Berner Oberland

Part of the Central Alps, the Bernese Oberland of southwest Switzerland, is at 70 miles the longest continuous major range in the Alps. The Oberland lies north of the Pennine Alps, separated from them by the upper Rhine valley. The western portion of the range includes a wide knot of great peaks, including eight peaks over 4,000 meters, and over 50 peaks that top 3,000 meters. The range presents a huge rock wall to the north, a breathtaking southern backdrop to the town of Bern and the popular Lake of Thun. The Oberland is as famous for its history as its scenery. Many of its peaks were among the earliest ever climbed, and the Oberland in the nineteenth century attracted more tourist-seeking enterprise than any other part of the Alps, largely because of its accessibility from Bern. The area offers a wealth of good climbs, in particular the finest concentration of major ice-routes in the Alps, of varying levels of difficulty. Even the easier routes, however, require some alpine experience, as many of the routes traverse long and complex glacial terrain.