Three Bisses walk from Mâche, Val d’Hérens, Switzerland

Posted on by

After our 4 day, Saas valley trek, which finished with a steep descent into Saas Grund, Pete’s knees and body were just about shot. But it’s amazing what a few beers, a fabulous meal and a good night’s sleep can do. 😊 So, for Pete’s last day, we decided to do one of the many bisse walks in the Valais.

After a quick search of the Bisse website, I discovered a circular walk quite nearby, which I’ve never done before. It actually took in three bisses and started in the village of Mâche. Two of them were dry, but the third did have quite a bit of water running along the channel. Along the route also, we discovered several wooden carvings and a number of items which must have been left by some school children. Perhaps the most surprising was a beautiful glass pendant which (as this is Switzerland) I would imagine has been there and will remain there for some time. There are quite a few good cycling routes around that area too, so I may have to get on my bike and check to see if it’s still there in a few weeks time.

Footnote (for anyone new to this site and, as the Bisse website explains):
“Bisses are historic irrigation channels of the Valais. A bisse is an open ditch delivering priceless water from mountain streams – often by daring routes – to arid pastures and fields, vineyards and orchards. Many bisses are still in use today and so are carefully maintained. Numerous trails accompany these historic watercourses, inviting visitors to varied hikes on historic trails.”

Saas Valley Walk, Day 4 of 4, Britannia hut to Saas Grund, Valais, Switzerland

Posted on by

Another blue sky day and another glacier to cross… though this time just a short 100 yards or so, before we commenced the long descent into Saas Grund. Our plan was to head for Plattjen, then traverse around the valley to Saas Fee but, at a fork in the path, a signpost indicated for us to go right, when we should have gone left and we had dropped around 300m (or 1,000ft) of height before we realised our mistake. Neither of us wanted to climb back up, so we continued along the very steep path down to Saas Almagell (much to the annoyance of Pete’s knees) before walking along the riverside path to Saas Grund.

Naturally we enjoyed a celebratory beer, before Jude arrived to pick us up and drive home. 🍻😊

Saas Valley Walk, Day 3 of 4, (part 2) Glacier crossing from Schwarzbergchopf to the Britannia hut, Valais, Switzerland

Posted on by

Continuing where we left off yesterday, Pete and I had just the small matter of two glaciers to cross to get to the hut, where we would spend the night.

Now, I should emphasise at this point, that glaciers can be dangerous, even fatal, so walking on them is not to be undertaken lightly. There are generally two types – wet and dry. Wet ones are covered with snow and this can hide crevasses and the like. So you should NEVER cross one of these without a qualified guide and, normally, be roped up. Dry ones however, which are not covered in snow and the dangers are generally visible, can be crossed in some cases without a guide and only if marked and considered safe to do so.

Anyhow, anticipating that most of you may never have the opportunity to do this, or maybe never want to, even if you had, I have taken a couple of videos to give you a sense of what it’s like. (Links are below the usual gallery).

You can see from the photos that Pete and I were only wearing trainers and you may expect glaciers to be quite slippery (being mainly ice of course) and often crampons are needed. However, you will see from picture 23 that these particular glaciers had a sort of icy crust on the top, which made it quite easy to get some traction.

The Britannia hut is perched (as you can see from many of the pics) at 3,028m (9,934ft) and after a refreshing beer, we decided to hike up the nearby peak, called the Klein Allalin, which took us over the 10,000ft mark (at 3,070m).

In terms of the accommodation, we shared a room, normally for 8, with two others, where they had the top bunks and we had the lower bunks. (See pic 37).

For info. (since many of you may be wondering what the situation is with these rather remote mountain huts…) Included in the ‘demi-pension’ price is a 3 course evening meal (we had a table to ourselves and wine and canned beer was also available to buy at this one) and breakfast (which, at the Brtiannia, consisted of cereals, ham, cheese, bread and preserves as well as tea and/or coffee). They are not quite ‘huts’, like you might expect, but then I wouldn’t call them hotels either. Some huts are better, but at the Britannia, there’s very little running water available (certainly not drinkable) and hence there are chemical toilets and no shower facilities. But then, this is offset by the fabulous views! 😊

I hope you enjoy these pictures and videos as much as Pete and I did taking them.

Saas Valley Walk, Day 3 of 4, (part 1) Almagelleralp Berghotel to the Schwarzbergchopf, Valais, Switzerland

Posted on by

Pete and I have been doing multi-day events together for over 25 years – ever since we ‘ran’ Wainwright’s English Coast to Coast, in a relay format, with our good friends, Colin and Liam, in 1995. But I don’t think we’ve ever had a day as spectacular as this one. So I hope you will forgive me for splitting it into two parts. Even by my standards I took a lot of photos (almost 600) and, together with Pete’s, I couldn’t possibly pare them down to just one post.

By contrast to the mists of Day 2, we awoke to perfectly blue skies. (See pic 1). So the descent to Saas Almagell was cool, but very pleasant. And, for the first time ever, we decided to use public transport to get from there to the Mattmark reservoir. This saved our aging legs around 6 km (3.5 miles) of walking and 500m (1,650ft) of ascent, on what was already going to be a big day.

The Mattmark reservoir is one of many in the Valais, generating renewable energy for the canton – hence it’s marketing strapline of “Source d’Énergie”, which equally applies to the feeling you get when you visit this wonderful part of the world.

Tomorrow, I will bring you not just photos of Pete and I crossing the Allalin and Hohlaub glaciers, but a video or 2 as well. So stay tuned… 😊

Saas Valley Walk, Day 2 of 4, Weissmies hut to the Almagelleralp Berghotel, Valais, Switzerland

Posted on by

We awoke to find that the hut was shrouded in mistand visibility was down to about 20 yards. But we hadn’t been going more than 10 minutes when the clouds miraculously lifted.

We had chosen to take the less steep service track down to Kreuzboden, but we hadn’t realised that the overnight rain had swelled the stream, which the track had to cross several times. Our first crossing was OK, as there were some decent stepping stones, but we had to scramble down by the side of the stream to find two other crossing points. (As in pics 1, 4 & 8).

By the time we neared Kreuzboden the cloud had come down again, so it was with some amusement that, after we had crossed for the third time (pic 8), we noticed that there was a bridge not more than 30 yards away. (See pic 9). Oh, how we laughed!!

I was also extremely excited to find out (later of course, when I looked it up) that the Incised Bellflower, (pics 13 & 14) is described as “very rare” in my Alpine flower book, which I think is a first. In Switzerland it only occurs in the south of the Valais and in NW Ticino. (I therefore thought it deserved 2 photos. 😊)

Our plan for the day was to drop off our rucksacks at the Almageller Berghotel, where we would stay for the night* and then walk up to the Almageller mountain hut and back again. The 700m or 2,300ft of ascent/descent was certainly a lot easier without our packs.

*At the Berhotel, not only did we have a room to ourselves but, apart from the staff, we were the only people staying that night, so we had the whole place to ourselves! (This also happened on our Tour de Muverans trip a few years ago, so hiking midweek in September is certainly recommended, if you want to keep away from the crowds).

Saas Valley Walk, Day 1 of 4, Gspon to the Weissmies mountain hut, Valais, Switzerland

Posted on by

To set the scene… The plan for our 4 day walk was as follows:

  • Day 1: Gspon to the Weissmies hut
  • Day 2: Weissmies hut to the Berghotel at Almagelleralp, with an extension up to and back from the Almageller hut
  • Day 3: Almagelleralp to the Britannia hut
  • Day 4: Britannia hut to Saas Grund

After driving for just over an hour from our chalet to Stalden, which sits at the ‘confluence’ of the Saas and Matter valleys, (the latter being most famous for the Matterhorn), Pete and I bade farewell to my wife, Jude, and took the gondola lift up to Gspon. As an aside, we were squeezed in with about 7 other walkers and another 8 cyclists with their mountain bikes. So much for social distancing! But, thankfully, masks were compulsory (and a week later, I’m still feeling OK. 😊)

I’d read that Gspon was ‘famous’ for having the highest football pitch in Europe. It often hosts the European mountain village championships so, as keen football fans, Pete and I had to take a look. (For more info. please read here).

From Gspon the path undulated along the east side of the Saas valley, passing some tiny hamlets and a beautiful church at Finilu. Several rocks and boulder fields were safely negotiated before the final climb up to the mountain hut, where we had a room (normally sleeping up to 8 people) all to ourselves.

As you will see the weather was a little grey, but the sun did eventually come out and the small amount of rain, which was forecast for late afternoon, didn’t materialised until the evening. 👍

Walk to Lac d’Arbey, Les Haudères and La Sage from Evolène, Val d’Hérens, Switzerland

Posted on by

As mentioned in my previous post, my good mate, Pete, came over from the UK last week to do a 4 day trek around the Saas valley. Due to a certain youknowwhat, both his flights were cancelled and, after re-booking them, his stay became 6 days long instead of 5. However, that meant that we could have a ‘warm up’ and ‘warm down’ walk either side of our hike.

So this was Pete’s acclimatisation walk (of 15km, or just under 10 miles, with over 930m, or 3,050ft, of ascent) and your ‘aperitif’ before the main course starts tomorrow. 😊

Walk to La Forclaz (VS) via Sepey from Les Haudères, Val d’Hérens, Switzerland

Posted on by

My mate, Pete, is coming over today to do a 4 day trek around the Saas Valley, starting on Sunday*. So yesterday, I decided to go for a relatively short, circular walk from Les Haudères, as a sort of warm up. The route goes up the Ferpècle valley to the small hamlet of Sepey, before turning back left towards La Forclaz and then down again to Les Haudères.

It’s not the most attractive start, as it begins near to the recycling centre, but you’re very soon leaving that behind and into the woods and alpine meadows. Again I was beginning to think the butterflies had deserted me but, in the clearings, there were several Marbled Whites and two or three Adonis Blues around. I’m not sure what the butterfly is in picture 4. I thought it was a Small Blue, but another of my photos suggests there’s a small tail on the hind wing, so I’ve plumped for the Provencal Short-tailed Blue, but I may well be wrong. Either way it was a very pleasant walk in glorious sunshine. 😊

*My apologies in advance if I’m not as responsive as usual to all of your posts, but I will endeavour to catch up with you all this time next week. I will, of course, be posting some photos of our adventure! 😊

Walk to Sion from Evolène, Val d’Hérens, Switzerland

Posted on by

After a few days of rain and cold weather, such that the mountains were covered to below 2,000m (6,500ft) with a dusting of snow, I decided to take a walk down the west side of the valley to Sion. It’s a drop of 900m (3,000ft) but there are sufficient undulations to rack up a height gain of over 600m (2,000ft).

As you will see from the first few images below, it was a bit of a gloomy day to start with, but the sun soon came out. However, I was just beginning to think that there were very few flowers in bloom and therefore very few butterflies, when I came across a ‘hot spot’ (see pics 13 to 18), which included a first for me – the Cardinal Fritillary. And, just like London buses, where you haven’t seen one for ages, 2 or 3 came along at once. The Dryads were in abundance too.

When I reached the river bed, just before Bramois, there were two Buddleia plants doing there best to grow. As you might expect, this also proved to be a good place to capture a few more butterflies – including yet another Cardinal! Even though they are widespread in southern Europe, they seem to be confined mainly to the Valais region of Switzerland. Click here for a distribution map.

Walk to the Aiguilles Rouges hut from Satarma, Val d’Hérens, Switzerland

Posted on by

This is another of my favourite walks, which I normally do from Arolla but, for a change, I thought I’d do it in the opposite direction. Parking at La Gouille has become a bit of an issue, due to the number of visitors, so I decided to set off a little further down the road, from Satarma.

I was about three-quarters of the way to the hut, when I heard a rustling sound to my left. A parapentist was sorting out his gear and getting ready to fly. So I paused and decided to take a video. If anyone has not seen them taking off, it’s quite a tense moment, for the observer anyway. So I’ve added it at the end of this post. (Note that there was quite a lot of background wind noise, even though there was hardly any wind, so I’ve set it to play muted).