How to have clean clothes and washing kit at the end of a mountaineering trip without carrying it all with you or having to go back to your starting point.
Swiss Rail! You can forward baggage from any station to another, where it will wait for you to collect it.
It works like this. At a convenient station near your departure point (we used Meiringen), you book in your bag(s) for a station near your destination (for us, Lauterbrunnen). When you get down into the valley at the end of your trek, go to the station, present your baggage receipt, and collect your bags. It's as simple as that (as long as you don't lose your receipt on the way).
I don't know if it's a standard tariff or if the cost varies with distance. It does vary, though, depending on whether or not you have a ticket for the journey your bags will take. For us, it was SFr40 per bag without a ticket, SFr10 with a ticket. One ticket appeared to be enough to cover all three bags. So we bought one passenger ticket Meiringen - Lauterbrunnen, and three baggage transfers at 10 francs each. Total cost 47 francs, and worth every centime!
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Last updated 28 August 2002