There are many, many beautiful places to go walking in Switzerland, but there can’t be many finer than the Saas valley.  It’s the lesser known neighbour of the famous Zermatt valley (turn left instead of right at Stalden) and it’s surrounded by no less than 18 four thousand metre (13,123 ft) peaks.

Judith and I had a week ‘spare’ and, as it’s only 1h 20 mins drive away (though only about 35km / 20 miles as the crow flies) from our home here in Evolène, we decided to go camping at the Mischabel Campsite in Saas Grund.  A huge bonus for anyone staying in the area for two or more nights, is that you get free lift and bus passes during your stay.  This saves an awful lot of leg work I can tell you!

So, for our first adventure, we took the Hohsaas lift up to over 3,100m / 10,000 ft, where we marvelled at the mountaineers descending from the Weissmies and wandered around the 1.1 km / 1,200 yard loop which has information boards describing the first ascents of all the major Peaks, before we walked down to the small hamlet of Triftalp.