The Gemmipass Trail begins in Kandersteg and ends in Leukerbad with an estimated walking time of almost 7 hours. One of my favorite very long but not difficult hikes with the exception of the steep descent...View image...from the top of the Gemmi pass to Leukerbad. Steepness with sheer drop-offs, correctly known as "exposure", gives me "flop sweats." Of course, I didn't know anything about the steep descent until it was there before my paralyzed-with-fright body. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. My savior was the steel cables placed by the Swiss along the descent. Switzerland manicures their trails and whenever a hiker comes to a tricky spot in the Alps, you'll find chains or cables riveted into the mountainside to hang on to for dear life. I've experienced hand spasms from clutching these life-savers so tightly.

The Gemmipass is a very old pass which is said to have been used as early as the Bronze Age and was found mentioned in a chronicle dated 1252. It was considered...frightening and dangerous and was only used by bearers, partly via ladders...(I share their fear)...and I love the 1677 transport regulations for crossing the Gemmi...When a gentleman or a lady, a male or femaile person wants to go to Leukerbad across the Gemmi and is heavier than average, he or she shall take twelve men; if he or she is medium heavy, ten men or eight, and if light, six of four men. Continuing on, one guide in 1804 wrote...Once the terrible path is reached, the traveller faces backwards and is blindfolded, before the bearers continue on their way singing Hysterical!