High Trail from Gantrisch Nature Park to the Summit of Mount Stockhorn

Tuesday September 26, 2023 -- Today we traveled to one of Switzerland's 20 nature parks, the Gantrisch Nature Park, where we don't often go. This park is located in the Bernese Oberland, and on its eastern edge is the peak of the same name: Mount Gantrisch. It was our plan to climb to the summit of this mountain but we ended up changing plans....

The hike started at the Gurnigel watershed -- a three-way watershed for the rivers Gürbe, Sense und Schwarzwasser -- after a ride in a full bus, in fact TWO full buses, surprising for us as it was an early Tuesday morning. (We have always known this is a popular hiking area for people from the city of Bern -- this is why we don't come often, especially on the weekend -- but did not expect this on a weekday morning). To avoid having to walk in queue with chattering groups of hikers along the first 2 km of wide road, we waited until all the people from the bus were ahead of us.

When we reached the Leitere Pass, we considered our options: Loop tour to the summit of Mt.Gantrisch to the West and a descent in the shadow of the mountain with a long wait for the 16:20 bus (probably standing room only), or the inviting high trail to the East to the summit of Mount Stockhorn (from where you can take a cable car down to the Simmen Valley), a hike we have also wanted to do but in the opposite direction. Going this way meant over 1000 meters of ascent, but it was a beautiful day and we were up to it.

It was a great hike, and even though the final ascent of 475 meters after already having walked three hours was kind of tough, we proudly achieved our goal and were rewarded with some of the best views possible. The expensive cable-car ride left a lot to be desired (SO MANY PEOPLE from this side and they packed in a huge water tank to fill!). Down at Valley bottom we still had to walk 15 minutes to the Erlenbach train station, but had enough time to admire the church there, the most beautifully decorated medieval church in the Berne area.

Heading by bus through the Gantrisch Nature Park toward the range where we are going to walk. The largest peak is Mount Stockhorn, the dominant peak we always see when we travel to the Bernese Oberland.

Emmental-Style houses along the way.

At the bus stop called "Gurnigel Wasserscheide" (the three-way watershed), most of the people from both buses got out here! (This was at 9:15 a.m.). There are only four bus runs per day to this point, that's why so many people were on the buses. (There are also large car parks here for people doing round-tours)

We were headed to the Leitere Pass, but from there we weren't sure if we were going to summit Mount Gantrisch or to Mt. Stockhhorn.

A look toward the West across the Gantrisch Nature Park.

We started out walking very slowly to let all the other people from the two buses pass us, all of them headed to the Leitere Pass in the center of the photo. (Mount Gantrisch is the one on the right. The one on the left is called Nüneneflue)

Just before the steep ascent to the pass is a mountain hostel called Alphütte Obernünenen. Some people stopped here for a break before heading up the mountain.

From the restaurant to the pass was a 30-minute climb in the morning shadow of the mountain.

We got to the pass at 10:30 a.m. There were lots of people up here! The weather was great, so we decided to tackle the additional 3+ hours to the summit of Mount Stockhorn!

Many people here at the pass, but most of them went the other way, either to the summit of Mount Gantrisch, or around it to head back to the parking lots via a small attractive lake called Gantrischseeli.

The view on the south side of the Leitere Pass

With the detour to the very summit of the mountain, the whole hike was almost five hours (including one hour from the bus stop to the pass). With a total of over 1000 meters ascent, this was quite a challenging hike for us!

For the first two hours or so, we had this nice and comfortable high trail to walk along (and mostly alone!). But even from here you can see what a challenge it is to get up to the summit ahead!

And we could already see the snow-covered peaks of the Bernese Alps.

This was the cutest little farm "shop" we had ever seen! Only it wasn't refrigerated, so the four bottles of refreshments weren't cold, nor was the cheese. I wonder how often someone comes to fill this up? It must be someone from the farm we saw below the pass.

Always looking behind us at the trail we are following

And the view ahead of us.

At this point a large section of the hillside has slipped off, and crossing it takes a bit of caution...

Far below us we could hear the sound of cow bells, and we spotted them on the road. This is the time of year where the cows are being led down to lower pastures.

And from here we can now see the final farm (Walalp) in the pasture below the west side of Mount Stockhorn, and basically the trail we have to follow toward the summit (which continues on the other side of that peak.

It's 12:30 now and we have to find a place for our picnic lunch. This wasn't it. We decided to keep going to the next farmhouse, which you can see on the left.

That next farm (called Auest) was the right spot for our picnic lunch. First of all, they had cold drinks for sale (such a good idea to keep them cool in the water trough) and a sign with an invitation to take a break on their bench, which is what we did. AND we bought a drink.

And this was the view from our picnic bench. To the south, toward the "Pays d'en Haut". We could even seen the "Gastlosen" peaks, which we walked around in early July (those photos are HERE)

Continuing on our way at 1:15 p.m.

Another 30 minutes to the final farm before we start the climb to the summit.

We got to Obere Walalp farm at 1:45 p.m., and had been hiking for about 4 hours already! According to the sign, we have another 90 minutes to go, and it's all uphill from here! (Another 470 meters uphill....)

First 15 minutes to the crest from where we could finally see the flat landscape around the city of Thun and Lake Thun

This entire section before heading onto the other side of this peak was composed of a long series of steps.

View to the North to the Central Plateau (city of Thun and Lake Thun below)

Up, up, up these stairs for 40 minutes!

Up above us, jutting out of the vertical rock face of the West side of the Stockorn is a viewing platform with a glass floor! (We checked out this platform later).

As we head up the stairs, we get more and more view of the hillside we hiked across, starting from the Leitere Pass at the arrow, where we came up from the north side.

Getting closer!

Not much further now...

And we finally reach the crest (passage to the east), with the first glimpse of the fabulous Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau Trio, always a treat! The darker peak in front on the right is Mt. Niesen, where we also were a few weeks ago, but with not nearly as nice weather! So now we get the view we should have had then. (Also early JULY)

The trail to the summit actually continues on the right of this "horn", but we walked south along the ridge for a short distance to see if we could see the lake below (there are two lakes here).

From this crest, we could only see a small bit of the lake called Oberstockesee. We didn't want to go further in this direction, so we headed back to the "Horn"

Ascending another 140 meters on the south side of the Horn, we get a better view of the Oberstockesee lake.

And now just a small distance below the restaurant and cable-car station, the panorama of the Simmen Valley, Mount Niesen, and the snow-covered Bernese Alps opens up to the East.

Before going all the way to the summit, we went through the tunnel to the look-out platform. On the way there, we discovered this display of a HUGE calcite crystal found in the region!

Panorama view from the VIEWING PLATFORM, all the way to the Jura mountains at the border with France

Back out of the tunnel and above the restaurant terrace, we cover the final series of steps to the very summit of Mount Stockhorn. This was the toughest section!

A superb achievement! Over 1000 meters ascended from the start of our hike, and over 12 kilometers! What a perfect day for this. We were not disappointed in our last-minute change of plans. PS: This is an altitude of 2190 meters above sea level.

A close-up look of the Blüemlisalp Massif.

Behind Urs is Lake Thun

The vast Central Plateau, looking to the north, past the city of Thun. Somewhere in the back is Bern.

A look down past the restaurant to the other lake called Hinderstockesee. In the cleft behind the lake is the middle station of the cable-way, where we had to change from the smaller cabin on this section, to a larger one that takes you into the Simmental (Simmen Valley).

The ride in this small cabin was uncomfortable, as not only were there very many people up here even on a Tuesday, but they loaded an empty water tank in the cabin as well, which took up almost half the interior space.

A last look past Mount Niesen to Mount Jungfrau while waiting to board the cable car at 4 p.m.

A look up to the summit of Mount Stockhorn as the cable car makes its way to the middle station at the lower lake.

The section heading down to Erlenbach in the Simmen Valley. It was a good thing that this was a larger cabin, as many more people got on at the middle station (having done some hiking around the lakes).

The Stockhorn cable car, lower section, heading back up the mountain. We got to the base station at 4:30 p.m.

I've never seen cows get a shower before! It's a good idea, as their bums get pretty dirty

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps

We got to the base station of the cable car in Erlenbach in the valley bottom at 4:30, but the train didn't leave till 17:05. We did have a 15-minute walk to the train station, but that was enough time to walk through the village admiring the houses, and especially visiting the church, which is the most beautifully decorated medieval church in the Berne area.

A fairly new build, very pretty. Some regions require new builds to conform to the local style of houses. This seems to be the case here.

The little St. Michael's church in Erlenbach, whose shape remains relatively unchanged sinch the 13th Century. Of all the valleys in the Bernese Oberland, the Simmen Valley contains the greatest number of medieval churches, all of which have been restored in the previous years, yielding beautiful wall paintings that had been hidden by whitewash since the Reformation in 1528.

Sometimes you can go up the stairs to the organ to see the church from above. The Protestant church did not believe in artful depiction of religious subjects, so they whitewashed all these beautiful wall paitings, which were uncovered and restored in recent years.

Details of the inside of this beautiful church. That organ was much larger than it looks from here... it was very deep with many more pipes behind it. The wall paintings date from between 1420 and 1430.