Lenk and Gstaad, June 2025

[Pauline]

Arrival​

We spent 9 nights near Baden-Baden in the Black Forest, Germany. From there we drove into Switzerland, up into the mountains of the Berner Oberland region.

The drive was difficult. The first hour on the German autobahn in a very heavy rain. Then an hour or more on the Swiss autobahn in a construction zone from Basel to Bern. They paint orange lane lines making very narrow new lanes and everyone drives fast. But we arrived.

We’ve been coming to Lenk in Simmental (near the more famous Gstaad) every year for ten years. Our first trip to Switzerland was in 1988 when we spent the summer in Grindelwald and Zermatt and we’ve come back as often as we could since then. We finally settled on Lenk being perfect for us so now that is where we come (or nearby).

Why Switzerland? It is for the hiking. You don’t have to be a mountain climber to hike in the mountains here. Gondolas whisk you up to alpine levels, small buses drive you up to hidden valleys and trains move around between towns. For the last several years we have been driving here from our home in the South West UK. Another reason for Switzerland - we love the mountains. That fresh mountain air, the perfect mountain villages, fields of cows.

We arrived on Friday too tired to even go to the supermarket! Saturday was overcast, cool and there was rain. We did our supermarket shopping.

Sunday was sunny but not hot and we did my favourite walk here, along the river. I had been dreaming of this hike! There were lots of people on the trails. Sunday is always busy with people out walking and family picnics. This was a long weekend too.

Monday was sunny and hotter, 70F, but the week ahead is getting hotter. We did a longer version of the river walk.

We are staying in the apartment we have rented four times now. It is just outside of town, in among the farms, with a beautiful view of the big mountains at the end of the valley. This year, as we approached, I saw a huge construction crane! One field over from us they are rebuilding the REKA site! They tore down the old chalets and are rebuilding. There was no noise from them over the weekend but they started up Tuesday and it was LOUD!

Well at least all that is a field away from the back of our apartment. The morning after we arrived the neighbours in front of the apartment, the field where they used to keep beautiful deer, started digging up ditches for pipes and we realized they are putting in a new building that will block much of the view from our balcony. They had the four corners marked showing the height of the building.

Today, Tuesday, I talked to the agency and they are moving us to their chalet in town where we stayed last June. Well we had three good years staying at Alpsunne, enjoying that view, watching the deer.

Driving into Lenk.

I always take this same photo.

Walking along the river.

The small lake in Lenk. Wild irises!

We did a walk around our neighbourhood and bought honey.

Monday night there was a spectacular moon rise.

 

[daydreamer]

Wow!

 

[Pauline]

Tuesday June 10​

Sunny, 75F

Another hot day with more in the forecast. We drove up to Zweisimmen for the small vegetable market. Then we did a good hike parking in nearby Boltigen and walking a steady uphill for 90 minutes to reach a viewpoint.

We used to regularly do a different version of this hike ending at the same viewpoint but haven’t done it the last couple of years because they closed the tourist office where we used to park. It is hard to find parking in these small towns. This time we parked at the Boltigen train station and did an out-and-back hike instead of a circular.

While on our lunch break I negotiated our move to a different location in Lenk. We will be back in town in the Spitzacker apartment we stayed in last June. Well packed up Tuesday night and moved Wednesday morning.

Walking on a lane up from Boltigen.

The viewpoint and our lunch spot.

The view behind us.

 

[Pauline]

Wednesday June 11​

Sunny, 75F

We moved to the new apartment, Chalet Spitzacker, did some grocery shopping and enjoyed our balcony.

This is a very nice apartment, better than Chalet Alpsunne in some ways. Both buildings are managed by the same agency, FerienLizenz. We are on the top floor (2nd European, 3rd by American standards) with a large balcony and one of the best views in Lenk. The beds are better. It is nice being in town. There is some road noise which we didn’t have in Alpsunne but here you can walk to the shops, the train and bus station and to the gondola station. I am happy with the move.

Very close to the church bells which ring on the quarter hours but they go to only on the hour from 8pm to 8am and they don’t wake us up.

Similar view as from Alpsunne but much closer.

Looking down the street.

 

[Pauline]

Thursday June 12​

Sunny, 81F

It was hot in Lenk so we took the gondola up to the cooler alpine levels. Lenk is at 1000m (3280ft) and Leiterli, the top of the Betelberg gondola, is almost 2000m (6561ft). There is no shade up there but you get a breeze.

We hiked around Stubleni, the hill behind Leiterli. The trail was lined with alpine flowers. It is a good climb to the top, 500ft (150m), with a rewarding view. You can see down to Launen, outside of Gstaad, on one side and Lenk on the other.

From Stubleni we walked out and back across Gryden, a steep gypsum ridge with a narrow path that goes up and down. It is about 30 minutes each way I think (seemed longer). We used to walk across this once or twice every trip. I was always a bit nervous but this time I was very nervous. We had not done this walk in two years. And we are never doing it again! Steep slopes on either side, easy to slip on the loose gravel, very narrow, tricky bits of climbing over rock.

Plus the altitude was starting to get to us. So we crossed almost to the end of the ridge, turned around before the steep end part, walked back and then back down to Leiterli. We had our sandwiches in the gondola ride down.

The hike was 5 miles and took us 3 hours. Next time we won’t do that Gryden ridge!

The trail was lined with alpine flowers.

The colors were intense.

Gryden, that white gypsum ridge, doesn’t look like much but it is a difficult walk.

Proof of existence. Me on the trail.

And here is Steve!

 

[Pauline]

Gryden​

More about Gryden from the Lenk Tourism website.

View: https://youtu.be/KYoC5WJcWkA?si=F2t5Ypl5Ps5R3Sci

Gryden high-altitude circular trail

The hike starts at the top station of the Betelberg gondola lift (Leiterli). The first section of the mountain hiking trail leads along the Leiterli Alpine circular trail, which offers an interesting mix of original information and adventure stations. At Alp Steinstoss, the path becomes narrower...

lenk-simmental.ch

From the website: The trail then takes a short, steeper ascent over the Stübleni limestone formation. The crater-like, bizarre "Gryden" rock landscape spreads out on its northern side. The extraordinary rock landscape in the Stübleni area fascinates not only geologists and biologists, but anyone who enjoys a unique landscape. The terrain consists of gypsum rock: the slow dissolution by rainwater and the subsequent underground seepage form sinkholes, which give the terrain a crater-like appearance.

 

[Pauline]

Yodeling​

There is a big yodeling festival in Lenk next weekend, June 20-22. We will be in Gstaad by then but this explains why I couldn’t book anything in Lenk for that week. Too bad I didn’t figure this out when I booked Alpsunne last December but then we might have had to stay in Alpsunne with all the construction so maybe it is good we are heading out.

Gstaad is only 45min drive away so we could come back to Lenk for a day. But 30,000 visitors in a town of 5,000 might be a bit too much.

Bern. Kant. Jodlerfest Lenk-St.Stephan 20. - 22. Juni 2025

www.jodlerfest-lenk.ch

Translation from website: We can welcome around 3,000 active yodellers, alp horn and book winds, flag-wingers and hopefully 30,000 visitors in our beautiful region for a sociable festive weekend. The big parade on Sunday will be the crowning highlight of the weekend.

They started setting up stages around town this weekend.

The other night we heard singing and there was a group outside by the church singing and yodeling.

View: https://youtu.be/rwmCtkj3NYU?si=IF9m_dhnO8FLdD1S

 

[Pauline]

Friday June 13​

Sunny, 82F.

Hot today! We went for a walk along the river. Late in the afternoon it started to rain. We had heavy rain, lightening and thunder, and hail! It was a relief after those hot days.

After the storm.

 

[Pauline]

Saturday June 14​

Sunny, some cloud, 81F

We drove up to the end of the valley and did the hike to Siebenbrunnen. We’ve always loved this hike. It is a steep one-hour hike up 300m (900ft) along a fast flowing river with many water falls, then you are in a perfect valley. Another 30 minutes and you are at Siebenbrunnen, seven springs that come from the glaciers above and start the River Simme that runs to Lenk, onto Zweisimmen where it meets a river from Gstaad, and down the valley to Lake Thun.

Being a weekend day there were a lot of people. We talked with two groups of younger people both hiking right up to the top of the mountains to stay in a hut. We find the hike up to Siebenbrunnen is harder each year and takes longer but even in our hiking prime we never could have made it to the hut. It is a very steep, long climb.

There is a farm and a restaurant here. We walked to the falls and had lunch there enjoying the cool air from that glacial water. Since the return is downhill it took half the time to walk back.

Siebenbrunnen, 3.5mi, 886ft ascent, 2hr23min

One of the bigger waterfalls on the trail.

View along the trail.

The valley at the top of the climb.

The farm.

The restaurant.

The seven springs, Siebenbrunnen.

View: https://youtu.be/exYlhQh5Icc?si=v3Z0oQsUPBUSDMpc

A video of the falls on the walk up.