Our school has a chalet in Wengen, a town the is perched above the Lauterbrunnen valley. Think of a valley floor with steep steep walls. Yosemite. Zion. Then there’s a shelf, still under the tree line, where someone had the bright idea to start a community. It’s relatively car-free. Taxis and golf courts are the norm. From there, there are trains and gondolas that head straight up again, for another 1000 feet or so to the top of a ridge that travels straight into the alps. Just when you think you’ve gained some elecvation, the eiger, the monch, the Jungfrau stand there laughing at you, thousands of meters higher than you, right stark in your face. Pretty neat.
Good skiing in Wengen, so they say. And it’s home to the Lauberhorn—the downhill race that rivals kitzbuhl and others.
From the ridge, you can hike to Klein Sheidegg ,the little hamlet where you can stay the night, eat Rosti, buy souvenirs, see where the EIger Santion was filmed, or get on yet another train to the Top of Europe, as it’s trademarked. It’s about $160 to take the train up. It goes through the EIger, crazy as that sounds, and ends up on top by the Jungfrauhoch. Way up there with an ice cave and other tourist items. Sounds great. Sounds too expensive to be shoulder to shoulder with other camera-yielding tourons.
I’ll be back.
