The Swiss Alps. Kev Reynolds

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      And so it is when you approach the mountains from St-Maurice. Nestling in the valley at the foot of the Cime de l’Est, this is an old town which grew around a monastery of 515AD, and takes its name from the warrior-saint said to have been martyred nearby. A small, no-nonsense workaday town, it has its attractive corners and plenty of history, but for users of this guide its main importance is as a point of access to the east side of the Dents du Midi. The town has several hotels, a campsite, restaurants, shops and a bank, and a railway station on the main Geneva–Martigny–Brig line, although when coming from Geneva it’s usually necessary to change at Lausanne to find a train that stops here. The tourist office (www.st-maurice.ch) is about 100m from the railway station, while from the post office opposite the station the local postbus begins its infrequent journey to either Vérossaz (La Doey) or Mex, both of which are on or near the route of the Tour des Dents du Midi (see 1:2).

      Vérossaz is spread across an open hillside above and to the west of St-Maurice at 864m, but the road to it actually leaves the Rhône valley at Massongex, rather than St-Maurice from where the postbus sets out. The bus continues above the hamlet as far as La Doey, where a signpost directs walkers to the route of the Tour des Dents du Midi along a narrow metalled road heading into woodland. The TDM proper is reached where it enters a grassy combe containing the Fahy alpage, backed by waterfalls cascading from Les Trois Merles and the Cime de l’Est, then swings round to cross the viewpoint of Les Jeurs and continues northward before an alternative path cuts away to the southwest. This strikes up the steep slopes of the Dent de Valère and along the Crête du Dardeu to gain the Refuge de Chalin (5hrs from Vérossaz). This small unmanned hut on the 2595m Tête de Chalin has just eight places, but serves as an overnight base for climbs on the Cime de l’Est and others of the Dents du Midi that rise immediately behind it (see 1:2). The hut enjoys a spectacular, airy situation, with distant views of the Pennine Alps being especially memorable (www.cas-chaussy.ch).

      About 4km south of Vérossaz as the crow flies, but a mite longer via the waymarked TDM trail, the charming crowded village of Mex is reached by a short but tortuous road directly from St-Maurice. Located 700m above the Rhône, with woodland both above and below, a cutting dug by the St Barthélemy stream to the south, and the Cime de l’Est soaring above the village to the southwest, Mex has considerable merit as a staging post and short-term base, from some of whose upper houses a fine view can be had of the Grand Combin in the southeast. Overnight accommodation may be found here at the local café-restaurant, Auberge de l’Armailli (see 1:2).

      A path descends from the village to Evionnaz in the valley south of St-Maurice, but by following the TDM southwestward, the Salanfe basin with its large dammed lake, busy auberge and views of the south flank of the Dents du Midi, may be gained by a walk of around 3½–4hrs. However, by a combination of road and mule-path, that same basin is approached by a somewhat more circuitous route that climbs above the deep cleft of the Trient gorge near Salvan.

1:5 Vallée du Trient

      The Trient valley proper begins on the outer edge of the Mont Blanc range in the snowfields of the Plateau du Trient, rimmed by the Aiguille du Tour, Aiguilles Dorées and Pointe d’Orny. From the northern edge of the plateau the fast-receding Trient glacier cascades steeply downhill to a funnel of moraines, pinewoods and pastures that spill out by the hamlet of Le Peuty which neighbours the small village of Trient, a village that’s well-known to trekkers as an overnight halt on both the Tour du Mont Blanc and the Chamonix to Zermatt Walker’s Haute Route.

      The main road link between Martigny and Chamonix crosses Col de la Forclaz above Trient, and skirts the village on its way down the narrowing valley before turning southwest round a spur on the way to the French border at Le Châtelard. Before reaching that border, however, another road cuts sharply back to the right and climbs to Finhaut, built on a terrace high above the head of the Trient gorge. Meanwhile, the Trient river, boosted by the Eau Noire (which begins at the Col des Montets in France), burrows its way into a deep shaft heading northeast towards the Rhône’s valley. Walking routes stretch the length of the ever-deepening gorge, but keep to its upper reaches. That which goes from Finhaut to Vernayaz on the sunny left bank has the pick of the views, while another on the right bank, beginning at the mouth of the Vallée du Trient and ending in the Rhône valley below Gueuroz, links a series of remote hamlets: Litro, Planajeur, La Crêta, La Tailla and Gueuroz itself.