In 1846 Gabriel Loppé took his first steps on a glacier up behind the Wetterhorn with an English climber, Beresford Walker. With this maiden traverse of the Strahlegg Glacier he marked the beginning of a climbing career that would endure for over half a century. Although it never rivalled Chamonix, Grindelwald would remain close to Loppé’s heart for the rest of his life. From the village he made many climbing excursions and, in particular, some memorable winter walking trips with his closest friend, another Englishman, Leslie Stephen. Together in 1877 and 1879 they went on foot to Rosenlaui, Meiringen and deeper into the Haslital. Their diaries reveal some extraordinary low temperatures as well as some impromptu overnight stays with local farmers in remote hamlets! (see fig. 10)

Loppé painted this majestic Wetterhorn view at sunset in the winter of 1885. The frozen Schwarze Lütschine river reflects the dying sunlight off the Wetterhorn’s west face and behind the bare stands of alder and birch trees Grindelwald’s chalets and farm buildings spread out and up the hill to the left. This painting had remained with Gabriel Loppé’s descendants until this year having been exhibited in the first exhibition devoted to the painter in modern times; the 2005 and 2006 Gabriel Loppé, Voyages en Montagne shown at Annecy, Chambéry and Gap. With great finesse and success Loppé, the master painter of the Alps, converts the cold sky and wintry silence into paint.

Today this landscape has changed little since Loppé’s time apart from the retreat of the Grindelwald glacier on the Wetterhorn’s flanks. The peak itself (3,690m) dominates the end of the valley and has three summits. Whether seen from the east at Meiringen or west from below Grindelwald, near Grund in this instance, it was by far the most frequently depicted mountain for both Alpine artists and touring painters alike during the 1800s as its valleys were relatively accessible throughout the year. Further down the valley at Zweilütschen the Schwarze and Weisse Lütschine merge to become the Lütschine river which flows on to the Brienzer See at Interlaken.

- William Mitchell, Peaks & Glaciers 2015