A bit of a flip-flop to avoid some weather and take advantage of some weather. Back to Kandersteg over a wonderfully scenic pass, back to the hotel in Adelboden. Bonus: we can take lighter packs.
So yep, back to Kandersteg with just day packs. I'm slightly worried that the snow won't be melted out at the higher elevations on north-facing slopes, and it will be both just above freezing and intensely sunny... so we'll need to pack everything from wool leggings to T-shirt and shorts. That's it though, and we'll take a cable way assist up to 1700m. Not really much advantage or fun in hiking up the 700m from Kandersteg bus/train station.
It's probably the last sunny Sunday in summer for hiking, so at the cable station of course there's a line up to squeeze into the tiny cabin. Eight at a time, and we went up and up, past a Yosemite-like minor waterfall, over the edge of the valley, and up to the broad shelf where the hike started. It was sunny and clear, the higher up we went the more we can see to the large glacial lake to the east of Kandersteg, and the mountains behind, including the Jungfrau aways away.
The snow wasn't much--it kinda dissolved away as you stepped on it--but the thing we hadn't planned on was the mud. Just a light little slick coating to be slippery and annoying, and stick to the soles of your shoes, feh. Both of us were slipping around, but it was uphill so it wasn't too bad. Near the top there was a little section of trail with a hand cable and some snow that was starting to pack down for the winter, but it wasn't more than 100m so not too terrible: more of an ankle-twisting danger than a full on body tumbling down a 500m chute, head over heels.
Up top the views were just great, clear and sunny. Downhill was more tedious, slippery mud so we stuck to either the grass or the rocky path, if it existed. After a bit a gravel road appeared; we located a decent bus stop and hopped on with our transit pass from the hotel and were cozy ten minutes later.
I really enjoyed this hike. Not too long (12km) and not an extreme amount of much elevation change (700m up, 1400m down).
Two thumbs up.