During the night was pretty cold and in the morning we had a bit of snow. Seeing that, we decided to leave early to have enough time to catch the regular bus on the next day. We had a good breakfast, made our tea provisions and left the hut … We were the first ones to lay tracks on the snow. It was quite foggy at the beginning, but it started to lift up.
Fresh tracks on snow
The views were amazing with the fog over the Öschinensee. It’s always a great feeling to be part of the nature’s awakening.
Fog over Öschinensee
We could also see the Blümlisalpgletscher waking up … an impressive view. The fog coming and going and partially covering and revealing various pieces of the glacier was just adding more mystery to the scene.
Blümlisalpgletscher in the morning
As we started descending towards the lake we were amazed by its blue colour. Everything was so peaceful … Some fishermen had an early start and were trying to catch some fish. The forest already started to change its colour, but the green was still predominant.
Öschinensee – wonderful blue
The trail till the lake was not difficult, just a bit slippery because of the snow and some ice. We also met some early hikers on the road. They asked about the fog situation above the lake. It was pretty funny since on top you could see the sky and the sun, then in the middle there was the thick fog and then near the lake it was again quite nice. But the fog started spreading quite fast …
We arrived at the lake around 11:00 and the restaurants were preparing for lunch. But we only grabbed a snack from our rucksack because we didn’t have time to stop for a proper lunch. To save some time we took the cable car down to Kandersteg.
The village was so beautiful in the sun’s light. And the view of the little church with the snowy mountains behind was breathtaking.
Church in Kandersteg
The plan was to start the hike to Lötschenpasshütteas soon as possible. We didn’t have enough time to make all the hike (7 hours) and we missed the regular bus at 11.45. We needed to take a bus till Selden, the starting point for the hike up to Lötschenpass. We called the driver and he came after 30 minutes. The local bus was actually an Alpine Taxi, quite small (only around 7 persons) and was only traveling at fixed schedules since the road was very narrow and one could drive in only one direction at a time (the ride costs 70 CHF so make sure you bring some friends along). We were amazed by the driver and how good he knew the road. After 20-30 minutes we arrived at Selden near Hotel Gasterntal we crossed the bridge over the Kander river and started our ascent.
Crossing the Kander river
It was a splendid day … very sunny with a little bit of wind. On our way up we didn’t meet anybody. As it was Sunday most hikers were probably returning back home. The hike went a bit through the forest near the Leitibach river and after 10 minutes we reached a waterfall.
Great views before the glaciar
We followed the hike along the river and passed by Gfelalp. The view of the valley was impressive. We continued till we reached a plateau and made a short break (food, drinks, photos and smiles). Then we started a steeper part till we reached the Lötschegletscher.
Walking across the Lötschengletscher
The hike continued over the moraines of the glacier, this part was well marked and should not put any problems to any hiker. Suddenly the road ended and we had to climb some rocks up and even make use of some of the cables for protection. This was maybe the only tricky part of the trip as there were places with hardened snow. However based on the previous marks, others were able to finish the track even accompanied by dogs.
Path towards the Lätschenpasshütte
And we finally reached the top from where we could see all the glacier. Sitting there we realized that in just one day we have experienced powder snow, misty fogs, warm summer, autumn colors and again we were now experiencing early winter. The day was up to a close but it has not ended yet and no one knew what kind of surprises can follow up on the road ahead.
A part of the Lötschenpassgletscher
Once we reached the top, the road continued to climb for another 10 minutes and we arrived at the Lötschenpasshütte.
Reaching the Lötschenpasshütte
The view from the hut was just great. We made it just right for the sunset and the colours with the mountains were beautiful.
The last mountain sunset from this trip
Then we had the best dinner from our entire trip: a great vegetable soup, salad, pasta with roast pork and veggies, and dessert. There were only a few hikers for the night: two Swiss families with the children and a Swiss young woman with two Swedish friends.
Photos, Downloads and References
- The complete photo gallery
- The recorded GPS track (please note that it also contains all the mistakes we did on the hike)
- The topographic map in SchweizMobil
Track Details and Elevation
Total climbing: 1904 m
Total descent: -2013 m
