Berglauf Rinderberg Zweisimmen: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The gun goes at ten o'clock in the start area at the Gwatt school grounds, right next to Zweisimmen station at a good 940 metres. First comes a flat valley loop: over the Lischeren bridge, north past the campsites to the confluence of the Grosse and the Kleine Simme, then back past the Musikhaus to the school. These opening four kilometres are not merely level, they fall slightly, and at around 920 metres they contain the lowest point of the whole race.

Then the real race begins. At the Landi the course crosses the cantonal road, takes the Eckhausgasse and the Altenriedstrasse onto the Rinderbergstrasse, and from there the climbing never stops. From kilometre 3.7 the route gains a good 1,090 metres over 8.6 kilometres, close to thirteen percent on average, with ramps beyond thirty. More than half the distance sits in the steep uphill band, only thirteen percent is flat, and the entire course descends less than fifty metres. The first feed station is at the Eggweide mid station at 1,466 metres, the second at the Alphütte Rinderberg at 1,715 metres. The closing section is a mountain hiking path along the ridge and, at around twenty percent, the steepest part of the day.

Up there October is already the off season: the alpine pastures are grazed off, the cows are down in the valley, and the view runs across the Bernese, Vaud and Fribourg Alps. The finish is the Adler viewing platform above the Berghaus, with the last ten metres marked. Everyone then runs back down to the top station, where the memento, the food and the kit bag carried up by the organiser are waiting; the gondola ride down is included in the entry. Warm dry clothes are mandatory and poles are not permitted under mountain-running rules. This is the seventh edition, run by the tourism and sport office of the municipality of Zweisimmen, and together with the Iffiglauf and the Berglauf Arnensee it forms the SiSa mountain-running cup.

Pacing Strategy

The valley loop is this race's first and biggest trap. Four flat, slightly falling kilometres in a mass start invite a pace that means nothing for the result and everything for the nine kilometres that follow. Run them as a controlled warm-up with rhythm, not as a race. Twenty seconds gained here are gone again within minutes on the mountain.

The race is decided on the five kilometres from the Rinderbergstrasse up to the Eggweide mid station. That is the longest continuous stretch of even gradient, and it deserves an effort you can hold for a good hour rather than the pace of the first ramp. Treat the Eggweide at 1,466 metres as your checkpoint: arriving there still able to lift is the sign you got it right. Since the course barely descends at all, there is no section on which a pacing mistake can be repaired.

The second trap is the closing climb. Past the Alphütte at kilometre eleven the ridge path still waits, around twenty percent and the steepest passage of the day, precisely where the finish comes into view. Poles are banned, so the only lever is a switch to short, high-cadence steps and strong hiking with hands on the thighs as soon as running costs more than it returns. Expect distinctly colder air and wind up there as well: more than eleven hundred metres of height separate start and finish, and in October you feel that over the last kilometres.

Training plan for Berglauf Rinderberg Zweisimmen: 12-week build

A committed age-group runner is out on this course for roughly ninety minutes to a little over two hours. The demand is unusually one-sided: about twenty minutes of flat running, then more than an hour of unbroken climbing without a single meaningful descent. That is a long, steady aerobic effort just under threshold, not a variable race of attacks and recoveries. Building the preparation around intervals with jog recoveries misses what the course actually asks for.

Two phases decide the race. The first is the five kilometres of even gradient up to the mid station, the second the ridge over the closing kilometre and a half at around twenty percent. The first calls for long uphill tempo runs: forty to seventy minutes of continuous climbing in the upper aerobic range, ideally on a road at eight to twelve percent, because that is exactly the pitch of the Rinderbergstrasse. The second calls for short, very steep repetitions of two to four minutes at fifteen to twenty-five percent, deliberately run at the end of a long session.

The most important supporting emphasis is strength for steep ground. Because poles are not allowed at the Berglauf Rinderberg, your own trunk, hip and calf strength decides how efficiently fast hiking with hands on the thighs works. Rehearse the switch between running and hiking on purpose rather than trying it for the first time in the race, and train it until it happens on the gradient without losing pace.

Among the conditions, surface and altitude band matter. After the asphalt in the valley the course runs on an alp road and finally on a narrow mountain path, so sessions on gravel and trail belong in the build-up, as do shoes with real tread rather than pure road soles. Start and finish are separated by more than eleven hundred metres of height and, in October, often by several degrees: you run warm low down, while cold and frequently windy air waits at 2,078 metres, and the organiser requires warm dry clothes for good reason. A few training runs high enough to meet thinner, colder air at the end of an effort are the most specific preparation for the closing climb.