Father's day at Leukerbad, Switzerland

Molly Taylor
Jul 17, 2020
3 min read

Father’s day this year was extra special because I hadn’t seen my dad in over six months. I go to university in the UK, and my dad works in Switzerland, and so the last time I saw him was in January, when I visited him where he lives in the French speaking town of Leysin. That trip felt magical because he taught me to ski (by taught, I mean he showed me how to do it and I helplessly tried to copy. It’s safe to say I fell over more times than I can count), and we hiked using snow shoes. Amongst other things, we also visited the town of Zermatt, where the Matterhorn mountain is situated (you may recognise the infamous shape of the mountain from the wrapper of a Toblerone). This time, my sister and I hopped on a plane to Geneva and met my dad at the airport where we made the two hour journey back to Leysin.

Because it was father’s day today, we did the thing my dad loves the most: we went on a hike. The mountains and scenery in Switzerland are beyond breathtaking, and I feel so lucky to have a connection with this place. We drove for an hour and a half to the German speaking town of Leukerbad, where we embarked on a two-and-a-half hour hike on the Gemmi pass. Originally popular in Victorian times for tourists to visit and trek through, this pass looks impossible from the bottom. The sheer rock face looks daunting, and it is difficult to comprehend how a path has been carved up to the peak.

I grew up hiking with my family, so I am no stranger to heaving myself up a large hill, and I have done various expeditions in Nepal, Burma, Peru, etc: the longest being a 250km trek through Costa Rica for 21 days. However, this one day hike was actually quite difficult (partly because I hadn’t trekked properly since my Costa Rica expedition which was over a year ago, and partly because…well…the quarantine 15 is real). The uphill seemed to never end, but when we reached the top it felt like such an achievement when we looked down to the town of Leukerbad, to see how far we had come. At the top there was a lovely cafe that sold really tasty, but very typically Swiss food. This basically includes cheese, potato, more cheese and more potato. It really felt like we had earned our meal though. And in typical Swiss fashion, the meal also added up to be double what you would normally pay for that amount of food in the UK. But never mind! It’s the kind of place where you just have to accept that you will probably be spending more money than you would like to.

To get down the mountain, we used the cable car. It was really interesting to see the route that we climbed from bird’s eye view, and to see how steep the passage was. When we arrived back in Leukerbad, we treated ourselves to a trip to one of the thermal hot spring baths, which was such a relief to our aching muscles. It was such a nice end to a tiring but beautiful hike. Also, the baths were outdoors so we could see the beautiful surrounding scenery, as well as the mountain we had just conquered.

It felt like such a lovely way to spend Father’s Day; doing the thing my dad loves best. Hiking, eating good food and relaxing as well as spending time together. There is something really satisfying about climbing a mountain. It is tough, but to look down from the top of something you just climbed is a really great feeling. Here are some photos from the day:

Us at the beginning of the day. The rock face in front of us was our trekking challenge of the day. It's hard to see, but the passage winds up the side of the rock and through the gaps.

The path was steep and rocky, but was really enjoyable to climb. Here are some photos, the first being one of me and my dad. The second and third are of my sister and I climbing the steep rocky path. It was tough but also really fun to climb. It felt like a challenge we were conquering.