Kandersteg to Adelboden: a classic day on the Via Alpina

Several long-distance trails cross Switzerland, and the Via Alpina is the famous one: a chain of passes across the whole country, east to west. What we do, whenever we get the chance, is walk a single stage of it and go home. One of the best of them is a Sunday's work: stage 14, Kandersteg to Adelboden, over the Bunderchrinde.

The numbers are honest. About 16 kilometres, around 1,200 metres of climbing by our count, roughly five hours on the move – our time on the day, with a stop at the top. The official stage card says seven hours and a little more ascent, depending on where you count from. Either way it is a proper mountain day that still fits inside a Sunday.

You leave Kandersteg at around 1,200 metres and the work starts almost at once: forest, then meadow, then a steep pull to the Bunderchrinde, a notch in the ridge at 2,385 metres. The pass is the day. You come through it into another valley entirely, the Engstligental, with Adelboden visible far below and the peaks of the Oberland stacked up behind you. Then a long, knee-testing descent to a village that feels nothing like the one you left in the morning.

That is the appeal of doing one stage rather than all of them. A whole Alpine crossing – valley floor, climb, col, long drop – in a single day, ending somewhere with a bed and a bus. String a few together over a long weekend, or take them one at a time, the way we do, until the map of the country fills in behind you.

For the record, the day ran on four croissants, eaten at intervals up the climb. I will not be taking questions.