Grimsel or Grimselpas is a mountain pass in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland. It links Innertkirchen in the administrative district of Interlaken-Oberhasli (canton of Bern) with Gletsch (canton of Valais).
Starting at Meiringen (600 m), the road rises to the Grimsel mountain shelter, located on the shore of a small lake ,at an altitude of 1,874 m, which used to be the same charitable institution as the shelters of St. Gotthard and St. Bernard, and now the hotel that serves as the starting point point for tourists on excursions to the Bernese and Urian Alps.
From the shelter the road divides into two branches: one leads to the left, past the gloomy “Dead Lake” (Totensee), to the top of Gausek (2182 m) and then descends to the Rhone Glacier, the other through Grimsel to the Rhone valley. Both branches are then connected to the Furka road.
The road, opened in 1894, is 33 kilometers long with a 10% gradient. At the top of the pass there are three hotels and a smaller lake, the Totesee.
Access : Coordinates: 46.562, 8.339 /
Highlights :
- In 1799, the Grimsel Pass was the theater of battles between the French and the Austrians.
- An underground laboratory, 450 meters deep below the peak of Juchlistock, was built in 1983, Research is carried out there on the storage of radioactive waste in deep geological layers.
- Cycling : The Grimsel Pass is sometimes climbed during cycle races. For example, it has appeared ten times on the program of the Tour de Suisse.
- Reservoirs : On the north side are three reservoirs connected by tunnels. These are the Räterichsbodensee, the Grimselsee and the Oberaarsee in ascending order of their altitude. The Räterichsbodensee and the Grimselsee are located directly on the pass road. Also in the northern Grimsel area is the Gelmersee reservoir. The reservoirs are operated by the Oberhasli power plants. The Totesee is at the top of the pass.
- In September 2007, the large-format painting of the mermaid Mélisande by the artist Pierre Mettraux was completed on the valley side of the Räterichsbodensee dam.
- The Grimselpassstrasse is part of the Aare route, Switzerland’s national cycle route 8. The pass road rises briefly but steeply on the south side, while on the north side it rises by a maximum of 9% and has a length of 26 km.
Go next : From there you can reach the Gelmersee with the steepest funicular in the world, the Gelmerbahn. / The Furka Pass.
