About Oltschibachfall and Wandelbachfall
Oltschibachfall and Wandelbachfall are two seemingly obscure and random waterfalls in the Haslital Valley that we couldn’t ignore when we first noticed them while riding the train between Brienzersee and Meiringen during our June 2010 trip.
There was something about their size and volume that compelled me to want to come back and see them properly, but that didn’t happen until 15 years later when we finally got the chance to do so while self-driving in Switzerland in June 2025.
And it wasn’t until I was planning for that trip did I finally have the resources (namely Gaia GPS topo map) to properly identify the names of these waterfalls.
In any case, from looking at the topo map and the contour lines, it appeared that Oltschibachfall was where the Oltschibach Stream fell around 260m with quite a bit of volume.
Regarding Wandelbachfall, this one had multiple tiers to it where the Wandelbach Stream probably had a cumulative drop of about 385m over at least 3 distinct tiers.
Of its drops, it appeared that the lowermost of the tiers had the tallest drop at possibly around 200m just based on the contour lines seen in the Swiss Topo map (again via Gaia GPS).
Unlike the Oltschibachfall, which seemed to have pretty impressive flow, Wandelbachfall had a bit of a thinner flow, which was probably exacerbated by its greater height figure.
Experiencing Oltschibachfall
In order to see the Oltschibachfall properly (as opposed to a fleeting glance out the window of a passing train), we saw it from the Unterbachstrasse, where there was a clearing right before the runway of the Meiringen Air Base (see directions below).
Apparently it’s possible to cross the runway if there’s no plane approaching or taking off, and drive down to the village of Unterbach.
That’s where there’s a parking area with a walk along an unpaved road to get an even closer look at the Oltschibachfall (though this was something we didn’t do during our June 2025 visit).
This excursion could take as little as a few minutes (if only seeing it from the road for some context), but could be around 30-45 minutes if doing the roughly 800m walk (or 1.6km round-trip) to get to its plunge pool.
Experiencing Wandelbachfall
Believe it or not, when we were heading west through Haslital Valley after visiting the nearby Reichenbach Falls, we actually mistook this waterfall for Oltschibachfall.
In any case, we managed to get a good look at this waterfall from the next access road east of Unterbachstrasse (i.e. the one we saw Oltschibachfall from).
There were a couple of pullouts to get a view of the waterfall with the road leading to it (making for an interesting photo), and we took advantage of those when we viewed it properly during our June 2025 visit.
However, it appeared from the maps that you could drive all the way to Balmstrasse then walk a road leading towards the base of the Wandelbachfall.
We didn’t do that for this waterfall so I can’t say anything about it (assuming the path does exist).
Another Surprise Waterfall in the Haslital Valley?
Back during our June 2010 visit to Switzerland (all via public transportation), we just happened to notice a very impressive waterfall while on one of the boats traversing Lake Brienz (Brienzersee).
It was a waterfall that appeared to face in a more northwesterly direction, and we were able to cleanly see it apparently only while on the lake.
However, it wasn’t clear to me if this waterfall was legitimately its own entity because I didn’t recall seeing it when we came back to Switzerland in June 2025 on a self-driving trip.
I’m guessing it is its own waterfall even though the topo maps don’t seem to indicate there being another waterfall closer to Brienz from the north-facing cliffs there.
Authorities
Oitschibachfall and Wandelbachfall reside between the towns of Brienz and Meiringen, both of which sit within the Interlaken-Oberhasli District of the Bern Canton, Switzerland. It may be administered by the Schattenhalb municipality. So for information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you may try visiting their tourism office website.
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