Swiss Highlights

Summit · Bernese Alps

Jungfrau

A summit of the Bernese Alps at 4,158 metres, on the boundary between Bern and Valais, third term of the trio it forms with the Eiger and the Mönch.

Derivative illustration produced by Swiss Highlights from a freely licensed photograph.

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Translated during an AI-assisted second-pass review — not yet validated by a native-speaking editor.

The Jungfrau is a distinct summit of the Bernese Alps: it reaches 4,158 metres, on the boundary between the canton of Bern and Valais. On one side it overlooks the valleys of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald, on the other Lake Thun. With the Eiger and the Mönch, its two neighbours, it forms a trio whose north faces line up — and it is that row, seen from the north, that made the group's reputation long before the summit itself was climbed.

Its climbing history begins in 1811 with the Meyer brothers, of Aarau: their ascent took three days, a length the sheer scale of the range is enough to explain. The first guideless ascent followed in 1881, the first by the north face in 1926. The mountain has lost none of its severity: on 12 July 2007 an avalanche released at 3,800 metres on the south face swept away two rope teams of Swiss army mountain specialists and killed them all.

Since 1912 the Jungfrau Railway, the highest rack railway in Europe, has run up to the Jungfraujoch, the col between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, above 3,400 metres. In 2001 UNESCO inscribed the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch site — the Jungfrau, the Aletsch Glacier and the Bietschhorn — on the World Heritage List. The mountain also circulates in images: on a commemorative 10-franc coin struck in 2005, on the official Federal Council photograph of 2024 and, far earlier, in Alphonse Daudet's novel in which Tartarin climbs it, published in 1885.

Why this place is remarkable

Few summits of this altitude can be approached so closely: since 1912 a rack railway has set travellers down above 3,400 metres, at the Jungfraujoch, in the notch that separates the Mönch from the Jungfrau. To that is added the arrangement of the group: the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau align their north faces side by side, so that the mountain can be read in a single glance from the valley.

History and origin

The name means literally “young woman” and can also be rendered as “maiden”. It did not first denote the peak: the alpine pastures north-west of the mountain belonged to Augustinian nuns and were for that reason called the maidens' mountains, and the name eventually travelled up to the summit.

What to do and see

  • Reach the Jungfraujoch by train, above 3,400 metres, between the Mönch and the Jungfrau, via Europe's highest rack railway.
  • Observe from the valley the alignment of the north faces of the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau.
  • Place the summit within the UNESCO Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch site, which brings together the Jungfrau, the Aletsch glacier and the Bietschhorn.

Coming with family: what to know

  • Climbing the summit is a matter of high-mountain mountaineering: on 12 July 2007, an avalanche at 3,800 metres on the south face killed two roped teams of Swiss army specialists. The Jungfraujoch, reachable by train, is a distinct experience from the ascent itself.

As a couple

  • Ride together up to the Jungfraujoch on the 1912 rack railway, through the notch between the Mönch and the Jungfrau.
  • Contemplate from the Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald valley the alignment of the three north faces.
  • While admiring the massif, discuss the origin of its name, linked to the alpine pastures of Augustinian nuns — the 'maidens' peaks.'
Before you go

Climbing it is high-altitude mountaineering. On 12 July 2007 an avalanche released at 3,800 metres on the south face swept away two rope teams of three men and left no survivors.

Location

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Related places

From the rocks of the Jungfraujoch, a building with concrete walls and wooden cladding, largely glazed, clings to the rock face; below stretches the long white flow of the Aletsch glacier, framed by snow-covered peaks, under a blue sky streaked with clouds.

Railway pass · Bernese Alps · 2 km as the crow flies

Jungfraujoch

The line, proposed in 1893 by Adolf Guyer-Zeller and completed in 1912 after 7.1 km of tunnel under the Eiger and the Mönch, reaches 3,454 metres. The site drew more than a million visitors a year between 2017 and 2019.

View on the map (Bern, Valais)

Close-up of the summit ridge of the Mönch: snow and crevassed ice cover the rock face, a plume of cloud brushes the ridge under a blue sky.

Bernese Alps summit · 4,110 m · 4 km as the crow flies

Mönch

Middle link of the Eiger–Mönch–Jungfrau chain, it reaches 4,110 metres. Its south face rests on the Jungfraufirn, a tongue of the Aletsch glacier; its name is thought to come from a horse pasture, not from a monk.

View on the map (Bern, Valais)

At the bottom of a narrow gorge, the milky turquoise water of the Trümmelbach glides in long exposure between walls of polished limestone; mist rises from the current, and a few tufts of green moss catch the light on the overhanging rock.

Underground falls · Bernese Oberland · 5 km as the crow flies

Trümmelbach Falls

The Trümmelbach alone drains the glacier faces of the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau: up to 20,000 litres a second in a gorge so narrow that daylight no longer reaches the upper falls.

View on the map (Bern)