Adelboden to Unter dem Birg and Engstligenalp

Leaving the Frütigen to Adelboden bus at Oey we crossed the bridge and then immediately turned down the road to...

.....reach a sawmill where this sign marks the strat of both a summer and winter path which was constructed in the 1980s. It's just over 4km to the cable car station ay Unter dem Birg.

The path passes the sawmill and parallels the stream....

......as it skirts Oey.

Soon the head of the valley comes into view...

.....and the village of Boden is seen on the right.

The winter of January and february 2012 was exceptionally cold with temperatures down to minus 15 degrees and in many places the stream had frozen over.

This cold, of course, made the paths firm and the air crisp - magical!

Beyon Boden the stream and road is crossed ......

.....and the path moves to the opposite bank...

......before running side by side with the Langlauf tracks,

The reason for so many Swiss bridges having roofs is clear in this photo - the roof keeps the snow off the bridge so it can be crossed.

There's a short section of road walking - luckily the bus didn't come along.

The nature of the path to Unter dem Birg now changes....

.....as it enters woods by the frozen stream...

.....and starts to climb uphill.....

.....before descending again.

A view!!

The path drops down into the valley again...

.....to join a broad forestry track.

....and finally reaches the curiously deserted car park at the Unter dem Birg cable car station, which is a little further up the road.

After travelling up the cable car to Engstligenalp it was obvious that there were relatively few skiers about and even fewer walkers. After soup in the restaurant we set off on the  circular walk around the alp, which took us about an hour.

The Wildstrubel (3244m) dominates Engstigenal but its summit was covered in cloud. To the left is the Steghorn

The Wildstrubel and the pass over the Ammertegrat.

Looking back to the Tschingellochtighorn above the hotel at Engstligenalp

The depth of snow was considerable as this photo shows. The whole of the lower story is hidden - there is probably about 3 metres of snow.

The weather conditions started to change and we experienced for a few minutes almost no visibility as the mist rolled in. There was no danger of getting lost as the paths are well defined.

Having reached the farthest point in the circuit it was simply a case of following the ski tow back towards the cable car station.