Kleine Scheidegg, Switzerland: the Mountain Pass Beneath the Eiger

A pass with a watershed for a name

Kleine Scheidegg is a mountain pass at 2,061 m (6,762 ft), sitting between the Eiger and the Lauberhorn peaks in the Bernese Oberland. The name means minor watershed, and it is literal: the pass divides the two arms of the Lütschine river, which both converge again further down the valley at Zweilütschinen. A walking trail and the Wengernalp Railway both cross the pass, connecting Grindelwald with Lauterbrunnen via Wengen.

The full Wengernalpbahn line opened on 20 June 1893 and is the longest continuous rack railway in the world. No official page states an exact opening year for the Kleine Scheidegg railway station itself, so the honest answer to that question is simply not stated. The setting is what makes the pass remarkable.

You stand in a narrow saddle with the sheer wall of the Eiger on one side and the broad shoulder of the Lauberhorn on the other, and every train in the region funnels through this one gap.

The junction where two railways meet

The station at Kleine Scheidegg has two roles. It is an intermediate stop on the Wengernalpbahn, the rack railway that carries skiers, hikers and villagers between Lauterbrunnen, Wengen and Grindelwald. It is also the lower terminus of the Jungfrau Railway, opened in 1912, which climbs through tunnels inside the Eiger and the Mönch to the Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe at 3,454 m.

Every Jungfraujoch-bound passenger changes trains here. Trains from the Wengen side and trains from the Grindelwald side both arrive on the open-air platforms, and the red Jungfrau Railway coaches leave from the same station for the climb into the mountain. That interchange function is the practical heart of the pass: on a clear summer day a large share of everyone heading to the Jungfraujoch from either valley will be standing on the Kleine Scheidegg platforms at some point, usually with their head turned toward the Eiger North Face above them.

Winter: the centre of the Grindelwald-Wengen ski area

In winter Kleine Scheidegg is the centre of the Grindelwald-Wengen ski area. The geography makes it the natural hub. The Wengernalpbahn climbs to the pass from Wengen on one side and from Grindelwald on the other, and skiers from both villages meet here before spreading out across the slopes.

Chairlifts link the pass to the summit of the Lauberhorn, the mountain whose famous downhill race course runs down toward Wengen, and to Arvengarten on the Grindelwald approach. The Lauberhorn races in Wengen each January draw the crowds and fill the trains, and the pass itself becomes the crossroads of the whole ski region rather than a quiet viewpoint. If you are skiing here you will almost certainly pass through Kleine Scheidegg several times a day.

The Lauberhorn downhill is the race that fills the pass and the trains hardest: the 97th edition runs 15 to 17 January 2027, with the super-G on Friday, the downhill on Saturday and the slalom on Sunday, and tickets go on sale online from 2 November 2026. On race weekend, expect every train through Kleine Scheidegg to be full and every restaurant seat at the pass to be booked well ahead.

Summer: a hiking hub on the Alpine Pass Route

In summer the same geography serves hikers. Kleine Scheidegg is a hiking hub and one of the passes on the Alpine Pass Route, the long-distance trail running from Sargans to Montreux across the Swiss Alps. The chairlifts to the Lauberhorn summit and to Arvengarten open up easy walking in both directions.

A trail also runs from the pass over toward Männlichen, whose 2,342 m summit sits on a connected ridge reached by its own gondola from Wengen or Grindelwald. No official source publishes the walking time or distance between Kleine Scheidegg and Männlichen, so treat that as a route that exists rather than a figure to plan around. For more walking ideas across the valley, see our Lauterbrunnen hikes guide.

The summer season closes with a running event: the Jungfrau Marathon finishes at Kleine Scheidegg each year in early September, sending runners up more than 4,000 ft of cumulative climbing from Interlaken to the pass. Watching the finish line at 2,061 m is one of the few free spectacles in the region.

From Lauterbrunnen and Wengen

From Lauterbrunnen the Wengernalpbahn climbs through the car-free village of Wengen at 1,274 m before reaching Kleine Scheidegg. The full line opened on 20 June 1893 and remains the longest continuous rack railway in the world, so the ride itself is as much a reason to come as the pass at the top. No official page states a fixed point-to-point fare for the Lauterbrunnen-Kleine Scheidegg leg on its own, since most tickets are sold as part of a Jungfraujoch fare or a Wengen fare rather than to this specific station, so check the SBB app or the price calculator on jungfrau.ch for the current figure on your date.

From Grindelwald

From the other side, trains climb from Grindelwald Grund up through Alpiglen to Kleine Scheidegg on the same Wengernalpbahn network, meeting the Wengen-side trains at the pass. This is the route most visitors staying in Grindelwald use both to reach the pass on its own and to continue to the Jungfraujoch. As with the Wengen side, no single official fare for this leg alone is published separately from the destination tickets, so the price calculator remains the reliable source.