Fiesching for the Aletsch glacier's elbow

Another day, another gondola (literally).  This time the main attraction was the Aletsch glacier.  We drove from Saas Grund to Fiesch for the gondola to the Eggishorn.

The Aletsch glacier from the Eggishorn at its most spectacular angle. i.e. the elbow.  The Aletschhorn is the high mountain in the center.  We were spectacularly lucky with the weather to have such a clear day, so also visible here were the Jungfrau, Jungfraujoch, Mönch, and Eiger!  This immense view was my favourite view of all the many mountains and glaciers we saw in Switzerland.

Here's a guide for where to look if you want to dig around in the photo above :)

The view out the other direction was no slouch either.

Left to right: Small bump is Jungfraujoch, then Mönch, Trugberg, Eiger

There is a great walk from the Eggishorn to Bettmerhorn, where you can take a different gondola down.  We totally would have done this had we been sans kids.  As it was, even if they had been OK to sit in the carriers for a few hours (which they weren't) it would have been sketchy to carry them: lots of loose footing and steep drops.

Pointy top is the Matterhorn, and on the right, the Weisshorn.

Also from the "if we didn't have kids with us" files: the via ferrata here looked amazing.  You can see some people finishing it on the left here.

On the way back down we stopped at Kühboden, which didn't have any Kühe, but had lots of restaurants with playgrounds attached.  Which made everyone involved very very happy.

Occupied!

We watched a bunch of paragliders and hangliders launch while we were having lunch.

Walking trails abound from Kühboden 

On the way home we made a stop in Saas Balen to see the waterfall and an old pretty church.  We mostly ended up closely inspecting a hay baler and some sheep though.

Saas Balen

Waterfall in Saas Balen

Hohsaas and Kreuzboden: home of the world's most scenic playground

Another day another gondola ride, this time from just below our chalet to Hohsaas (3101 m) via Kreuzboden (2397 m) where there is a spectacular kids playground.

Looking back at Saas Grund.  The gondola departed from just below our chalet.

Spectacular view from Kreuzboden.  Left to right, flat-topped Aflphubel (4206 m), Täschhorn (4490 m), Dom (4545 m), Lenzspitze (4294 m), Nadelhorn (4327 m), Hoberghorn (4219 m).  "Dom" means Cathedral in German, you can see why.

This was a little racetrack with free bikes you could ride around.  Our kids were too short to reach the pedals but I pushed them around for a few laps.

This playground was amazing.  Really interesting play structure, a number of different areas, and a view of epic proportions.

Nailing it

Flying fox!

A water play area? At 2397 m? It was great the day we were there though.

We're only halfway!  Plenty more gondola to go...Pointy mountain centered in the background is the Fletschhorn (3993 m)

The top

Of course there's a restaurant at the top.  If you click on this photo for the large version you can see two mountaineering groups.  One crossing the Trift glacier, and one heading towards the Weissmeis (4023 m) summit.

With some time to spare in the afternoon we took the bus to the end of the road to see the Mattmark dam, which was a nice change of scenery and beautiful (for a dam!).  This is the closest we got to Italy: from here there is a day hike over the Monte Moro pass into Italy.  The pass was a historically important link between Switzerland and Italy.

Mattmarksee.  Lots of hiking trails around here.

Looking back down the valley towards Saas Grund.  Glacier and waterfalls on the left.