Hiking Mürren – Grütschalp – Lauterbrunnen – Stechelberg

Getting there

Lauterbrunnen is a world-famous Swiss town, given the beauty of the valley it’s located in and its proximity to other stunning places such as Grindelwald and Interlaken, with touristic attractions such as the Jungfraujoch. It’s quite easy to reach from Bern, from which it takes around 1 h by car or 1:30 h by train. The best is to check the SBB website for connections.

Starting point: Stechelberg, taking the cable car to Mürren – the steepest cable car in the world!

Finishing point: Stechelberg

Distance: 15,5 km

Total time: 3:30-4 h of hiking time

Elevation gain: 242 m of elevation gain, 900 m of descent

Fitness difficulty: Moderate

Technical difficulty: Moderate

Facilities: The hike starts at the cable car station in Stechelberg, where there is a convenient parking (11 CHF per day). This is not a remote hike, and there’s plenty of places to stop by in Stechelberg, Mürren, or Lauterbrunnen.

Notes:

This hike can be done circularly without taking the cable car. In this case, the 900 m need to be climbed up after passing the cable car station.
This area can be extremely crowded in summer. When I went in fall, it had the perfect amount of people, so we had no issues with crowds.
No drones are allowed in the whole valley, as there’s lots of paragliders and flights around.
During the hike, one can visit the splendid Trümmelbach Falls for 18 CHF. Be aware that kids below 4 years old and dogs are not allowed due to danger of falling into the falls.

The hike

While the hike can be fit in a day, we decided to take the trip easy and stayed overnight at the Eiger Guesthouse, a cozy hotel in Mürren. We parked the car in Stechelberg, and left our things in the hotel before starting our hike. The cable car ride was really cool – it’s one of the few ways of getting aereal views of the valley (no drones are allowed), and you can see that it’s very steep. Quite impressive!

The way from Mürren to Grütschalp and the descent to Lauterbrunnen

From Mürren, most of the hike is a descent. We started walking next to the railways (closed at the end of October already), in a relatively flat area. It was quite forestly, and although there was still no snow, we could see some frost in the shaded areas. Eventually, we came out on a more open area, from where we had amazing views of the Eiger, Mönsch, and Jungfrau. Beautiful!

As they had already told us in the hotel, the cable car to Grütschalp was closed. It had taken us only 50 min to reach Grütschalp from Mürren, so we decided to head into the valley. The descent was long but not especially steep, except in a few areas. Overall, it had some nice foresty parts, which were really pleasant to walk after so many leaves had already fallen on the ground. On the way, we could even see two chamois (gämse), who didn’t seem particularly scared of us.

It took us approximately 9 km to reach Lauterbrunnen. The city itself is quite touristy, so there’s plenty of cafés and restaurants where you can stop for a break. We had some good, so we stopped in a picnic area, not too far from the famous Staubbach fall. Unfortunately, this month of October there has barely been any rain, so the waterfalls were quite dry.

Walking through the valley to the Trümmelbachfälle

After a recovery break with food, we continued our way to the Trümmelbachfälle. The entry for the waterfalls costs 18 CHF, and it’s absolutely worth it. These waterfalls have up to 20,000 liters of water per second flowing through them! The falls are part of the UNESCO Heritage Site Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn.

Trümmelbachfallen – Photos don’t do this place justice

The falls consist of a series of 10 waterfalls, that you can start visiting by riding an elevator that leaves you between waterfalls 6 and 7. From there, you can climb some stairs and reach the top waterfalls. The most impressive aspect of these waterfalls is that they are located inside of the mountain. Thus, when one is inside the chambers to visit them, their sound is deafening. It’s even a bit scary to look down at the power of water. Waterfalls 1-6 can be visited already mostly outside of the inner part of the mountain, although one can see the immense canyon that they have formed.

Returning to Stechelberg to go back to the hotel

After the Trümmelbach falls, we continued our way to the cable car in Stechelberg. It’s an easy flat path through the valley, that allows one to enjoy the views of the yellow and red trees. There was also many paragliders flying around, and once we arrive back to Mürren, we spent some time looking at how they jump.

Enjoying a plesant evening & spa in Mürren

Instead of going back home, we stayed at the Eiger Guesthouse, a cosy mountain hotel with very pleasant staff. Before having dinner at our hotel, we visited the spots center, that had a swimming pool, and two whirlpools, one inside and one outside. By spending the night in the town, we got some discount towards using the facilities. These were great to relax after the hike.

Next morning, before going back, we could see a group of chamois eating grass in a meadow next to the hotel. Really cute!

Highlights of the hike

The valley of Lauterbrunnen is absolutely stunning with fall colors. Also, October is not peak season, which helps to get to see the place much less crowded than how it usually gets.