Murren v Wengen

Hi. I have booked myself a week in Murren in March but a bit worried we might run out of ski runs after 3 or 4 days. My partner is advanced and I am 'improving' (hopefully!?) intermediate. I gather it's a bit of trek via train from Murren to Wengen so anyone any thoughts on advisability of staying half week in M and other half in Wengen or Grindelwald?? Which is better? Any ideas?

Hi Johnathan,

You are correct about moving between resorts in the Jungfrau. Transport is a mix of buses, trains, a bit of walking, lifts. It is complicated, and is confusing for first time visitors.

Wengen is roughly central in the Jungfrau, with Grindlewald to the West, and Murren to the East. To get from Wengen to Grindlewald involves some skiing, and the odd bus. To get to Murren you catch a train down the valley, I think to Lauterbrunnen, then train or bus up the next valley to Murren. To get to Grindlewald and back from Murren, you will need to get up very early!

From the top of the main lift in Murren, there is a really good black run down, and an alternative red that joins up with the black at mid stage.

There are other good reasons to be based in Wengen. The Eiger and Jungfrau dominate the skyline, even though there are other great mountains. There is access to one of the great downhill runs, the Lauberhorn, (ironically dwarfed by the main mountains). The Lauberhorn downhill has an amazing surprise hidden turn/drop off!
Also, being based in Wengen, there is access to ski on the Eiger! then, always worth taking half a day and going up on the train inside the Eiger!

Grindlewald is also worth a days skiing, a very pleasant place.

For this area, I would recommend going with a T/O. Crystal and Inghams have daily ski groups. They know the locations well, so it saves a lot of time finding your way about.

My drawing of the Eiger: -

Depending on the time of travel, it takes between 38 minutes and 53 minutes to travel between Murren and Wengen via Lauterbrunnen (the trains and cablecar are extremely well synchronised).

From Grindelwald to Mirren takes 57 minutes - and is a very pleasant and scenic journey.

Hi DaveMac, Thank you for the helpful info and advice....The journey times from Murren to Wengen don't sound too bad for a day's skiing. And we quite like the sound of the old-fashioned transport system as we don't, as we won't see 55 again, feel the need to cram in 6-7 hours skiing a day. The reason I picked out Murren is that we wanted something different, historic with interesting runs not ski-motorways. The idea of skiing on the Eiger, and 'doing' the Schilthorn and Lauberhorn runs is very appealing and would be a wonderful bonus. I like your drawing of the Eiger btw. I am aiming to ski (I only started last year!) in the shadow of the Matterhorn next----Zermatt?!

Jonathan, you are a man of my own heart, you want interesting, historic, different. The village I ski in in Austria ticks these boxes. Engineer Sepp Hochmuth built the first mountain lift in Tirol, and the second in the whole of Austria, in 1947. I was privileged to ski with him. The differential gear was taken from a German tank that was abandoned outside Wörgl rail station! That is history!

You won't see 55 again??? I won't see an age much older than that again. My plan is to ski until I am 90, and then review the situation!

I ski from first lift until the last lift, minimal stops during the day.

The Matterhorn. I just love that mountain. I am currently working on a painting I started about 10 years ago, of Zermatt and the Matterhorn. I started to paint it from my balcony, but my ski buddy kept appearing with a bottle of wine, and my painting was packed away.

Zermatt is a place I always say that every skier should visit at least once in their lifetime.

Zermatt was one of my first choices-but, rightly or wrongly, I thought I needed another season under my belt before tackling it.
Is your Austrian village Niederau? We were thinking of going to Alpbach before I unilaterally opted for the Jungfrau region.... I've no doubt you will ski until you are 90. My girlfriend's dad would still be skiing at 92 if his wife would allow it - so why not if you have skied all your life. If you only take it up, as I have, in your sixties your body has a lot of catching up to do! Love to see your Matterhorn painting one day!

Hi Jonathan, yes my village is Niederau, I instructed there for several seasons, and I go back 2/3 times every year. As you might imagine, I have many friends there.

Alpbachtal is a delightful valley, lift linked with the Wildschönau, Niederau is a village in the Wildschönau.

I would leave Zermatt for another couple of seasons. It is not particularly challenging in the main, (there are several nippy runs, but there are lots of choices) However, some of the runs down to the town are made difficult in certain snow conditions. You will enjoy the area more, when you are at a stronger stage.

If you want a good pointer towards choosing a ski area, look at the back inside pages of the Inghams ski brochure. Look for a high rating of beginner and intermediate.

Re the age thing, given that Frau Mac is a superbly neat skier, and she also tolerates me going off to Niederau on solo trips, it may be that I am pretty fortunate.

Oh, and Grindelwald to Murren travel, including wait time, would take a couple of hours out of the ski day. That was my logic for being based in the middle area.

If you want to ski down the Lauberhorn race route, try and go reasonably early as it has a tendency to get very cut up after midday and is less fun. In fact I just have a couple of runs down the lauberhorn back to Kleine Scheidegg and then go down it. It's really lovely when only a few people have been down it.