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The Berner Oberland and the Wengern Alp Railways also enable people to get the best of the Scheidegg runs down to Wengen or Grindelwald. The Ski-ing is very highly organized at Mürren and beginners receive a great deal of help and encouragement. There are Guides and Instructors. The Rinks and bob run are admittedly among the best in Switzerland. Skis can be hired locally.
The last time I was here it took a couple of hours to reach this spot from the Scheidegg, and probably neither I nor any of my fellow-passengers could to-day endure the necessary fatigue of reaching this spot on foot. Then we remounted the train, and on we went into the solid rock of the huge Eiger.
Frau Wolther's unfailing welcome and hospitality are a great joy at the end of a hot, wet run, and the fact that a change of clothes can be sent round by train to her care is a great comfort to those coming from afar. There are plenty of short Ski runs above Grindelwald, and the Scheidegg railway is kept open as far as Alpiglen to help with the climb on a long day's tour.
We had taken two hours only from Lauterbrünnen; in former days we should have started in the small hours of the morning from the Scheidegg, and have climbed through many dangers for some six or seven hours before reaching this spot. I confess that I am not enchanted with all of the modern appliances for saving time and labour the telegraph, the telephone, the automobile, and the aeroplane.
First-Class Guides and Ski Instructors can be found at the Joch. People who would prefer not to sleep at so great a height could stay at the Scheidegg or Eiger Gletscher, at both of which places hotels exist. In view of the shortness of Winter holidays, it seems a pity that more enthusiasts do not profit by the chance of practising which the Jungfrau Joch Railway offers in Summer time.
I cannot resist mentioning my good friend Frau Wolther's tea-shop as one of the great attractions at Grindelwald, drawing many a Ski runner over the Scheidegg from Mürren and Wengen!
All of his six-and-twenty years that he could recollect had been passed in a châlet on the Scheidegg above Grindelwald, his only companion an elderly recluse who had deliberately cut himself off from communion with his fellows. The trouble which had driven Mr. Strange, an author at one time of some mark, into this seclusion, was now as completely forgotten as his name.
And a marvellous scene it is as one rises to the height of 8,000 ft., skirting the glaciers which ooze down the rocky sides of the Jungfrau, and mounting far above some of them. At the Scheidegg I changed into a smaller train, and with some thirty fellow-passengers was carried higher and higher by the faithful, untiring electric current.
In the Upper Engadine almost all the forests are of cembra and there is one splendid old tree known as the "Giant Tree" near upper tree level on Muottas Celerina. Another group of veterans grows just below the Little Scheidegg on the Grindelwald side. Many of these trees are said to be 600 or 700 years old and their wood is much used for panelling in Graubünden.
WENGEN, 4,187 feet above the sea, is a lovely place, with the most beautiful view of the Jungfrau. It faces south, but provides two or three nice home runs, which remain in good condition except for the tracks of innumerable runners. The Wengern Alp Railway is usually open to the Scheidegg, though after a very heavy snow-fall it may take a few days to clear.
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