Posts about Bernese Oberland
The Bernese Oberland, Berner Oberland or Oberland bernois is a mountainous region in the centre of Switzerland.
I just came across a short film I made in January and posted to YouTube at the time. Filmed with my X100 and edited quickly in iMovie, it shows the publicly accessible lake-shore nature reserve at Gwatt, some fifteen minutes’ drive from home.
There are plenty of little, almost unnoticeable roads around here, which lead up valleys and through forests to remote farm buildings and dead-ends. I like to pore over the Kümmerly + Frey maps – the Swiss equivalent of the British Ordnance Survey – to see whether there are any worth driving up.
A steep and stony path from the mountain hamlet of Kleine Scheidegg leads to the top of the world-famous Lauberhorn, from which the intrepid author gets an unparalleled view of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.
A higher-resolution version of the panoramic view from my previous post about our hike from Isenfluh, photographed from high above the southern end of the Lütschine and Lauterbrunnen valleys as they open into the Bödeli plain near Interlaken and Lake Brienz. This part of the mountain is called Chüematta: Swiss German for “Cow Meadow”.
Hiking in the Suls alp region above the Lauterbrunnen Valley, far from the more popular tourist destinations of the Jungfrau Region.
One of the most challenging hikes I’ve done: up the steep and winding path through the forest from Beatenberg to the summit of the Niederhorn.
A long-held ambition fulfilled: to hike to my favourite glacier near the Susten Pass in Switzerland.
A group of canoeists, kayakers and stand up paddle-boarders in a range of coloured boats on Lake Thun this morning.
A solitary hiker walks the remote, single-track high alpine road between the Oberaarsee lake and the Grimsel Pass road, in canton Bern.
I’ve been looking at the tooth-like promontory in the distance quite regularly, ever since we moved to Faulensee. It’s a very distinct peak on the eastern side of the Schynige Platte and one which begs to be explored.
Creating long exposure photographs with movement and blur leads to great images. But if you want a pin-sharp photo, you’ll need to be patient.
The triangular Niesen towers over the Lower Simmen Valley and the towns of Spiez and Faulensee, on the shores of Lake Thun in Switzerland. The glowing clouds behind the mountains in the distance aren’t illuminated by towns, but by lightning storms above (respectively) Lenk and Gruyères.
Visiting the dramatic waterfalls and cave system in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland.
Travellers, historians and winter sport fanatics (and those of us who are less fanatic but still enjoy the mountains) will love this old film by Ronald Haines, shot in 1956 in the Swiss mountain resort of Grindelwald and on the surrounding mountains. (Link via Grindelwald Tourism on Facebook.)
Jo and I took a stroll around the Ballenberg open air museum on her birthday weekend a couple of weeks ago. The museum and its buildings are officially open to the public between April and October, but the site, its paths and woodlands are left accessible after the business closes up for the winter. It’s a…
…and where better to realise a childhood dream than in the Swiss Bernese Oberland? U.K. band Rudimental chose to film a large amount of the video for their recent release “Free” (featuring Emili Sandé) in the Alps of the Jungfrau Region and not only is the song lovely, but the accompanying video sequences are sublime.
Probably at number one on the list of “places I’d love to visit but probably never will” is the Mittellegi Hut, perched on the ridge of the same name near the summit of the Eiger. It’s famous amongst climbers as it’s along the approach route from the Eismeer station of the Jungfrau Railway, en route for…
A twin-rotor transport helicopter carrying another helicopter from the BOHAG company from the Mittelleggi hut down to their base station at Gsteigwiler. Crazy stuff. (Although, thinking about it, how else would you transport a helicopter if it broke down on top of a mountain?)
Just as summer arrived in the Bernese Oberland late this year, so the first snow fall has arrived early. But that’s OK: the sun is shining and it looks beautiful.
One of my landscape photos is chosen for a 2014 calendar, complied from submissions from the Swiss Twitter community.
Never having been a great one for sport and exercise, and having given up long walks around golf courses when I moved to Switzerland, my legs aren’t up to the challenge of big mountain walks. My knees are a bit of a weak point, and a long walk in the mountains often ends in a…
