Jungfrau

4,158 m

German for 'the maiden' or 'the virgin'. Several etymologies coexist: the standard reading is that the high pastures below the peak (the Wengernalp) were owned by the Augustinian convent at Interlaken and worked by its nuns, so the mountain became 'the nuns' mountain' and eventually 'the maiden'; a competing reading sees in the name a reference to the peak's untouched, unclimbable appearance from below.

Card

Coordinates46.5367° N · 7.9622° E

UIAA rank№ 43 / 82

CountriesSwitzerland

Normal grade

PD · peu difficile

First ascent1811 · Johann Rudolf & Hieronymus Meyer with chamois hunters Alois Volker & Joseph Bortis

Typical seasonJune to October

Photo of Jungfrau — Photo: 4000er · Public domain

One of the iconic trio of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau dominating the northern Bernese Oberland. The summit sits on the Bern–Valais border above the Jungfraujoch railway terminus.

History

The 'Maiden' was the first major Bernese summit to be climbed: on 3 August 1811, by the Aarau merchant brothers Meyer with two Valais chamois hunters they had recruited at Lötschental, approaching not from the famous north face above Interlaken but from the south, up the Aletsch firn. The ascent caused a sensation in early-19th-century scientific circles. Today the Jungfrau is more famous for the Jungfraubahn, the rack railway opened in 1912 that bores 7 km through the Eiger and Mönch to emerge at the Jungfraujoch — the highest railway station in Europe — making the summit a comparatively short day's climb.

Location & routes

SE flank via Rottalsattel (Normal route)

Major routes

SE flank via Rottalsattel (Normal route)

PD+Topo ↗

Vertical / summit day700 m gain · 6h

From the Jungfraujoch (3454 m, reached by train) a short walk leads to the Mönchsjochhütte. Summit day descends slightly to the Jungfraufirn, crosses to the Rottalsattel, and climbs the steep, often icy SE flank (40–45°) and a corniced summit ridge.

Sections

Jungfraujoch (3454 m)→Mönchsjochhütte (3658 m)+204 m1h

Mönchsjochhütte→Rottalsattel (3885 m)+227 m3h

Rottalsattel→Summit (4158 m)+273 m3h

Nearby huts

MönchsjochhütteSAC · mid-February to mid-October3,657 m RottalhütteSAC · late June to mid-September2,755 m

← Breithorn — Central summit · 4,159 m · № 42

43 / 82

Bishorn · 4,153 m · № 44 →

Route lines are approximate — drawn from guidebook waypoints, not GPS tracks. Don't navigate by them.

Huts on this route

Mönchsjochhütte3,657 m

Editor's note

Figures approximated from SAC guidebook. The summit ridge is sometimes heavily corniced; conditions on the SE flank dictate whether the route is in shape.