Full list of equipped paths 
Via ferrata
Equipped path
Equipped section
Equipped canyon
Via cordata
Via cable
Trails
Bike routes
Blog
All photos
Mountain guidesSwitzerland. Family hiking at the foot of Eiger
In the western hillside of the Männlichen, a viewpoint of the Eiger and Jungfrau in Grindelwald, there’s a theme path dedicated to Lieselotte the cow, who together with her friends the hens, features in a bunch of family adventures.
A big wooden cow marks the beginning of the path -its inside is a games zone and its tongue a long slide-
Location
GrindelwaldInterlaken-OberhasliBernaSuiza Technical description
Duration 5 h.
Difficulty 2/5
Level difference Bajada - 1.423 m.
Length 12 Km.
Signposted Sí
Route status 1/5
Type Tierra
Round-trip Sí
Season 
How to get there
» We’ll leave the car in the Männlichen car park (not free) at the entrance of Grindelwald, near the train station. We’ll take the gondola cabin Grindelwald-Männlichen to the upper stop. In 2018 the price was 50€ per adult. The Lieselotte trail starts by a big wooden cow that we’ll spot right after getting out of the cabin.
» We can also go up from the village of Wengen, through the other valley, taking the Wengen cableway. This option will make us go up again, either on foot or in the Holstein-Männlichen gondola cabin.
The route
When we got to Grindelwald, the nearest village to the Jungfrau viewpoint and the Aletsch glacier we had already made the decision to do an alternative hike to the popular but pricey Top of Europe (200 euros in 2008). With a mix of sadness and the relief of having visited a glacier already in les Diablerets, we decided to jump into the Grindelwald-Männlichen gondola cabin. That decision bore a great surprise.
We weren’t aware of this either, but the somewhat vintage lift of small red cabins, the longest in Europe in its time -1978- had its days numbered. It was disassembled and changed for a more modern one shortly after, so you can no longer have a retro-flavoured experience.
Our initial plan was simple: go up the summit of Männlichen, 2,343 m. and behold the big mountain tops of the area: the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. The plan only got better when we were offered the map-passport-leaflet of the Lieselotte the cow theme path and its game areas.
Go up the summit of Männlichen
View of the northern face of Eiger and, overlaid, its most popular routes.
There’s a wide signposted path that heads north from the gondola cabin station. A few steep slopes will take us to the summit of the Männlichen. It’s 150 metres of height-difference that we can split into two.
There’s a transparent panel with an overlay of the hikes on the Eiger north face; very handy to trace in real time the original one -Heckmair - or the direct one -Harlin-. It’s the perfect excuse to take a breath. Once at the top, we’ll come across a circular viewpoint with a 360 degree view of the whole area. Besides the views of the Jungfrau rock mass in the south, the fall into the valley of Wengen to the west is also stunning.
Looking south at the Männlichen. The summit of the Jungfrau is covered in clouds.
Lieselotte the Cow path
Detail of every game area and stamping stops of the Lieselotte path
The first step of the Lieselotte path is getting into the big cow that welcomes visitors after getting out of the gondola cabin, a beautiful wooden structure with games inside and a metallic tongue as a slide to get out. The cow is the stop number two where we can stamp our leaflet. We shouldn't forget the first one, at the lower gondola lift station in Grindelwald. We get a new letter with every stamp, with which we’ll have to form a word that solves the mystery...
After this ludic time we start walking down the path. There are still 11 stops to go, scattered throughout the 6.5 km and 700 metres of height difference, very well signposted. All the stops have their own charm, but these are the ones we liked the most:
Stop number 4. Milking station
A practice area to learn how to milk -it’s water in this case- from these imitation udders. The fun part is that cows actually come close because this is their drinking trough and you can almost touch them, although they’re behind a fence.
Detail of the milking practices, with cows drinking in the background
Stop number 6. Eiger View
Here we’ll be able to clamber up a wooden structure accompanied by a bunch of friendly hens, up to the “summit” of Eiger.
Eiger wooden tower viewpoint
Stop number 7. Marmot Tower
We climb a wooden ladder and into a small shed facing a stream where you can see and hear marmots. A pair of binoculars aid us in the task of finding the traces of this active alpine animal.
Marmots lookout. You can actually see quite a few thanks to a pair of binoculars
Stop number 8. Picnic are & Treasure hunt
This is a large resting area more or less halfway. Everything is set up for barbecues, with fire areas, tables and free firewood. In the area at the back within the forest there’s a clue game to find treasure. We won’t disclose its contents. There are public toilets a bit further down as well.
After following a bunch of difficult clues we finally find the treasure
Stop number 9. Long Jump
Do you want to measure yourself against a hare, a fox or a squirrel in a long jump competition? Here you can go ahead and do it like a pro, with sand and a rake to prepare your fall.
Long jump station where we can compare ourselves with the animals in the area
Station number 11. Alphorn
Three Alphorns of different sizes await us so we can star in a somewhat strident concert in the meadow. Getting a sound out of these trumpets is not an easy task, but when you finally manage, one cannot help getting excited about it. The best stop on the entire hike, no doubt.
Practice area with the popular Alpine horns
At the end of the path in Holenstein there’s another game area with mini zip lines that take you into the forest and also a pipe zone and hiding places. We’re at the gondola cabin mid-station, from where you can either go back to Grindelwald or up to Männlichen again. This is also the beginning of the Apple Fritter trail, another theme path dedicated to all the dishes revolving around fried apple and the like, typical of the area. The path ends in a restaurant where you can enjoy them.
The Apple Fritter is quite long and our legs were starting to feel tired, so the fact that there were still 700 metres to get to the parking lot made us decide to take the direct path to Grindelwald, between wooden houses and matching meadows.
You should bear in mind that even though it’s a family hike with many distractions, it’s still a 12 km and almost 1,500 metre descent route. Kids under 10 might have to be towed at some point, and the not so young maybe too.
The effective walking time would be about two and a half hours, but the time can double due to the several entertaining stations.
To sum up, a pleasant surprise worth dedicating an entire day and easily combinable with other activities in the area. If it’s a family outing, everybody will enjoy it.
Note
For the children, the main character on this path will be Lieselotte the cow, whereas for the adults it will be the imposing Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains, in sight the entire route.
If we prepare an activity for the whole day, we can approach the north face of the Eiger to do the Eiger-Rotstock via ferrata that climbs 260 meters from a spur next to the mythical climbing routes.
