Hike in Short
| Metric | |
|---|---|
| Distance | 25 km |
| Altimeters | 1,100m |
| Time | 6h00m |
| Type | One-way |
| Part of | Winterhike: Panoramaweg Niederhorn-Waldegg |
| Start Location | Habkern, Switzerland |
| End Location | Beatenberg, Switzerland |
| Physical difficulty | medium |
| Technical difficulty | low |
Hiking Map
Hike Report
Making use of the snow-covered mountains between Christmas and new years, we opted for a winter hike to the Niederhorn, which is part of the Emmental Alps. The Niederhorn peak has a height of 1950 m and is located next to Lake Thun, in the canton of Berner Oberland. With part of the route following an official winter hiking path, the snow-covered track is well maintained and hence easy walkable. When having a clear view, you will be able to see the peaks of Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger, as well as the Hardergrat trail ridge and Lake Thun.
The hike starts in Habkern, which is a 15 minutes bus-ride that will bring you up to 1060 m from the Interlaken West train station (Bus 106, price: 2,80 CHF with Half Fare Travel card and 4,60 CHF without). From the bus station Habkern Post, you will follow the signs to Beatenberg and Waldegg. Initially, the path will guide you over a paved road (in our case, it was already covered by a thin but firm layer of snow) along scattered houses and farms. Despite the immediate start of the incline, the open and wintery landscape offer a calm and relaxing start. While following the path over a small river and wooden barns, the Lake Thun can be spotted occasionally in the valley.
One of the beautiful views you can expect is that you will be able to see the Harderkulm viewpoint with a majority of the Hardergrat trail to its left. Furthermore, the impressive Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau will peak up behind the Harderkulm when the conditions allow it.
The trail has a nice variation between open fields and forest sections which are all easy to walk on. Be on the lookout for sledges on the well-done path and make sure to not miss the stone wall covered in icicles on the way to Waldegg.
Just before reaching Waldegg, there will be a crossroad with purple signs indicating the trail to Niederhorn on the right. The trail will pass alongside and cross ski slopes from here on. The amount of sledges and snow-shoe hikers will increase while changing open slops with winding tracks through the small forest.
After some up and down near the top of the Niederhorn, the clouds dropped and it started snowing so much that our view was limited to a few meters. Unfortunately, we could not see much at the top and the last meters were pretty cold from the wind and snow at the exposed sections. Chances are that when you are doing this hike, you will have a 360 degree view from the Niederhorn peak. But well, the Alps are unpredictable…
For the way down, there are several options: a lift can take you all the way to Beatenberg, you can continue walking all the way down to Beatenberg, or you can sledge over the official sledge track to Vorsass and take the lift from here. Due to the snow predictions we came prepared and brought plastic bags with us which we used to sledge parts of the sledge track while walking the rest. In the forest after Vorsass the clouds lifted again, such that we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset over the Niesen, Spiez and Lake Thun. The hike finished in Beatenberg, were you can either take a bus back to Interlaken or the train to Beatenbucht from where a bus will take you to Thun dependent on your location of stay.
Video Journal
For more drone and hike videos, you can go Videos.