On foot · Aletsch region · August 2026
Belalp, the Aletsch knockout
A night in the rooftop tent near Blatten, a packed cable car up to Belalp, and one of the finest panoramas we have ever seen.
- Date
- August 2026
- Distance
- 15.8 km
- Elevation gain
- 1,027 m
- Walking time
- 5 h 02 min
The route · indicative
The climb
Straight up
From Belalp the goal is in sight: plateau, then straight up. From below you think you'll never make it, and that you're heading away from the glacier. But the zigzags are almost playful, never exposed, and the grassy slope holds no terrors.
On the way, a seam of quartz sparkles in the path. Five hundred and fifty metres of climbing, more than worth the effort.
The summit
The glacier in all its glory
And then the arrival. A valley, a glacier higher up, incredible mountains opposite, the Weisshorn, the Matterhorn and the Dom in the distance, and behind the village of Belalp, the Aletsch glacier in all its (still somewhat) glory.
The gentler descent joins the Nessjeri bisse, a fifteenth-century channel first recorded in 1477, tapping the Chelchbach at 2,140 metres. Adorable, and endless.
