Handegg Falls

After passing the Handegg I hydro-electric station, the Grimsel Road takes two sharp bends and continues up through a further stretch of forest to the Handegg (Handeck) saddle, 150 m/492ft higher up. From a wider length of road there is a view of the Handegg falls, in which the gray-green waters of the Aare mingle with the silvery Aerlenbach, emerging below the road, and plunge into the chasm 46 m/151ft below. Soon after this, off the road to the right, is the Hotel Handeck (1,404 m/4,607ft). From here a cableway (for industrial use only) ascends the east side of the valley to the Gelmersee (1,849 m/6,067ft), an artificial lake formed by a dam 35 m/115ft high. The Grimsel road follows the valley bottom, strewn with boulders, and then winds its way, with sharp bends, up the granite mountainside, worn smooth by the glaciers, to the Kunzentännlen Alp (1,616 m/5,302ft), where the last firs disappear, giving place to dwarf pines and rhododendrons. To the right, below, is the Handegg I hydro-electric station with its lake; to the left, higher up, the Gerstin glacier; straight ahead the dam of the Räterichsboden reservoir, up to which the road now winds its way (one hairpin bend).