The quietest month in the Lauterbrunnen Valley

The autumn colours are out now, gold and brown and red the whole way down the valley sides. These are the best few weeks of the year for taking photographs, and there is almost nobody here to take them.

The clocks went back on 25 October and it is dark by half five. Halloween is done for another year, and that is the biggest pumpkin we have ever grown in the garden.

Then November does what November does here. The village goes into maintenance mode.

What closes

Most of the hotels shut for the month. Camping Jungfrau closes, restaurant included. The Männlichen cable cars are off from 26 October until 11 December, both the Wengen side and the Grindelwald side. The Allmendhubel funicular above Mürren is shut until 11 December too. The cows came down off the alps weeks ago and the cheese festivals are finished for the year.

What stays open

The Hörner Bar and the Steinbock are both open through November, which between them covers a dinner and a pint on a dark evening.

The Schilthorn runs all month. Its own maintenance window ended on 30 October, so Piz Gloria and the view are there for the asking, usually with nobody in the queue ahead of you.

The skiing has started

The Riggli chairlift above Mürren opened on Saturday 31 October, with the Engetal piste beneath it. It runs on Saturdays and Sundays only for the first three weekends, then daily from 21 November, and day passes are cheaper until then. I was up there at the weekend: the chairlift, low cloud, and the first proper snow of the season.

What makes it possible this early is snow farming. They heap the old snow up at the end of the season and cover it through the summer so there is a base to open on in November, before anything has properly fallen.

The Pända snowpark up there was built the same way, and the freestylers have been training on it since the end of September.

Getting up the mountain

This is the part to check before you book anything. Until 6 November the cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Mürren is closed, so the way up is the Stechelberg cable car at the end of the valley. From 9 November the Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg railway is down until 4 December, and the Eiger Express is off from 9 to 20 November.

With both shut, there is one way to the Jungfraujoch, and it is a rare one. From 9 to 20 November you take the train from Lauterbrunnen to Grindelwald, the cogwheel train from Grindelwald up to Kleine Scheidegg, and the Jungfrau Railway from there. It is slower than going up through Wengen, but the top stays open every day of the year.

So is it worth coming?

If what you want is the Lauterbrunnen you have seen in photographs, with the waterfalls at full power, then no. Come in June.

If what you want is the valley with nobody in it, this is the month nobody tells you about. The walk along the valley floor is free, flat and open all year. The Schilthorn is running. Rooms are at their cheapest. And for a few weeks the village is a village again, rather than somewhere twenty thousand people pass through in a day.

And on a dark evening, there is the fire pit in the garden. That is roughly the whole pitch for November.

Bryan
Lauterbrunnen Valley

More on the month: the November guide, Lauterbrunnen in winter and skiing from Lauterbrunnen.