The Alpine Pass Route

The Alpine Pass Route, as its name suggests, is a long route crossing several passes in the Alps. More specifically, it crosses Switzerland from Sargans in the East (near the Liechtenstein border) to Montreux in the West, on the shore of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). The total distance is around 350km, and can take around 20 days of walking (plus rest days and bad weather days).

Obviously hardcore hikers will prefer to tackle the whole route in one go, but the convenient transport connections make weekend sections quite feasible. With weekend trips, the hiker can carry a bit less stuff, doesn't have to worry about washing socks and shirts along the way, doesn't have to take time off from work, and can choose on which good-weather days to tackle the next stage. And perhaps more importantly, the legs are fresh, the feet are free from blisters, and the mind is keen to get on the trail. But of course it can mean having to take a Winter break in the middle.

Route map

3d map of the Alpine Pass Route from Sargans to Montreux. See below for descriptions and photos

Here's a map of Switzerland showing (roughly) the Alpine Pass Route. As you can see, the route is fairly direct, travelling in more or less a straight line across the country. What you can hopefully also see from this plot, is that it is far from a flat route. The passes are generally over 2000m, some over 2700m, but the route drops right down to the valley floors inbetween, which are often at around 1000m or lower. This means that there is a hefty amount of climbing and descending to be done on many of the sections. Exactly how much we'll find out shortly.

The scenery that the route passes through is some of the most spectacular in the country, passing through a whole swathe of the Alps and in particular the famous Berner Oberland. It also passes through many famous Swiss towns such as Engelberg, Meiringen, Grindelwald and Kandersteg. The fact that these places are reached by crossing spectacular and historically-important mountain passes makes for an immensely rewarding trip.

Contour

The Alpine Pass Route is not exactly flat, as can be seen from the profiles:

Google Earth

If you already have the Google Earth program installed, you'll know that it's an astonishing tool for exploring and flying around the world's landscapes in 3d. If you haven't got this program already, it's highly recommended and doesn't only cover Switzerland. You can download it for free from earth.google.com for Mac, Windows and Linux.

This kmz file (10 kb) contains waypoints from the Alpine Pass Route and shows the path as a red line snaking over the Swiss passes. Simply open it in Google Earth (File -> Open) and you'll see the route in full. Press the "Play Tour" button below the listed waypoints and you can fly a tour along the route all the way from Sargans to Montreux.

If you haven't got Google Earth installed, you can see the same file in Google Maps in your browser instead.

Sections

In the following pages, each stage of the route is described in detail including waypoints and photos.

	Stage	Summary	Distance	Climb	Descent
1	Sargans to Weisstannen	Introductory day travelling up the Weissental	14km	740m	220m
	Weisstannen to Elm	Continuing up the Weissental and over the Foopass down to Elm	23km	1250m	1250m
2	Elm to Linthal	Long day over the Richetlipass	23km	1400m	1700m
3	Linthal to Klausenpass	Climb upvalley to the Klausenpass, and over to the hotel just beyond	21km	1350m	150m
	Klausenpass to Flüelen	Panoramic trail along the side of the valley and down to Lake Lucerne	26km	300m	1750m
4	Flüelen to Brüsti	Along the valley floor, and then up to small hamlet	10km	1100m	0m
	Brüsti to Engelberg	Spectacular climb up to the pass, and then long descent	21km	800m	1350m
5	Engelberg to Engstlenalp	Follow the cable cars up to the pass, then down to beautiful lake	11km	1210m	370m
	Engstlenalp to Meiringen	Along the side of the U-shaped valley, then down to the valley floor	19km	0m	1240m
6	Meiringen to Grindelwald	Long day over the Grosse Scheidegg	23km	1360m	930m
7	Grindelwald to Lauterbrunnen	Over the Kleine Scheidegg past the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau	23km	1150m	1360m
8	Lauterbrunnen to Spielbodenalp	Climbing up out of the Lauterbrunnen valley through Mürren	9km	1000m	0m
	Spielboden to Griesalp	Continuing the climb up to the Sefinenfurgge, and then steeply down the other side	13km	810m	1210m
9	Griesalp to Kandersteg	Over the highest pass of the route, the Hohtürli at 2780m	15km	1380m	1580m
10	Kandersteg to Adelboden	Spectacular climb over the Bunderchrinde	16km	1300m	1150m
11	Adelboden to Lenk	Easy climb over the Hahnenmoospass	14km	720m	1000m
11	Lenk to Lauenen	Over the Trütlisbergpass	15km	970m	800m
13	Lauenen to Gsteig	Short hop over the Krinnenpass	7km	430m	490m
14	Gsteig to Les Mosses	Looong day over the Blattipass and Col des Andérets	23km	1220m	960m
15	Les Mosses to Montreux	Even loooooonger day over the Col de Chaude	28km	1040m	2090m

Although many of the stages fall into the 'easy' category, some of the sections are fairly tough, so a bit of preparation and training are highly recommended. On some days, for example the Grosse Scheidegg, public transport covers the whole route, so it's a simple matter to cut the walk short if you're tired / footsore / threatened by lightning. On other stages, for example the Richetlipass, things are a bit more remote and it's difficult to take a short-cut. Many stages give you the option of taking chairlifts, cable cars or mountain railways to avoid the climbing, but others don't. There are many detours or alternative routes too, so it's well worth doing a little research to keep each day's walking within your enjoyment range, by choosing your overnight stops accordingly.

Above all, have fun. This shouldn't be a gruelling endurance test. Sample single days, take the available buses or cable cars to make things more enjoyable, and concentrate on the bits you're most interested in. See the links below for more impressions of the route.

Also, please feel free to share your experiences. Any additional information, corrections, suggestions and comments would be gratefully received by email - all due credit will be given.

Other links

For more websites and books, see the links page.

Or, if you found any of that useful, you may also be interested in trying some Day Hikes in Switzerland, longer hikes in Switzerland, or some Snowboarding in Switzerland as well.