First Cliff Walk – a great experience for those, who are not afraid of heights

At first glance, it’s easy, only about 400 meters long trail. At first glance. At second glance, you will find out that it is a metal walkway clinging to and around the edge of the cliff at a dizzying height of 2,168 meters above sea level! So if you´re afraid of heights and you want to challenge yourself – Cliff Walk is the way to do it.

Update: Jan 20, 2022

Arrival

The First Peak overlooks the famous Grindelwald skiing village. It is about 75 kilometers (about an hour’s drive) from Bern to Berner Oberland.

Parking: Close to the cable car station (on the other side of the road next to the Hotel Grindelwald) there is a metered parking lot “First”. However, due to its low capacity, it may be occupied. Rather, I recommend that you leave the car in an indoor parking house at the tourist information office in the middle of the village which is about 600 meters from the cable car station.

Operating hours of the First cable car & prices

The operating hours of the cable car are from 18.12. 2021 – 27.3.2022. In the summer season 14.5. – 23.10.2022. The return ticket for an adult is 64 francs. You can use your Halb-fare card to get a 50% discount. Children with a Junior Card accompanied by a paying parent have a free ride.

Up to First

The journey by cable car to the top of First takes about 25 minutes. First is located at the third stop. Then going to the First Cliff Walk is very easy. After you get out of the cable car station, walk for about 5minutes by following the sign and you will be there.

But we first went on a short walk so the kids could enjoy the first snow of the season. Originally, we wanted to hike to Bachalpsee, but eventually, we went only halfway through the trail because we realized we could have missed the last cable car down at 16:00.

We came to this mountain cottage, where we had a quick snack, enjoyed the beautiful view of the valley and the mountainside, and headed back to Cliff Walk.

First Cliff Walk by Tissot

First Cliff Walk doesn’t cost anything extra and it’s self-guided.

As I wrote, the First Cliff Walk is a metal walkway clinging to and around the edge of the cliff. Sometimes you have to bend a bit so you do not bang your head against the rock and sometimes you just don´t have to look under your feet, otherwise …

The fun continues when you reach the suspension bridge. Before that, the steel walkway is quite stable, but here you may be a bit worried when there are more people on the bridge and it begins to swing slightly.

Just round the corner, there is the last section of the trail that ends with a viewing platform. It rises 45 meters into the void. So I’ll tell you if there is anything I’m afraid of more than the metal structures through which you can see endless depths, that’s the glazed floor through which you can see endless depths :O

The trail ends at a mountain restaurant and at a rest area. From here, you can easily get back to the cable car station.

Other First activities

First Cliff Walk is not the only activity you can do here. Try First Flyer or First Glider, skiing and sledding in winter (in this area you can find the longest toboggan run in the world), or go hiking along the lake Bachalpsee to Schynige Platte.

My tip

If you want to have a place for yourself, without any crowds, come here either early in the morning or in the afternoon. Because this place is a “selfie point,” you may be standing in line before you reach the viewing platform to take pictures with the alpine giants in the background. And I recommend coming early not only for selfies but also to get to the cable car at a reasonable time. On our last visit, my daughter and I arrived at the cable car at 11 am on a Saturday. And this is what we saw:

I confess, at this point, I felt like turning around. However, I could tell right away that the queue was moving quite fast, so I took the optimistic stance that we would be at the ticket office in a moment. Well, it took about 10 – 15 minutes, so it wasn’t such a big deal. But no sooner had I bought the tickets, and we exited the building – we saw this:

Yeah, you see right. The queue for the cable car was snaking in several waves behind the cable car station building. We spent the next 20 minutes or so in there. When you add in the 25-minute cable car ride, it took us an hour to get up to First!!! Of course, when we came down, there was no sign of the queue. So yeah, just so you know what you’re getting into 😉 But trust me, even if you stand in that line for an hour, you definitely won’t regret it at the top!

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