Kleine Scheidegg

Kleine Scheidegg is a pass at 2,061 metres, between the Eiger and the Lauberhorn, on the boundary of the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. Its name says exactly what it is: a minor watershed, as opposed to the nearby Grosse Scheidegg. It divides only the two arms of the Lütschine, which meet again a few kilometres below at Zweilütschinen, whereas the Grosse Scheidegg separates the Lütschine from the Rychenbach. The pass also marks the boundary between the Bernese Alps to the south and the Prealps to the north.

What the pass shows depends on its position, just north of the salient angle of the Bernese Alps. Coming up from Grindelwald, the Eiger hides what lies behind; at the pass the Mönch and the Jungfrau break upon the traveller all at once above the gorge of the Trümmletental. The row then lines up — the Eiger at 3,967 metres, the Mönch at 4,110, the Jungfrau at 4,158 — and three glaciers fill the hollows and ledges of those walls: the Eiger Glacier between the Eiger and the Mönch, the Guggi behind a buttress of the Mönch, the Giessen higher up on the north-west flank of the Jungfrau. The north face of the Eiger reads clearly enough from here to follow rope teams with binoculars, and since the 1930s expeditions onto it have set out from Kleine Scheidegg.

The pass is a railway junction. The Wengernalp line, begun in 1891 and opened in 1893 — steam traction, summer service only — climbs from Lauterbrunnen by way of Wengen and drops again to Grindelwald; the Jungfrau Railway starts here, begun in 1896, reaching Eigergletscher station in 1898 and the Jungfraujoch in 1912. No road reaches the pass. Above it, the Lauberhorn received a ski lift in 1941 and gives its name to a downhill race; since 1993 the Jungfrau Marathon, run from Interlaken, has finished here.

Why this place is remarkable

The pass sits at the exact point where the view turns over: hidden until then by the Eiger, the row of the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau opens in a single movement, with its three glaciers. It is at the same time a railway junction at 2,061 metres with no road at all — the line from Lauterbrunnen meets the one dropping to Grindelwald, and it is from this platform that the train to the Jungfraujoch departs.

History and origin

Before the railways, Kleine Scheidegg and Grosse Scheidegg served the valley's livestock and dairy farmers, who reached the export route to Italy over the Grimsel this way. Tourism came before the rails: travellers on the Grand Tour crossed the pass on foot from the late 18th century, and in 1840 Christian Seiler built an inn there, supplied by mule train, which grew into the Hotel Bellevue. From then on the crossing at Kleine Scheidegg became busier than the one at Grosse Scheidegg.