Over the course of 4 days, we hiked from Kandersteg, to Blüemlisalphütte, to Gspaltenhornhütte, to Rotstockhütte, to Mürren. Here are all the details about our trip!

Prep

First, we hired Alex from WanderWeGo to help plan the trip. We went with the consultation package, which was incredibly helpful - she eyeballed our plans, made recommendations, and taught me how to use the four crucial apps. The trip would not have gone as well as it did without her - I will definitely be trying to find a local expert to help all of our future trip planning.

There are four apps you need to use to plan and carry out a trip to Switzerland:

• SwissTopo
• SwissMobility
• SBB - for train trip planning
• MeteoSwiss - for weather

Day 1 - Kandersteg to Blüemlisalphütte

We spent the night in Kandersteg, at a beautiful hotel with a sauna and a pool, which was an excellent pre-trip relaxation experience. Then, on the morning of the firs day, we took the Rodelbahn gondola up from Kandersteg, and walked along a very chill walkway to Oeschinensee lake.

The lake is absolutely stunningly, unreal-level gorgeous. The main regret I have about our trip was that we didn’t budget in more time to spend at the lake. I would have LOVED to boat around, swim, and just enjoy the crazy views more than we did.

After the lake, it starts to go uphill and it basically doesn’t stop. In total, this hike was estimated to take 4 hrs. For us, from top of Gondola (11am) to taking off shoes in the hut (6pm), it took 7 hours. We of course stopped to take pictures, and to rest, and to eat lunch, but, still. It is NOT an easy hike (and this is the easy route to Blüemlisalphütte).

This is the best view of the glacier, which was so so cool to see, and also the first view of the hut. I felt pretty extreme despair at this point, because I was soooo tired (we were 5 hrs in to the hike at this point), and we still had soooo far to go (it took us another 2 hours from here).

That pic on the right was the last one I took before we got to the hut - we were really struggling at this point. It’s about 2000 meters above sea-level, or close to 9000 feet, which is super dang high, and we’d been hiking for 6 hours at that point. We’d walk 10 steps, then stop for a 2-minute break, and then walk 10 more steps. It took us 1 more hour from that point.

We did eventually make it, and I basically just laid down in the hut. Dinner was a super light (and delicious) soup, cheesy noodles with ham chunks, and lemon cake. To be completely brutally honest, I didn’t love the view from the hut. You’re kind of ON the mountain range, but I prefer to look AT the mountain range.

All in all, I wouldn’t recommend this hike. It was exhausting, the hut was crowded, and the view at the end was not great. So, hike elsewhere, and then come back and visit Oeschinensee lake. The traditional route is to actually start in Griesalp and hike UP to Blüemlisalphütte, and then down to Kandersteg (so, sort of the reverse of what we did). It definitely sounds nice to descend to Oeschinensee, but otherwise, I’d just skip this hut.

Day 2 - Blüemlisalphütte to Gspaltenhornhütte

Woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and at breakfast in the hut. Breakfast is advertised as “hearty” but it’s oatmeal, toast, and tea, zero protein. They do offer something called “marching tea” or “hiker punch” - which is some kind of warm drink. It’s not….good, but, definitely get it.

From the Hohturli pass, it’s the steepest stairs you’ve ever imagined. It’s SO steep - I imagine going up feels more like climbing a ladder. And off to your right is crumbly scree - if you slipped you’d be in trouble. Both Matt and I have a good head for heights, and dang - this is bananas.

Even though this part was pretty steep, it was stunningly beautiful every step, so we enjoyed every moment. (Note that if you do the “traditional route”, you start in Griesalp, and come UP these steps to Blüemlisalphütte. It sounds really bananas).

We didn’t realize it at the time, but that pic was actually our first view of the hut. It’s juuuuuust above the tip of Matt’s hat. We rested for about an hour by this beautiful waterfall.

Dinner was great, a super light and delicous soup, then pasta with bolognese sauce, and a super funky pineapple mousse dessert. It started raining before the sun went down, and didn’t stop until 2am.

This was my favourite hut. It felt extremely modern and beautiful - basically brand new from top to bottom. I also LOVED how remote it felt - we were tucked into a deep valley, nestled just below a few glaciers. Zero other forms of humanity in site.

This hike is supposed to take 3.5 hrs, and from Hohturli pass (9am) to arriving at the hut (4pm), this hike took us 6 hours, but that includes an hour break for lunch, another hour break enjoying the waterfall, and a ton of smaller breaks throughout the day. The last 100m to the hut is basically straight up loose scree and then some steps - not super fun. But other than that, a beautiful, doable hike.

I definitely recommend this hut. The view was excellent, and the next leg was my favourite hike I’ve ever done.

Day 3 - Gspaltenhornhütte to Rotstockhütte

By far my favourite day. Unbelievably gorgeous hike, and super fun, too, with a ladder!! Once you walk down from the hut, you’re not walking in the valley, you’re walking along the mountainside, hundreds of meters above the valley floor. There are cables along the narrowest sections, so it feels pretty comfortable. I mean, LOOK at this view. The fog was rolling in and out every 10-15 minutes, like the entire landscape was breathing.

We booked this trip a littttle bit at the last minute, and did not look in detail at every part of the trail, so we were pretty surprised to hear that this section had a ladder. Anyway, it was actually super chill, and honestly super fun to climb a ladder with a backpacking backpack on.

This is coming up to the top of Sefinenfurgge pass. Can you see the little nob on the mountain behind Matt? Yeah - that’s Blüemlisalphütte. Where we stayed the first night.

Unfortunately, I don’t really have any pictures from the pass itself - it was insanely windy, and very very very steep and narrow, and I really didn’t feel comfortable taking my phone out. So, you’ll just have to take my word that it was also super beautiful.

This is the last part of the pass, just before descending to Rotstockhütte.

We left Gspaltenhorn hut at 8:30am, and reached Sefinenfurgge pass at 11:30am, and then took a very leisurely meander down and made it to Rotstockhütte by 2:30pm, for a total of 6 hours.

Day 4 - Rotstockhütte to Mürren

So, we’re 89% certain I came down with COVID this day. I probably caught it in Blüemlisalphütte on the first night, but it didn’t really catch up to me until here. I was EXHAUSTED - just completely drained, and my asthma was really acting up (but the hut was pretty smoky the night before, and I had no other symptoms of a cold, so we weren’t really sure what was going on). So, this day was super rough for me, but generally it’s a very very chill hike to go down. It’s flat for most of it, then you go down a really steep part, and the you’re in Mürren, which is also pretty flat.

Generally, when you’re walking through fields in Switzerland, there are cows in the fields and they have these beautiful cow bells on, so the hills are alive with the sound of music.

Anyway I have very few pictures from this day, because I was shuffling down the road at 5 steps a minute and trying not to cough myself to death. I actually don’t even remember hiking through Mürren at all. Matt carried my backpack for the vast majority. We never figured out if I had Covid or not, but I was definitely sick as a dog for the next 4 days.

Packing list

Notes and other Thoughts

In no particular order:

• if you have “bail out” points or alternative paths you’re considering, plan for those as thoroughly as you do your actual trip. I hadn’t downloaded the maps for our alternative route down from Rotstockhütte, which made things sliiiightly more stressful than they needed to be.

Alternate routes

While we were looking for hikes, we scoped out a few other options, which I’ll share here for anyone else who wants to plan a hut-to-hut hike!

Italy vs Switzerland

Both are stunning, but with our limited experience, I’d recommend Italy! The huts have much better resources (electricity, running water, warm water), better food, and are way less cramped. Check out my post about our Italy hut hike for more details

Resources

Official hub websites: Blüemlisalphütte

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