Lake Circuit - Gelmersee, Grimsel

Gelmersee sits at about 1850 m in a granite basin above Handegg, in the Grimsel area of the Bernese Oberland. It is a reservoir rather than a natural lake - the dam was finished in 1932 and the water is part of the Kraftwerke Oberhasli system - but the colour is the thing people come for, a hard turquoise held between slabs and scree. May 2023, hiking.

Gelmersee, 1850 m / lake circuit

T3 (demanding mountain hiking) / 4.7 km / 170 m ascent and descent / approx. 2 h / granite slabs and scree

The lake holds around 13 million cubic metres and is at most 48 m deep, with a surface of roughly 65 hectares. The ground around it is Grimsel granite: rounded, water-polished slabs, boulder fields, and short steep steps where the path has no real line on the ground. The same rock a few kilometres away, around Handegg and Gerstenegg, is what made the Grimsel a slab-climbing destination.

Logistics

Approach

If the funicular is not running, or you would rather walk, the path from Hotel Handeck to the Gelmerbahn top station is about 5 km and 500 m of ascent, roughly 2 h up and 1.5 h down, also graded T3 and slightly exposed in places. A common combination is to walk up in the morning and ride down, or ride up and walk down.