed comes after.
More in Grindelwald
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.
A lake that holds the Wetterhorn twice: once in the sky, once on its surface.