ViaBerna - stage 19 Engstlenalp - Gadmen

From Hotel Engstlenalp, you start by following a cycle route gently upwards to Engstlensee. The view over the shimmering, bluish green water to Joch Pass and into Titlisgebiet is magnificent. As it leaves the valley, the route then takes you around several mountain ridges. From Scharmad you can enjoy the breathtaking view through the silent, forested Gental to the summits of the Oberland ice masses. The trail continues almost horizontally above the tree line, over the downward sloping mountainside to Bäregg. Climbing gradually, it continues through the open terrain below Tällistock. You are getting closer to Sätteli, where you cross into Gadmertal. On the right you can’t help but notice Sättelisteckleni, a sheer rock formation that resembles Gadmerfluh in the Dolomites in South Tyrol. The view from Sätteli will take your breath away: Firn and ice, forest and pasture, from the climbing mountains of Engelhörner to Finsteraarhorn and over the glistening glaciers of Trift, Sustenhorn and Titlis, everything is there in front of you. The descent between the bands of rock is steep. The second part of the high-altitude hike leads past Tällihütte and along the mighty, towering tors of Gadmerflue via Alpligen to Raflue. This is the start of the tremendous descent into the mountain village of Gadmen, 400 metres down.

Engstlensee is a natural lake at the foot of the glaciated Titlis, surrounded by diverse flora and the ancient Swiss pines that stand amid the hilly moraine landscape. It is a conservation area.

Gental is a sparsely populated side valley of Gadmertal. Engstlenalp and Engstlensee are at the top end and there is footpath into Engelbergtal via Joch Pass.

The Tälli via ferrata takes you from Berghaus Tälli through Gadmerfluh. It was the first via ferrata in Switzerland and, at 600 metres in length, it is still one of the longest and most spectacular.

Despite good links via the pass road, some income from tourism and the Oberhasli power stations, there are not many job prospects in the mountain village of Gadmen. Many people from Gadmer moved away from the area in the centuries before. Nowadays, people from the area, which is at risk of avalanches in snowy winters, travel further down the mountain for work.