We got up extra early this morning to make it up to Jungfraujoch in the morning. (We had scheduled the only remaining spots for paragliding in the afternoon and needed to be back in town). This meant an elevation change of over 10,000 ft in just 2 hours, followed by a return trip to Interlaken - this is more tiring than you might expect.
Silly me thought that it wouldn't be super busy at 8:00 am, but the train was beyond packed. They even opened the 'reserved' 1st class car for people to stand in to get everyone on the train to Grindelwald (this was clearly the preferred jump off place for people, although Wengen was busy the previous day too).
When we got to Grindelwald, we got on the glacier express gondola, a 15 minute express ride to the top. Each car held 32 people seated - with heated seats! It was a pretty sweet ride. It took us right along the north face of Eiger peak, very sheer. It was first successfully climbed in 1938 and it took them 3 days. They were hit by an avalanche but managed to cling to the wall and avoided being swept off. The fastest ascent is recorded at 2 hours 22 minutes. One of the ascent routes is posted below (from Wikipedia)
Also from wikipedia - sheer 90 degrees! The peak of the Eiger is 13,015 ft.
This is looking down at the ski slope. You can see there was a lot of bare ground.
Conditions were pretty icy. I would not have wanted to ski.
After riding the gondola to the top, we transferred for the last leg of the journey, a 20 minute ride THROUGH the mountain to the top of Jungfrau (5 miles). This is the view of Jungfrau from the station just before entering the tunnel.
The construction of the tunnel began in 1896 and was completed in 1912. It was an engineering marvel. Midway up, the train stops briefly for a view of south side of the Eiger mountain. During construction, they blew a hole in the face of the mountain to push the rock debris from the construction out of the tunnel and down the mountain side.
We were so glad it was not a cloudy/foggy day! The last time I brought students here the mountain was completely fogged in and you couldn't see anything out the windows.
This is the observatory and research station. The research station started with a focus on meterology and astronomy, but now also includes experiments with high altitude research such as how photovoltaic cells work at altitude. It also includes work on solar and cosmic rays. Work at this station led to two Nobel prizes. They also measure pollutants in the winds that blow across Europe here.
The walk around terrance was closed and iced over pretty well. Elevation 11,360 ft. I always thought the alps were higher than the Rockies, but not all of them are. (The highest Swiss peak is 15,203 ft).
Looking down the canyon toward Interlaken. It is visible toward the center of the photo...
A lighter tan spot at the end of the valley.
The Aletsch glacier starting at Jungfrau is the longest glacier in Europe, stretching 14 miles. It moves at a rate of 650 ft per year. In the past 40 years it has receded by 4000 feet (almost a mile) and lost 600 ft in depth. I enjoyed reading this blog from a hiker who walked a guided two day tour down the glacier field: https://www.cicerone.co.uk/walking-the-aletsch-glacier
A closer photo of some of the crevices in the glacier.
Another of the alpine chough birds that we saw on Mt Pilatus.
The peak of Monch mountain - elevation 13,480 (the Eiger is behind it)
This is the view the other direction. It looks down on the visitors center from the observatory. There is a hotel on the face of the mountain on the left (dark patch) and an outdoor walk where the cat tracks are (just above the black patch). You walk through a tunnel in the mountain to get to the observatory.
There is an ice tunnel carved into the glacier with several ice sculptures carved into it.
I really liked the igloo and penguins
Loved this little addition to the ice in the tunnel (ha!)
This is a close up of the layers in the ice along the wall. Very pretty. There was one very gritty looking layer. It made me wonder when it dated back to. I joked that it was when the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. I doubt it, but who knows? I tried to find a website that said more about the geology of the ice in this place, but just got lots of pages on the ice sculptures which were carved in the 1930s.
We made it back to town early in the afternoon and headed to the paragliding office. After a short van ride up to the top of Beatenburg, we were ready to pair up with our guides and launch. They spread out their chutes in about 5 mins and had Delaney and I hooked into our tandem harnesses. Then we were ready to run down the steep hill until our sail pulled us gently off the ground and into the air. I got to go last and was able to record Delaney's launch. It was not quite as quick as when I went a few summers ago because there was not as much of an updraft in the cold weather, but still a super fun experience.
I chatted with my guide on the way down and discovered she used to compete in paragliding competitions and eventually decided to work as a paid tandem jumper for a living. I'll have to look up more info about the competitions. She described it as something like figure skating, you do certain moves in a certain order and add in tricks. They compete over lakes as a precaution and land on a platform in the middle of the lake.
We had cheese fondue for our last night in Interlaken. Very traditional restaurant. I also got an order of Raclette (melted cheese) with bacon and potatoes. All was delicious.
Delaney and I finished the day with a geocache in this telephone both (turned into a library). It was very well hidden, but with clues from previous cachers, we found it quickly.
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