Trift Bridge
A 170-metre footbridge over a glacial lake, built because the retreating glacier cut off the route to a mountain hut.
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The Trift bridge exists because of glacier retreat. The Triftgletscher had filled the valley and provided the walking route to the Trift hut; as it pulled back it left a lake and a gorge in its place, and by the late 1990s the hut was effectively unreachable. A first suspension bridge went up in 2004, and a stronger replacement in 2009 - about a hundred and seventy metres long and a hundred metres above the water, on the Nepalese pattern with two cables and a plank deck, and it moves. Getting there means a small cable car originally built for the power company, then an hour and a half of climbing. The bridge is one of the clearest places to see what glacier loss has physically changed.
What you actually see
- A bridge made necessary by retreat - the glacier that used to be the path.
- 170 metres of span, 100 above the water - a plank deck on two cables.
- A works cable car - the power company's lift, now carrying walkers.
- A new proglacial lake - the water left where the ice was.
When to go
Late June to October. A day.
Honest expectations
The walk in is ninety minutes uphill on rough ground each way, and the cable car has limited capacity with queues in summer. The bridge sways and is not for anyone uneasy with heights. Everything closes in winter.
Nearby
The Susten pass road runs past Gadmen; Meiringen is west.
What to pack for Trift Bridge
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.
