Alpine passes trail Nr 6

The lake of Moiry, although a dam, is certainly not an eyesore and it would be a shame if it were not there. Tucked away in a lateral valley above Grimentz, it is surrounded by mountains and glaciers and its turquoise waters look beautiful in the sun.
Further up, there is another blue, natural lake and the view of both from the pass is very pretty.
Once again, reaching the top, the reward of yet another new and stunning view, makes the long climb up well worth the effort.
We decided to climb the Sasseneire, another 300m to get a full 360° view but the clouds moved in so we headed down into Val d’Hérens. The clouds stayed glued to the peaks but we enjoyed a sunny picnic watching paragliders taking off for a fun ride.

 

 

When reaching the Meidpass, we entered Val d’Anniviers and the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
From the pass, we could, for the first time, see the Dents du Midi and the glacier of Les Diablerets, both close to Lake Geneva.
The Weisshorn shone in the sun and looked beautiful. The view to the end of the valley, our destination, was equally pleasant.

First of August, Swiss National Day was supposed to see the sun back after Sunday evening’s heavy rain. It was sunny and beautiful in Saas Fee but the clouds stayed stuck to the peaks, where we were. Still, we had some good glimpses of glaciers and summits from the Britannia hut at 3030m.
Finishing the day in the saunas of the youth hostel was a real treat …

1er août, fête nationale suisse devait voir le soleil revenir après les fortes pluies de dimanche soir. Il a fait un temps magnifique à Saas Fee mais les nuages sont restés bloqués sur les sommets, où nous nous trouvions. Nous avons pourtant pu voir brièvement glaciers et sommets depuis la cabane Britannia à 3030m.
Relaxation en finissant la journée dans les saunas de l’auberge de jeunesse.

It is possible for mountaineers to climb many (no less than 18) 4000+m summits in the Saas Fee area alone.
We walked around a path at 3200m, where it is possible to see all of them. It has explanations, in German, about each of these mountains.
On one of the photos, the 3000+ (on the right) look very small compared to their 4000+ neighbours

Today’s walk was hiking the Saas valley, with the towering Bietschhorn still in view. We arrived in Saas Fee and will stay a few days at the very comfortable youth hostel, which overlooks the village and offered us a wonderful view the next morning.

La randonnée d’aujourd’hui remonte la vallée de Saas, nous avons toujours des vues du Bietschhorn. Nous sommes arrivés à Saas Fee et resterons quelques jours à l’auberge de jeunesse, très confortable, qui domine le village et nous a offert une vue magnifique au réveil.

Valais is the driest canton in Switzerland, so the locals built, a long time ago, a whole system of irrigation canals called “bisse” (French) or “Suonen” (German). These canals bring the water from the many glaciers to arable land.
This day we hiked along the “bisse du païen” (the pagan’s bisse), which starts at a spring that wells in the middle of a field.
It follows the contour of the mountain and we suddenly saw the very impressive Bietschhorn, standing high above its neighbouring peaks.
We camped at 2200m and the last photos show the view from our tent at sunset and around 7 am.

 

Another day’s hike, another night in our tent and on to Col du Simplon, the first road pass of this trail.
The scenery had changed again and we walked among larch trees, rhododendrons and blueberry bushes (unfortunately too early) but picked wild strawberries.
We stayed at the hospice; most of the other hosts were geologists, from Germany, South Africa and California.