Trip report by site editor Rick McCharles
Jungfrau hike – day 2
By coincidence, I was in Grindelwald the same time as the annual Eiger Bike Challenge. In fact, I hung out at the main tent two days running.
Hikers, the train and the cycle race all climbed from from the valley to Klein Scheidegg.
Most cyclists had to walk some sections. Fitness and ability level was mixed at this race. Certainly I would have been tempted to rent a bike and join in had I had arrived one day earlier.
My goal. The hotel at Kleine Scheidegg. I remembered the description well from reading The Eiger Sanction 20yrs before. I bought it as an audio download and enjoyed it again on my iPod during this hike.
The train from here to Jungfraujoch 3454m “TOP OF EUROPE” is super expensive. I asked several times if there was somehow I could hike up there instead. … Not without ice climbing equipment, unfortunately.
The short climb up to the glacial moraine was as high as I got, sadly.
There’s a feature there I’d never seen before. Benches in water where you can rinse your feet. It even has a bubbler.
By nightfall I found a fantastic place to put up my tent, on a cliff edge overlooking the lovely, tranquil Lauterbrunnen valley.
That evening when I was cooking supper an Italian hiker stopped by. He and his fiance were doing a long through hike through the Alps. Had been on the trail for a couple of months.
besthike.com 
Enjoyed this post Rick.
You seem to be having a “great” trip.
Can’t quite work out why you would want to stop and wash your feet?
You haven’t smelled my feet. After 2 months hiking in the same shoes.
🙂
Rick, I love these Europe hiking posts. I lived and traveled in Europe for two years in the mid-1980s, and I love to see you describing places I’ve been, like Jungfrau.
Rick, I love Kleine Scheidegg. Do you recall the name of a ski “Hutte”, above Kleine Scheidegg Station that could only be reached by foot or lift.
Not directly above Kleine Scheidegg.
… But it seems to me that I saw lights at night from huts up ABOVE on the mountain face.