Bachalpsee on First - Alpine Reflections

The Scene:

 

Bachalpsee or Bachse is a lake with an area of about 20 acres close to the First (which can be reached with a cable car) above Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland. The lake, located at an elevation of 2,265 m (7,431 ft), is split by a natural dam, the smaller part of the lake being 6 m (20 ft) lower.

 

Prominently reflected in it is the Schreckhorn, a peak in the Bernese Alps. At 4,078 m, it is the highest peak located entirely in the canton of Berne. The Schreckhorn is the northernmost Alpine four-thousander.

 

The Schreckhorn is located 10 km south-east of Grindelwald between the Upper and Lower Grindelwald Glacier. The region is made up of uninhabited glacial valleys, the great Aar Glaciers and the Fiescher Glacier. The summit of the Lauteraarhorn is located very close and reaches almost the same altitude. The highest peak of the Bernese Alps, the Finsteraarhorn lies 10 km to the south.

The Story:

 

I desperately wanted to get this shot the moment I saw a similar photograph in the brochures that I got during my last visit to Jungfrau. After a bit of research and mapping out an action plan, I finally set out on a quest to get this shot. My bad knee didn’t cooperate during the week leading to this trip and I was a little apprehensive on if I would make it. Eventually, it all came through and I set off to Grindelwald.

 

We reached Grindelwald around 11 AM. After a little stroll in the main streets around the Banhof and lunch, we took a cable car and reached First. At 2,166 m, First (pronounced Fierst the locals) is still a dwarf when compared to its peers. But then, it was a little too much for my untrained legs to hike about 4 hours to here from Grindelwald. So I took the easy route instead.

 

Once at First, the trail to Bachalpsee was sign posted. Although it is advertised as 50 min, I took about 1.5 hours to make it to the lake. It was an absolute bliss once we were there. The lower lake instantly caught my eye and I spent half an hour fighting the winds to get a clear reflection. I gave up after that and headed to a calm area in the upper lake – this yielded some pretty decent shots.

 

Although I got what I wanted by now, my heart was aching for more and so I walked around the lake for some more angles. A few minutes later, I landed on another area shielded by a little hill giving crystal clear reflections of the peak. I wasted no time in setting shop and capturing mother nature’s work of art!

 

The Shot:

Another shot courtesy of the Canon 10-22 | @10 mm | f/11 | 1/40 sec | ISO 100 | Nikon thin Circular Polariser