Berne to the summit takes less than an hour-and-a-half. Flocks of paragliders What is there to do at the summit of Mount Niesen? You can take a stroll along the western edge to watch the paragliders launch themselves off. “This peak is one of the region’s finest airborne sports locations,” says Berne native Ruedi Thomi. The tandem pilot, who was one of the pioneers of paragliding in the 1980s, has come to make a jump in the direction of his house, eight kilometres away as the crow flies. Not far away, we see a young woman sitting on a bench, engrossed in the novel she is reading. Olivia Jundt has travelled here from Liestal (Basel-Landschaft) and her husband is in the middle of a jump. “I was thrilled at the idea of discovering the Swiss pyramid and I’m actually wondering why I even live in Basel,” she jokes. Along the narrow, tarmacked path that leads from the train’s arrival station to the peak, we meet a young Asian woman who is nervously clinging to the handrail. We are in the mountains, and there is quite a drop! Higher up, some Argentinians sip on their yerba mate as they take in the view. On this fine day in May, though, most tourists are from Switzerland. The Swiss make up 95 percent of yearly visitors. Stairway sneaks We descend on foot to the halfway station at Schwandegg, 700 metres lower down. The walk takes us close to the famous Stairway. There is the faint sound of metallic music in the air: the jingle of the funicular’s cables. A young man barrels towards us like a freight train. His name is Michaël Meyer and he works as a butcher in Thun. The runner is already on his third ascent of the day. Michaël has a record in his sights: climbing the Niesen 186 times between April and October, when the trails are accessible. What about the Stairway Race? Michaël volunteers as a steward for the competition, which takes place every June. But climbing 11,000 steps is not his cup of tea. He prefers trails. “The Stairway is not good for you,” he says, and mentions his previous job as a security guard, where his routine involved climbing hundreds of stairs every day. The young man pulls out his mobile phone to show us some photos of chamois. The mountain is also home to lynxes, eagles, bearded vultures, griffon vultures and black grouse, according to the Niesenbahn manager. There are no ibexes, however, in spite of a campaign to reintroduce the species to the Niesen mountains in 2006. The idea was to “boost the region’s appeal to tourists”. The mountain’s two-legged population includes people taking the Stairway illegally. Michaël saw several of them during his first 15 ascents of the Niesen that season, early in the morning. The persons in question were spotted on the Niesenbahn security cameras and intercepted at the summit, says the Berne native. The Niesen has always held a strong appeal for artists. Symbolist Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918), for example, immortalised the “perfect mountain” on canvas more than once. Photo: Keystone Switzerland is replete with striking mountain peaks. The Niesen, however, stands out in that the full mountain can be seen from far away, especially from Thun and Spiez. The Niesenbahn route, and the stairway, are marked in red. © Swisstopo Swiss Review / July 2025 / No.3
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