Day the Alps Turned Orange: My Martian Trek Through the Snow
On February 6th, 2021, I set out for a winter hike and snowshoe trek through the stunning valley (and lake) of Lauenen toward Gstaad. I expected crisp alpine air, glistening white snow, and the familiar winter charm of the Swiss Alps. Instead, I stepped onto the surface of Mars.
If you ever want to experience total sensory confusion, try winter hiking while the sky turns a thick, glowing, apocalyptic orange. At one point, I stopped, looked at the horizon, and genuinely thought my camera sensor had catastrophically failed.
This is the story of how an ordinary 17-kilometer Swiss winter trek became a front-row seat to an extraordinary intercontinental weather event, crossing through a landscape steeped in deep Alpine history, hidden mountain giants, and local legend…
Overview & Route Summary
Distance: 16.8 kilometers (10.4 miles)
Duration: Roughly 3 hours, 30 minutes of moving time
Elevation: +270 meters of ascent | -400 meters of descent
Start: Lauenen/Lauenensee Loop (1,250m valley floor)
End: Gstaad Promenade (1,050m)
The journey is a beautiful, steady net descent. Because the route sits deep on the valley floor - rimmed by towering peaks like the Wandeliflue and Wasserngrat - the valley acted as a natural "cold trap." A heavy layer of freezing air was locked right above the snowpack, insulating me from the massive weather systems colliding in the upper atmosphere.
To be honest, I barely remember the groomed trail beneath my feet/snowshoes. My eyes were locked entirely on the sky…
Critical Lesson in Winter Trail Safety:
When I was out there, the weather wasn't dropping fresh blizzard snow, and there weren't any physical barricades or flashing warning signs on the trail. It felt completely safe. But in the mountains, real avalanches don't give you any warning!
What I didn't realize at the time was that the dense Saharan dust cloud hanging over me was acting as a massive thermal blanket. By trapping heat and absorbing solar radiation, that gritty orange dust rapidly destabilized the upper alpine snowpack. Just days after I finished this trek, massive avalanches broke loose and actively buried roads right in the Lauenen valley - I had seen minor signs of this on my way.
Swiss alpine trails rely on individual responsibility rather than physical fences. Before you attempt to duplicate this loop, you should check the live SLF Swiss Avalanche Bulletin and the Gstaad Live Trail Status Report. If the upper basin is flagged as unstable, stay down in the lower valley!
Step 1: Lauenensee: a Mystical "Place of Power"
The crown jewel of the trek was starting near Lauenensee (Lake Lauenen), located at 1,381 m. Even frozen and blanketed by winter frost, the raw beauty of this alpine lake is undeniable. Framed by dark fir trees, deep moorlands, and the crashing walls of the Geltenschuss waterfalls, the lake is fiercely protected as an official nature reserve designated back in the 1970s.
Local Swiss folklore actually regards the Lauenensee as a "Kraftort" (a place of high natural energy). It possesses such a mystical, romantic reputation that the Swiss rock band Span even wrote a folk-rock anthem dedicated entirely to its shores ("Louenesee"), sealing it into modern Swiss cultural history. Seeing this legendary lake cast in a silent, orange twilight was nothing short of spellbinding…
Hidden Behind the Haze: What I Should Have Seen
Had the sky been clear, the horizon would have been dominated by towering jagged teeth and massive fields of alpine ice. The dense Saharan dust completely masked a dramatic theater of peaks running parallel to the trail:
Spitzhorn (2,807m)
Location: Looming directly over Lauenensee.
Profile: A highly imposing, sharp, needle-like limestone peak that forms the dramatic western backdrop of the lake basin.
Wildhorn (3,248m)
Location: Towering at the head of the valley.
Profile: The massive, snow-and-ice-capped giant of the region. Its glaciers feed the majestic Geltenschuss waterfalls that cascade down into the basin.
Lauenenhorn (2,477m)
Location: Standing guard to the east of the valley.
Profile: A rugged, prominent peak flanking the Wildhorn group, fully visible as you walk the open trails between the lake and the village.
Wasserngrat (2,441m)
Location: Paralleling the trail to the east as you hike toward Gstaad.
Profile: A dramatic, sharply defined ridgeline famous for its steep ski terrain, flanking the right-hand side of the valley floor.
Wispile (1,939m)
Location: Framing the view to the west as you move down the valley floor.
Profile: Gstaad's sprawling, broad home mountain, showcasing wide alpine meadows and gentle, snow-covered ridges running alongside your left side.
Step 2: Passing Through 15th-Century History in Lauenen
Leaving the lake behind, the loop transitions into the historic mountain village of Lauenen (1,241m). Walking through the center of town is like stepping backward through time; the village is populated by impeccably preserved traditional wooden chalets dating all the way back to the 15th to 18th centuries.
The region has a fascinatingly stubborn history. In 1522, Lauenen fought for and won its independence as its own parish from the nearby municipality of Saanen, completing its iconic church in 1524.
When the powerful Canton of Bern legally mandated the Protestant Reformation in 1528, the isolated, traditional mountain dwellers of Lauenen refused, tightly clinging to their old Catholic faith for nearly three more decades before finally being forced to convert in 1556!
For centuries, these families survived strictly through cattle farming and high-alpine seasonal camps. That changed in the 1800s when neighboring Gstaad boomed into an internationally renowned luxury spa town, bringing wealthy world travelers who funded the intricately carved timber facades you still see today.
"Broken Camera" Illusion
As I pushed past Lauenen's historic chalets and into the wide-open valley corridor leading toward Gstaad, the visual environment became more surreal. When I tried to take a photo, the image looked like a heavily applied digital artifact or an over-processed vintage filter gone wrong. The sun was reduced to a weak, dimmed orb trying to pierce through a muddy, sepia diffuser panel.
The alpine slopes lost all their sharp definition, blending into a hazy, flat canvas of brown, white & rust. Because pure white snow normally reflects crisp light, having the entire landscape dyed in a flat orange twilight completely skewed my depth perception. It felt like snowshoeing inside a movie scene.
Science: A River of Sand in the Sky
However, it wasn't a digital glitch, and it wasn't a localized trick of the light. I was walking directly beneath a massive, transcontinental Saharan dust storm!
Official data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) later revealed that millions of tons of desert topsoil had been lifted 2-5 km into the atmosphere. The MeteoSwiss Aerological Station in Payerne tracked the plume using advanced LIDAR lasers, registering off-the-charts Aerosol Optical Depth.
Because the airborne dust was so thick, it worked like a heavy dimmer switch. It completely blocked out the blue light spectrum, leaving only deep reds and oranges - and completely countered the unseasonably warm temperatures the southern Foehn winds usually bring down to the valleys. This is what I thought it was while walking along…
Breathing Hard on Mars
While the visuals were historic, the physical reality of the trek quickly caught up with me. Pushing through a 3h+ winter hike means your lungs are working hard, and breathing on this day was unlike any other alpine trek:
Taste of the Desert: The air felt incredibly dry and heavy. With every deep breath, I could taste a fine, earthy, almost metallic grit.
Airway Irritation: particulate matter (PM10) levels across Switzerland were skyrocketing past safety thresholds. Moving along the trail, my throat felt scratchy and dry, making it noticeably harder to catch my breath.
Trapped in the Valley: While the wind was howling across the mountain peaks, the air down on the valley was relatively stagnant, trapping the settling silica and clay dust right in the corridor I was hiking through.
Step 3: Pushing into Gstaad - Where Old Alpine World Meets High-End Opulence
Finishing a gritty, Martian hike by walking directly into the glamorous winter ski resort of Gstaad provides complete cultural whiplash. Gstaad’s rise as a premier global winter sports destination traces back to the construction of the Montreux-Oberland Bernois (MOB) railway line in 1905, followed closely by the grand opening of the iconic luxury fortress, the Gstaad Palace, in 1913.
By the mid-20th century, it was the ultimate jet-set winter playground for Hollywood stars, royalty, and billionaires - including the likes of Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor and Roger Moore (its most famous resident).
Despite its ultra-elite reputation, Gstaad has a strictly enforced building code: only traditional wooden chalet architecture is permitted across the valley. This keeps the town feeling like an authentic fairy-tale village, even as you pass high-fashion boutiques like Prada and Hermès along its fully pedestrianized promenade.
The skiing infrastructure here is colossal, boasting 200 km of pristine slopes serviced by over 40 state-of-the-art lifts across distinct mountain sectors. The terrain spans from the family-friendly cruisers of the Eggli sector to the steep, dramatic ridges of Wasserngrat, and even year-round skiing up at Glacier 3000.
Trudging down the promenade in mud-splattered winter layers while the glamorous après-ski crowds sipped champagne on sun terraces under an eerie, copper-tinted sky was a memory I will never forget!
Fueling Up: Food Options at the Finish Line
After surviving a gritty, 17km frozen trek, walking straight into Gstaad means you have phenomenal food waiting to reward you:
Restaurant La Gare: Located right by the train station where your journey ends, this is a good spot for traditionalists.
Charly's Gstaad: Positioned right on the main promenade Strasse, this beloved local bakery and café is the perfect spot if you want to warm up instantly without a heavy sit-down dinner.
How to Get There: Public Transport Access From Zweisimmen
Getting to/from this classic trek is quick and straightforward if you leverage Zweisimmen as your primary railway connection node:
Panoramic Train Link (Zweisimmen to Gstaad): Board the scenic, high-frequency MOB GoldenPass line train at Zweisimmen Bahnhof. The direct rail journey slices beautifully through the mountains and drops you off in Gstaad station in just 30 mins.
Trailhead Bus (Gstaad to Lauenen/Lauenensee): Step off the train at Gstaad and walk immediately out to the station plaza. Catch the PostBus Route 181 (Lauenensee Line).
Winter Travel: During the winter season, the bus line unloads directly in the heart of Lauenen village. From here, you click into your snowshoes or winter boots to trek the remaining 4km scenic approach up to the lake basin.
Summer Travel: From mid-May to late October, the route extends directly down to the Lauenensee parking lot, setting you down right next to the shore.The Return: When your hike finishes along the pedestrian promenade in Gstaad, simply walk back to Gstaad Bahnhof and hop onto the return MOB GoldenPass train back to Zweisimmen.
A Final Look Back
By the time I finally trudged back into Gstaad, my clothes were coated in a fine layer of African dust, and the pristine winter snowpack had been completely transformed into a gritty, sticky rust layer that would accelerate the mountain melt for weeks to come.
At the time, the trek was eerie, dry, and physically uncomfortable. But looking back at the GPS tracks and those distorted, otherworldly photos, I realize how incredible it was to be out there. It wasn't just a winter hike - it was a literal expedition through centuries of Alpine heritage and luxury sports history, colliding directly with a global climate system.
As noted, this winter hike was carried out by the author on the 6th of February 2021. See my other articles for hikes in this beautiful area. Contact me by email for photos or to ask questions.
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