Wanted to post a comment about my amazing trip to Gimmelwald, Switzerland. I had seen one of Rick's travel episodes where he visited the Swiss Alps. He stayed in the tiny alpine farming village of Gimmelwald, but noted also that one could visit the Alps and hike from hut-to-hut and never come out of the mountains. This sounded amazing to me! We ultimately decided not to do hut-to-hut but to follow Rick's advice to stay in Gimmelwald at the Hotel Mittaghorn. It was exactly how he described and a wonderfully, charming and authentic experience. The hiking was incredible! The man who helps run the hotel, Tim, advised us on where to go. From Gimmelwald we were able to get to some really remote spots high up in the Alps (close to the glacier). The hiking was intense (steep) but the scenery was beautiful beyond description. We did a 7 mile hike the first day and 16 the next. Staying at Hotel Mittaghorn gave a the feeling of being on a hiking adventure without having to carry all of our gear on our backs and sleep on wooden cots. Highly recommend this spot for outdoor enthusiasts!
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17422 posts
Thanks. What were the destinations of your two hikes? We will be back next year and are always looking for new adventures.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
The first day we headed up into the meadows in Gimmelwald toward the waterfall Sprutz, the around by Bryndli (we didn't go to the top of Bryndli) and up to Rotstockhutte. We had lunch there and then took a different route back down, making a big loop.
The second day we were intending to do the 11 mile hike Rick mentions in his book (gimmelwald-tansbodeli-obersteinberg-stechelberg-gimmelwald) but Tim at the hotel mentioned that if we add another 5 miles we'd see his favorite section of trail in the entire region. Basically from Hotel Obersteinberg (you can get lunch here) you keep going toward the alpine "lake" and from there start looping back toward Stechelberg. It was definitely worth the extra five miles. You look back at the curvature in the mountains and see everything you just hiked, plus views of the waterfall and glacier. Really spectacular!
Posted by
Edmonds, WA, United States
464 posts
That Rotstockhutte hike is great! Glad you enjoyed it. I look forward to going back to Switzerland someday and hiking more.
Posted by
4 posts
How was the weather? We will be there in mid August and am trying to decide what to pack!
Posted by
OP
3 posts
The day we arrived it was raining and chilly (low 60s) but the next two days were sunny and very warm (70s even up in the high altitudes during our hikes). This was the source recommended to me for local weather: https://www.meteoblue.com/en/switzerland/weather-gimmelwald If you use other sources it sometimes will measure the temp on top of Jungfrau!
Posted by
Delanson, NY
79 posts
Great to hear that the Hotel Mittaghorn sounds about the same as it was when I stayed there in August of 1988. Back in those days Walter Mittler was running it and he served the breakfast and dinners (spaghetti as I recall). Walter must be over 90 now if still alive. It was kind of a funny experience way back in 1988 because several of the guests were fellow "Europe Through the Backdoor" readers. That might be the only book that Rick had in print - predating most of the individual country guidebooks. I was 22 at the time traveling with my parents and sister.