The steps that run alongside the Niesen funicular railway, in the Bernese Oberland, number over 11,000. Being able to boast the longest stairway in the world is quite the claim to fame, even if it is not open to the public. The mountain itself has been a source of fascination since the 18th century.
The little red Niesen train is at a bit of a slant, as is tradition for this type of train. This is to ensure it can tackle the steep slope leading to the peak of Mount Niesen (2,362 m) in the Bernese Oberland, which has been a Swiss tourist hotspot since the 19th century. The route, divided into two legs, is virtually a straight line. The steps running up the side of the funicular railway are equally straight. There are 11,674 of them, making it the longest stairway in the world. It is quite the claim to fame but, naturally, almost all visitors to Niesen – 84,000 a year on average – expend no effort in reaching the peak other than hanging onto their seats when the funicular begins to climb. We have come a long way from the days when the first tourists climbed the mountain on foot, on muleback or, for the wealthier, in sedan chairs carried by people! They used to sleep in the hut erected at the peak in 1856. This was before the funicular became operational in 1910.
Nowadays, access to the famous stairway is reserved for top athletes. Every June, the sporting elite meet up to climb the Niesen train’s metal and stone steps over 1,669 metres of elevation gain, at a constant incline of 68 percent. Unlike with alpine routes, the effort is mind-numbing. The speed record for the course is just under 56 minutes. This is equivalent to climbing 1,600 metres in an hour, whereas a physically fit hiker would cover around 500 metres in the same time. Outside this competition, the Stairway is merely a maintenance route. It must remain accessible all year round, including in the winter. “Climbing the Stairway without authorisation is prohibited,” according to public limited company Niesenbahn, under penalty of a fine. But there are exceptions: a pass costing 490 Swiss francs lets holders use the stairs between three and seven in the morning, with a free shower and transport back down included. Very few people actually hold this pass. This reporter had planned on climbing the Stairway at night from the halfway station to the peak, but that turned out not to be possible. “We’re not looking for any additional publicity for the Niesen Stairway,” explained Urs Wohler, the manager of Niesenbahn.
So the “Swiss Review” made the journey by train. From the peak, the visitor can look out over the Bernese Alps, with a bird’s-eye view of the lakes of Thun and Brienz. You can see as far as the Italian side of the Grandes Jorasses mountain. In perfect weather, you can make out the Vosges and the Black Forest, reports Berne author and journalist Daniel Anker. While at the summit, you can enjoy a light meal at the Niesen Kulm restaurant. You can also spend the night in one of the hotel’s charming wood-panelled rooms. A perfect spot for watching the moon rise above the Bernese Alps. This mountain ticks all the boxes for tourism in Switzerland, a country whose primary appeal comes from its countryside and its mountains. Besides, Niesen has been a popular destination for a long time, as a guide published by German geologist Johann Gottfried Ebel in 1793 shows. The work devotes four pages of its index to Mount Niesen, as against only a page and a half to Mount Titlis (Uri), as Anker reveals. “Mount Niesen is one of the first Swiss mountains to be described in literature,” according to the 71-year-old mountain climber.
To what does it owe its success? “Its shape, which looks like a child’s drawing, is perfect. It’s reminiscent of the pyramids of Giza,” he says. In the afternoon, it casts its triangular shadow over Lake Thun, lending a spectacular effect to the panorama. These features have led the “Swiss pyramid”, as Mount Niesen is nicknamed, to catch the eye of numerous artists, beginning with Ferdinand Hodler and Paul Klee. The mountain has also been immortalised in several engravings, which have made the mountain’s outline famous the world over. There is also a practical element to this fame: the Niesen is easily visible (from Thun, for example), but a perfect peak such as Dent Blanche (Valais) cannot be seen from the plain. The journey from Berne to the Oberland itself is the oldest tourist trail in Switzerland. “Before the train, people used to travel to Mount Niesen by carriage,” recalls Anker, who has written monographs on the largest Swiss mountains. Today, the trip from Berne to the summit takes less than an hour-and-a-half.
What is there to do at the summit of Mount Niesen? You can take a stroll along the western edge to watch the paragliders launch themselves off. “This peak is one of the region’s finest airborne sports locations,” says Berne native Ruedi Thomi. The tandem pilot, who was one of the pioneers of paragliding in the 1980s, has come to make a jump in the direction of his house, eight kilometres away as the crow flies. Not far away, we see a young woman sitting on a bench, engrossed in the novel she is reading. Olivia Jundt has travelled here from Liestal (Basel-Landschaft) and her husband is in the middle of a jump. “I was thrilled at the idea of discovering the Swiss pyramid and I’m actually wondering why I even live in Basel,” she jokes. Along the narrow, tarmacked path that leads from the train’s arrival station to the peak, we meet a young Asian woman who is nervously clinging to the handrail. We are in the mountains, and there is quite a drop! Higher up, some Argentinians sip on their yerba mate as they take in the view. On this fine day in May, though, most tourists are from Switzerland. The Swiss make up 95 percent of yearly visitors.
We descend on foot to the halfway station at Schwandegg, 700 metres lower down. The walk takes us close to the famous Stairway. There is the faint sound of metallic music in the air: the jingle of the funicular’s cables. A young man barrels towards us like a freight train. His name is Michaël Meyer and he works as a butcher in Thun. The runner is already on his third ascent of the day. Michaël has a record in his sights: climbing the Niesen 186 times between April and October, when the trails are accessible.
What about the Stairway Race? Michaël volunteers as a steward for the competition, which takes place every June. But climbing 11,000 steps is not his cup of tea. He prefers trails. “The Stairway is not good for you,” he says, and mentions his previous job as a security guard, where his routine involved climbing hundreds of stairs every day. The young man pulls out his mobile phone to show us some photos of chamois. The mountain is also home to lynxes, eagles, bearded vultures, griffon vultures and black grouse, according to the Niesenbahn manager. There are no ibexes, however, in spite of a campaign to reintroduce the species to the Niesen mountains in 2006. The idea was to “boost the region’s appeal to tourists”. The mountain’s two-legged population includes people taking the Stairway illegally. Michaël saw several of them during his first 15 ascents of the Niesen that season, early in the morning. The persons in question were spotted on the Niesenbahn security cameras and intercepted at the summit, says the Berne native.
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Dieser Artikel brachte wunderbare Erinnerungen zurück! Ich kam von Australia, machte Ferien in der Umgebung und wir sind auf den Niesen gelaufen. Ich war damals 70 Jahre alt, es war sehr anstrengend, fast zu schwer für mich. But the effort was worth it, so beautiful, it is a memory I keep in my heart but will not repeat…