I love the alpine Susten Pass road and the mountain scenery there, particularly the area around the Steingletscher glacier and nearby hotel. It’s been a long time since I’ve visited in spring – before the upper reaches of the road have been cleared of snow – so Jo and I took a drive and walked there yesterday, in summer…
The best time to visit the mountain villages near our home is between the tourist seasons, when many hotels are closed and the valleys, cable cars and mountain cableways are much quieter. We drove up to Grindelwald shortly before Christmas, to visit the mountain restaurant at Schreckfeld, where deep snow and temperatures as low as -12°C greeted us.
A testing and rewarding hike from the peat moorland of Lombachalp to two summits on the vertiginous Brienzergrat ridge.
I was half an hour early for an appointment at the Spiez council offices this morning, so I went for a brief stroll through the woods to the top of the vineyards while I was waiting. It was so peaceful, with fresh powdered snow slipping silently from the trees and only two or three other people there walking their dogs. A lovely…
Views from home across the lake to the Niederhorn on a winter Sunday.
A hair-raising sledge run - our first of this season - in the awe-inspiring Schilttal valley above Mürren.
Dense, grey fog on the lakes in the Bernese Oberland means that it’s best to head for the surrounding hills and mountains to get above the cloud and into the sunshine. We took a drive up a road we’d never used before – an unrestricted, toll-free one for a change – and ended up high above the entrance to the…
Part of the joy of photography for me is the ability to travel in time. Not like Marty and the Doc in my favourite ever films, which celebrated a big milestone a few days ago, but in the ability to look at a scene in large levels of detail as it was many years ago. Since updating my…
The Jungfraujoch is the prime tourist destination in Switzerland’s Jungfrau region. High atop a mountain “saddle” between the Mönch and Jungfrau peaks, it’s accessible by taking a cog-wheel train which makes its way to the summit through a tunnel carved into the mountain. Temperatures in winter can plunge a low way below freezing, but we were lucky enough to…
Bachalp is an area of the mountains which ring the northern side of the Grindelwald valley. It’s a popular tourist destination, as its fairly easy to reach on foot in around 45 minutes from the cable car station at First. Hardier walkers continue on from the much-photographed lake Bachalpsee onto a steeper path, which leads up to the Faulhorn mountain hostel.
At the end of a long afternoon’s drive from home, via Kandersteg, Brig, the Simplon Pass and a very narrow and windy road through the Ticinese mountains, we arrived at Locarno, on the shores of Lago Maggiore, just in time to catch the last sun of the winter day.
A picturesque hike on the way to the Faulhorn, from Grindelwald First in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland.
Attempting to get away from baking temperatures, we headed for the mountains and a hike across summer snow fields to the Gries glacier.
The Melchsee is a lake in the mountains, tucked away in the lee of a range of peaks between Meiringen and Engelberg. Nearby, the smaller stretch of water called Blauseeli (little blue lake) is a haven for frogs after the snows melt, and the edges of the pool are lined with frog spawn at this time of year.
This view may look like winter or spring, but the photograph was taken in June 2012. The Swiss alpine passes – here at Grimsel – are largely between 1,500 and 2,500 metres above sea level, and their location in the depths of the alpine chain means that they get wintery weather all year round. The snow fall is so prevalent that…
The pyramidal peak of the Niesen, in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, towers over the surrounding countryside. It heads a range of mountains leading from Adelboden and Lenk and is the “Hausberg” (home mountain) of Spiez and the Lower Simmen Valley, facing out over Lake Thun. There are folklore sayings about the mountain being a kind of barometer…
