Two factors influenced us to visit Grindelwald in the Winter of 2005.  One was the beautiful summer hiking experience (from Murren).  Another was that our new friend, Ruth, from the Mexican cooking class, is from Grindelwald and was going to show us around.

Grindelwald and Murren are nearby.  Secluded Murren is a better (& quiter) base for summer hiking, whereas Grindelwald is the ideal base for winter sports.  Grindelwald the center of three ski areas accessible from town by a combinations of Gondola, chairs, buses, and even a cog railway (which takes you to the base of the Eiger).   One lift ticket covers all areas.  

Besides skiing, Grindelwald is also famous for alpine hiking and  tobogganing (as we only discovered after getting there).  The ski areas maintain separate trails especially for tobogganing  and hiking.  We saw many people (kids and adults) riding the gondola with snow shoes or toboggans rather than skies.  

Tobogganing (***) is a serious sport here.  The Tobogganing runs are the longest in the world -  one is over 15 km long.   Steering and speed control is done by foot and hand actions.  It takes 10 minutes to learn and about 1/2 hour to get the method down.  Read more.

We stayed at Hotel Sonnenberg (**,$), Grindelwald.  It's in a very central and convenient location, only 3 blocks from the RR station but also quite, and has great balcony views of the town and the Eiger.  They serve a very decent breakfast (included in the room charge).  The only slight downside is the uphill climb to the hotel.  You need to haul your luggage up - even when the path is icy.  Don't let this deter you.  This inconvenience is the price for a great view location at a very modest price.

The Grindelwald-Zurich train ride offers fantastic views around Interlaken lake.  Just look at the photo on the right.

Room with a view at Hotel Sonnenberg.  The Eiger as seen from the deck of our room at Hotel Sonnenberg.

Here are some pics from the ski slope on First.  First is one of the three distinct ski areas in the Grindelwald area.  First has the best sun exposure.

Dusk on the First ski slopes

View along a toboggan run.  Interlaken lake from the Grindelwald-Zurich train