Walking in the Valais. Kev Reynolds

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      The Gratweg above the Aletschgletscher leads to Riederfurka (Walk 6)

      The valley of the Rhône is a long, deep furrow cut by a plough of ice. Ice-melt fills its rivers, and the mountains that rear majestically to both north and south are laden with permanent snows that give birth to literally hundreds of glaciers, among them the largest in the Alps.

      And yet the Rhône is not a frosty, arctic region at all. On the contrary, it’s a warm and sunny valley, its slopes terraced with vineyards and orchards of apple, peach, pear and apricot. Its climate is more akin to that of the Mediterranean than the high Alps, and the fertility of its broad, flat bed is there for all to see. But in marked contrast the tributary valleys which feed it are mostly narrow, tight-walled and rock-girt. Tiny villages hug abrupt hillsides. Above them ancient chalets and haybarns represent alp hamlets that command some of the loveliest views in all of Europe. These views are (forgive the cliché) simply breathtaking. They incorporate shapely peaks and long ridges bristling with spires. They dazzle with snowfields, hanging glaciers and the chaos of icefalls exposing several shades of blue in the eye-squinting light of summer. They include soft green pastures and the deeper forest green-that-is-almost-black, the shadowy-grey of ravines, the silver spray of cascades, the azure sparkle of a mountain lake. Wild flowers freckle the meadows in early summer with yellows and blues, pink and scarlet and mauve; a bewildering kaleidoscope of colour and fragrance is created, the air thrashed by butterflies’ wings as they flit from one pollen-heavy flower-head to another.

      Walling these valleys, or standing sentry-proud at their head, are mountains straight out of dreams: the Bietschhorn, Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, Dom, Weisshorn, Täschhorn, Zinal­rothorn, Ober Gabelhorn, Dent Blanche, Dent d’Hérens, Mont Collon, Pigne d’Arolla, Mont Blanc de Cheilon, Grand Combin, Mont Dolent…the list goes on and on of peaks that formed the backdrop to the adventures of Alpine Club pioneers who were active among the Pennine Alps a century and more ago. Yet although the foundations of mountaineering were set upon these peaks, one need not be a mountaineer to fall under their spell. You don’t have to climb them to enjoy their company, for by taking to the footpaths that weave among their shadows we can bask in their glory and become, for a few fleeting hours, days or weeks, figures in their landscape.

      The footpaths of Switzerland’s Alpine regions are highways to a wonderland. Along them the fit and healthy, young and old, can become absorbed by a world of infinite beauty that may only be imagined by those who remain road-bound. The 8000km network of paths in canton Valais (Wallis to German-speaking Swiss) leads, surely, to some of the very best that this extravagantly picturesque country can boast. So, whether your wandering is limited to valley-bed trails, along the mountainsides from alp to alp, or more energetically over passes that conveniently breach some of the high ridges, there will invariably be something of scenic drama to see and to experience, thereby adding a richness to your Alpine days.

      The Valais region has its own distinctive character, be that of its mountains, its valleys, the native population or the architecture of its villages, some of which came late into the 20th century. Even today a number of these villages retain an air of welcome simplicity that has long been lost in some of the area’s bustling resorts, which bear a closer kinship with European capital cities than they do with the pastoral communities gathered nearby. The vernacular architecture of the Valais, best represented by the beautiful old villages and alp hamlets, is heavily dependent upon wood, and practically every valley is characterised by chalets of dark brown (almost black) timbers on a stone foundation standing side by side with traditional mazots (haybarns or granaries). These mazots are also constructed of dark brown timbers, usually lengths of horizontally laid pine logs fitted one upon another, and stand on staddle stones (Mäusesteine – ‘mouse stones’) to resist the attention of rodents.