Adelboden, Switzerland 2005 - Travelogue

Tuesday, 16th August

A bright morning gave us a picture postcard view of the sun shining on the snow capped mountains out of our kitchen window. Breakfast finished, and packed lunches made, saw us once again back on board the coach heading out of Adelboden towards Lake Thun and Interlaken. Today, however, we were heading a little further afield towards Mürren.

Our first stop was at the Trümmelbach falls. 10 glacial waterfalls inside the mountain caves of the Lauterbrunnen valley. The Trümmelbach alone drains the mighty glaciers of the Eiger, Monk and Jungfrau with up to 20,000 litres (or 20 cubic metres) of water per second flowing down them.

An underground tunnel-lift took us upwards to a series of man-made tunnels, galleries and bridges which take you into the mountains to make the falls accessible. The first thing you noticed as you approached the falls was the roar made by the torrents of water cascading down inside the mountain. The spray that hung in the air was guaranteed to make everything wet, including camera lenses when we tried to take photographs.

We had our lunch within sight of the falls before the coach took us the short distance to the bottom station of the Schilthorn cable car at Stechelberg.

The Schilthorn cable car, the longest aerial cableway in the alps, ascends from the valley floor on a 30 minute journey, with a series of four separate cable cars, to the top of the Schilthorn at an altitude of 2970m (9748ft).

As we started the ascent from Stechelberg, the valley floor rapidly dropped below us as we leapt up the valley's west wall to Gimmelwall before changing cars to ascend further towards Mürren. By the time we reach Mürren, the valley floor is already 800m below and the temperature is falling.

The third leg gave us views which wet our appetites in anticipation for the view from the summit. Using the altimeter in the cable car, we tracked our ascent to the final station before the summit. As we approached the station it looked for a moment that we might hit the sheer rock face that appeared in front of the car. The temperature was much colder here at Birg than in the warm sunlit valley we had left far below.

The final leg took us into the cloud layer and for a while the view disappeared. As the altimeter needle showed that we were nearing the summit we suddenly broke through the clouds and we could see the top station set atop the snowy peak.

The summit, which has a large revolving restaurant, Piz Gloria, made famous as the location for the James Bond film, "On Her Majestys Secret Service" gives a unique view over the Swiss Alps. The 360° panoramic view over the "Roof of Switzerland" covering over 200 peaks, including the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, was simply breathtaking and spectacular. With the clouds hiding and then revealing once more the mountain peaks, the time spent at the summit of the Schilthorn memorable. It was made even more memorable for six of the Silver End Scouts who were invested into the East Essex Explorer Unit in this unique location.

Our time at the top was all too soon at an end and we boarded the cable car to descend back down to the valley.

After dinner, it was disco time at the ice skating rink in Adelboden. With all the Jeka groups in the area it got crowded on the ice. At times the rink resembled the M25 in the rush hour - groups of skaters stationary all over the ice. With a complete spectrum of abilities on the ice, from complete beginners to experts, skating round the ice lit only by the flashing disco lights proved too great a challenge for some, with one of the Scouts falling over no less than 13 times! Luckily there were no injuries!