As I had never seen the Aletsch Glacier (the longest glacier in the Alps) before (unlike Roots, who has climbed almost all of the 4000ers around and has spend a few nights on the Glacier), we decided the glacier should be next on our “to visit” list.

We only had one day left in Switzerland so we took the cable cars up to Riederalp (We got a day pass for 45€ each…damn). If you only wanna hike the Unesco Höhenweg /Unesco High Route you can take the cable cars up to Bettmeralp, but we thought that’d be too short of a hike and we wanted to stay up on the rim as long as possible. So we started our hike at Riederalp, hiked till Bettmeralp and then got on the Unesco Höhenweg.

The Unesco Höhenweg between Bettmerhorn and Eggishorn is considered an Alpine Route. It do is quite exposed and it involves some scrambling and climbing, yet for us it wasn’t really “alpine” (as in “alpine glacier crossing crampons and ropes and stuff”). It’s a fun hike with incredible beautiful views on the Aletsch Glacier, the Jungfrau Massiv, the Rhone Valley and the Wallis Alps. Definitely worth it, even if I’d rather have stayed a few more days and climbed some of the mountains around.

After finishing the Unesco Höhenweg we climbed the Via Ferrata towards the Eggishorn Cable Car station. The Eggishorn Via Ferrata is a bit of a “wannabe” I have to admit though. To me it seems like they just wanted to create just another tourist attraction. Anyway, we did have fun and we made it in time to take the last cable car down.

An expensive (well at least to us) but beautiful dayhike!!!

PS: We met a few other hikers on the rim and seems like for them the route do was “alpine”. Some were struggling with the height and exposure. I guess it all depends on what you’re used to.

Between Riederalp and Bettmerhorn:

The Unesco Höhenweg (getting lost is impossible, this trail is blazed like crazy!!!):

The Eggishorn Via Ferrata: