Fiescheralp & Eggishorn

Fiesch is just over twenty minutes' drive away; from there, a gondola built in 2019 takes you up to the car-free Fiescheralp, at just over 2,200 metres, in under ten minutes. There you change onto the cable car to the Eggishorn. That final stretch is the reason people come here.

At the 2,869-metre mountain station, and a further sixty metres up if you take the short walk to the true summit at 2,926 metres, the Aletsch Glacier lies before you in its full length. Twenty kilometres of ice, up to eight hundred metres thick at the Konkordiaplatz, with the Jungfraujoch on the horizon. Forty four-thousand-metre peaks are visible from here. No other viewpoint in the region comes close.

In winter you share the Arena pass with Riederalp and Bettmeralp: 104 kilometres of piste plus fifteen kilometres of ski routes, 1,845 to 2,869 metres. The black run from the Eggishorn is the area's best known. The toboggan run from Fiescheralp via the Laxerwald to Lax, at almost eleven kilometres and 1,162 metres of descent, is the longest in the whole Arena. There's also a free two-kilometre cross-country trail in the Fieschertal, and a nine-kilometre winter walking path to Riederalp at just over two thousand metres.

Summer here is distinctly active. The Eggishorn via ferrata measures 1.4 kilometres, rated K2 to K3, and takes around three hours. The Gogwärgiweg, a gnome fairy-tale trail, descends 6.5 kilometres with ten themed stations from Fiescheralp to Fiesch, just right for families. Guided glacier treks across the Aletsch run from June to October, guide compulsory, from around CHF 99, since the ice can only be crossed with a guide. There's a rope park with six courses and a zip line, and tandem paragliding flights from around CHF 150. Worth knowing: the cable car to the Eggishorn is being replaced over the coming years by a new eighty-person cabin, with reopening planned for December 2028.