Hike to Schilthorn, Piz Gloria from Birg, Lauterbrunnen

Here are the summary hike details:

Start/ end location options:
- Birg
- Gimmelwald village
- Mürren village
Destination: Schilthorn summit (2.970m, 9.744 ft)
Ascent/descent:
- Birg – Schilthorn: 450m, 1.476ft. (with a stop at beautiful Grauseewli which we did and highly recommend)
- Gimmelwald – Schilthorn: 1.740m, 5.708ft.
- Mürren – Schilthorn: 1.340m, 4.400ft.
Distance:
- from Birg: 3.7 km
- from Gimmelwald: 15.1 km (via Mürren)
- from Mürren: 13 km
Duration:
- from Birg: 1-2 hours
- from Gimmelwald: 5-7 hours
- from Mürren: 5-6 hours
Physical requirements: Medium
Season: June – October

This is a great hike to Schilthorn, Piz Gloria from Birg, Lauterbrunnen. The above three peaks from the picture above are the following, from left to right:

Eiger – 3.970m
Mönch – 4.099m
Jungfrau – 4.158m

Introduction

We spent a weekend in the Lauterbrunnen region and we chose two amazing hikes for discovering it. In the first day we did a hike to Tanzbodeli summit, that you can see here. On the second day, we went to Schilthorn summit (Piz Gloria). To get there, we took the cable car from Gimmelwald to Müreen and from there another cable car to Birg, where we started the hike.

There is also the possibility to start directly from Gimmelwald to Schilthorn, or start from Mürren, which makes the hike longer and harder. We did not had time for that and also, were a bit tired from the previous day, so we decied to hike only the last part, which was only about 450m in altitude.

Once you get to Birg, you can try the Skywalk experience and the Thrill Walk, which is a path that leads down into the vertical walls of the imposing rock massif. There you walk a 200-metre cliff pathway under the Birg cable station. The view is pretty imperssive as you will see in the pictures below. However, not recommended if you have fear of heights.

Hike details

Once starting the hike from Birg towards Piz Gloria summit, you will see on the left Grauseewli, a beautiful lake. You can do a small detour to it, it’s totally worth it, since this adds only a bit of extra descent/ ascent towards the path to Schilthorn summit.

As you get closer to the Schilthorn summit, the views are getting better and better. Schilthorn, Piz Gloria summit is known for the sixth James Bond movie, that was filmed there in 1969, called On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Once on the top you can enjoy the James Bond thematic activities, a cinema studio, eat at the restaurant that serves 007 burger. The region provides spectacular views towards the 4.000 m peaks from the Jungfrau region, such as Eiger, Mönch or Jungfrau and the glaciers sorrounding them. You can also use the binoculars available, through them we managed to see a group of 3 people right on top of Mönch at that time, which was quite impressive.

Conclusion

There are definetely a lot of great hikes in the Lauterbrunnen region, so these are just two of the many that you can do. You will also see the full Strava route from Birg to Schilthorn at the end of the post.