From Sörenberg past the Eisee up to the Brienzer Rothorn

We park at the valley station of the Rothorn cable car in Sörenberg and set off on foot instead of taking the gondola straight away. The path leaves the village right behind the car park and works its way up the slope in long bends. After only a few minutes Sörenberg lies small below us. Single firs stand across the pastures, the summits sit in the morning haze ahead of us, and with every step the path turns narrower and stonier.

Halfway up we meet the first cows. A brown one stands in the middle of the scree, right on the path, a heavy bell around its neck, and shows no intention of moving aside. A second one lies in the grass next to it and watches us go past. We give them a wide berth, they keep chewing, and for quite a while there is nothing to hear but the bells and our boots on the loose stones.

Then the bowl opens up and we are standing above the Eisee. From up here it looks like two lakes meeting at a narrow spit of land. One basin is dark, the rim of the other pale as sand, and light scree climbs to the cliffs all around. Down at the shore the water is so still that the whole cirque is reflected in it, mountain, hut and the few clouds that have already gathered.

Then we go for a swim. The water is cold, exactly as you would expect from a mountain lake at this altitude, and the first few metres take some willpower. After that it is wonderful. We float in the middle of the reflection, the ridge above us, the pale stones of the bottom below. Once dressed we shiver for a moment and then walk on.

The second half of the climb is steeper. The path zigzags up the flank, the scree grows coarser, and at some point we are standing on top of the Brienzer Rothorn. The view down is hard to describe without sounding overblown. Far below us lies Lake Brienz in a turquoise that barely looks real. The villages line up along the shore, the water shifts from pale green at the edge to deep blue in the middle, and we stand there for quite a while and simply look down.

It does not stay that way for long. Clouds push over the ridge from the west, the lake loses its colour and it turns noticeably cooler. We sit down in the café at the summit and order an ice cream and a homemade iced tea. Outside, the haze slowly closes up the view we had a moment ago.

For the way back we take the gondola after all. In a few minutes it brings us down to Sörenberg and back to the car, and by early evening we are home. The tour is easily done in a day, which makes it a good fit for a weekend.