A hiker with a sprained ankle, a closed path above Gimmelwald and a black-and-white cat that kept walking ahead and looking back: in August 2016 a Hungarian traveller posting as sc4s2cg shared the story on Reddit, and within days “the Gimmelwald cat” was in newspapers from Britain to Brazil.
The hiker and the Gimmelwald cat
According to his Reddit post and the reports that followed, the walk took place in the Bernese Oberland. The road back to the village was closed, going back the way he had come meant a long trudge through snow, and his ankle was already sprained, which slowed him down.
He stopped to rest and eat, and a black-and-white cat appeared. In his words, it “found me while I was resting from a hike” and “kept looking at me to follow”. The cat trotted ahead, waited for him to catch up and led him to the path down towards the village, where it wandered off. He filmed part of the walk and chatted to his companion; when they parted, he told it, “Till we see each other again.”
Several Redditors said they had met the same cat in Gimmelwald, and commenters linked it to The Mountain Hostel. Mental Floss, the Independent and the Telegraph all covered the story, and some readers suggested the region should hire the cat as a tourism ambassador.
The video and the hiker’s own view
The hiker’s video, uploaded by pontos78, shows the cat leading the way along the track. In the video description he added a note of his own: the experience was real and happy for him, but he felt some headlines had made it sound more dramatic than it was. Mental Floss also reported that the hike itself had happened in 2013, three years before the post went viral.
That modest version is charming enough: a friendly village cat, a tired walker and a shared stroll down a mountain path with the Alps behind them.
Where is Gimmelwald?
Gimmelwald is a tiny, car-free village at 1,367 metres in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, in the Bernese Oberland of the canton of Bern. Switzerland Tourism notes that it can only be reached by cable car, with links down to Stechelberg in the valley and up towards Mürren, from where the Schilthorn cable car continues to the summit.
The village is a favourite of walkers. The Sefinental valley is its main hiking area: a route of about 10 km leads to Chilchbalm, with options to continue to the Berghotel Obersteinberg or the Rotstockhütte. The Mürren–Gimmelwald via ferrata gains 300 metres over 2.2 km, crosses an 80-metre suspension bridge and offers views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. It usually opens from mid-June to the end of October.
Gimmelwald is easy to confuse with Grindelwald, the much larger resort on the other side of the Jungfrau region, so check the name when booking trains and cable cars.
Planning a safe Alpine walk
Plan your way down before you set off. Check local trail information, seasonal closures and the last cable car times, especially in spring and autumn when snow lingers on higher paths. A sprain or a closed route is a good reason to turn back early or ask at the nearest hostel or farm. The Alps are full of friendly people, and occasionally a friendly cat too.
For another feline outdoor story, meet Millie and her climbing companion Craig Armstrong. For a very different winter encounter, read the account behind the Swedish moose rescue video. And for another Bernese Oberland outing, try the Oeschinensee summer toboggan run near Kandersteg.
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