Alps, with several attractive villages lining the bed of the valley, while car-free Saas Fee itself is located some 250m above the Saaser Vispa in a fabulous glacial cirque at the foot of the Mischabel wall, crowned by the Täschhorn, Dom, Lenzspitze and Nadelhorn. The valley extends further south beyond Saas Almagell, its highest village. The roadhead is at the Mattmark dam, but walkers can go on beyond that and climb to the Monte Moro pass on the Swiss/Italian border to gaze on the majestic East Face of Monte Rosa.
This is but one of countless very fine walking opportunities from and within the Saastal. There are extensive balcony paths that stretch almost the complete length of the valley, trails that edge the glaciers, and others that climb to remote mountain huts. Cableways provide opportunities to access high routes without major effort, while more gentle riverside rambles go from village to village through flower-filled meadows. The Saastal also makes a good base for a climbing holiday. Hard routes are to be found on the steep walls of the Mischabel group; there are snow climbs on Allalinhorn, Alphubel and Rimpfischhorn, and easier rock climbs on peaks neighbouring the Weissmies on the eastern side of the valley directly above Saas Grund.
Mattertal
It’s tempting to concentrate on Zermatt and its rim of 4000m mountains when describing the Mattertal, but the valley does have other places worth visiting – Grächen and Gasenried, for example, at the northern end of the valley above St Niklaus. The first is a sprawling resort with a sunny position and views across the Rhône, while Gasenried, much smaller, huddles below the Ried glacier, which hangs from the Nadelhorn and has its own undeniable magic. Across the valley the tiny hamlet of Jungen is indescribably lovely, a gathering of barns and chalets on a plunging hillside. Halfway between St Niklaus and Zermatt lies Randa, just far enough above the river and on the right side of the valley to have escaped obliteration by a massive rockfall in 1991 – the debris remains as a sober reminder of the fragile nature of the seemingly solid mountain walls. To all intents and purposes Täsch appears to be a car park for motor-free Zermatt, but move away from the railway and you’ll find an attractive, traditional Valaisian village, while the narrow valley that cleaves the mountains behind it leads to peaceful Täschalp and some wonderful mountain views.
That brings us to Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Zermatt, one of the busiest resorts in all the Alps, lies at the foot of the most distinctive of mountains. Once seen, never forgotten. The town has been a focus of attention for mountaineers since the mid-19th century. Nowadays most of the climbs involve long routes on snow and ice, and there are, of course, difficult test-pieces such as the North Face of the Matterhorn. Easier ascents exist for competent alpinists on the Monte Rosa massif, which boasts no fewer than ten 4000m summits, and on other peaks that wall the Swiss/Italian frontier: Liskamm, Castor, Pollux and Breithorn. All these mountains are on display to walkers tackling routes described in this guide without the need to set foot on ice or snow, and when viewed in their full spectacular spread above the Gorner glacier, the scale is almost Himalayan.
Turtmanntal
The Weisshorn is one of the most conspicuous peaks in the Mattertal, standing tall and proud west of Randa. It’s a massive peak whose icy West Face plunges into the Val de Zinal (the upper reaches of Val d’Anniviers), and whose northern aspect overlooks the little Turtmanntal, one of the shortest of the Rhône’s tributary valleys draining the Pennine Alps. It’s an undeveloped valley with a summer-only village, Gruben-Meiden, nestling among the pastures between two walkers’ passes used by trekkers on the classic Chamonix to Zermatt Walker’s Haute Route.
Val d’Anniviers and Val de Moiry
The road into Val d’Anniviers wriggles south of Sierre into the jaws of a gorge that obscures the valley’s wonders, but once you emerge from that, one delight after another is announced. A few small villages and hamlets cling to the steep hillsides on both sides of the valley, and at Vissoie the road forks, with a secondary route branching off to Grimentz and the Val de Moiry. The upper stem of the main valley takes its name from Zinal, the highest of its villages, which serves as an important, though small, mountaineering and walking centre. Reached by postbus from Sierre, Zinal lies just short of the glacial amphitheatre that closes the valley in an arc of towering peaks: Weisshorn, Zinalrothorn, Ober Gabelhorn, Dent Blanche, Grand Cornier and Les Bouquetins. Thanks to the steepness of these walling mountains and the long ridges they push north, some of the trails in Val d’Anniviers are quite demanding, but the visual rewards they give more than compensate for the effort required to tackle them.
One of these routes crosses Col de Sorebois into the Val de Moiry. Much shorter than the main valley, the Moiry glen is known for the tightly packed and flower-choked village of Grimentz, and for the impressive icefall on the Moiry glacier near its head. The Cabane de Moiry enjoys a privileged close view of this icefall, and is approached by an entertaining walk along the moraine crest. Below the glacier a dammed lake forms part of the Grande Dixence hydro complex, its eastern shore tight against abrupt rock walls, its west bank rising to pastures, a farm and a few smaller natural lakes that make an obvious focus for other walks.
Vals d’Hérens and Hérémence
Cabane des Dix occupies a dramatic location at the foot of Mont Blanc de Cheilon (Walk 93)
These two valleys, which divide after a few kilometres, lie southeast of Sion and provide plenty of opportunities for walking holidays. Val d’Hérens is the more important of the two, with Evolène, Les Haudères and Arolla acting as low-key resorts, but there’s some very fine wild country to explore at the head of Val d’Hérémence, too, where the Cabane des Dix is perched on a plug of rock in full view of Mont Blanc de Cheilon’s North Face. East of the hut, across the Cheilon glacier, the ridge that divides the two valleys is breached by a pair of walkers’ passes and a highly recommended route to Arolla. Huddled among meadows in the bed of Val d’Hérens, Evolène and Les Haudères are typical Valaisian villages, while Arolla stands in isolation at the roadhead with snow-crowned mountains as its backdrop. Arolla remains unfussed and little changed by the advance of tourism, and is one of the best centres for aspirant alpinists in the Pennine Alps, as well as being a splendid walking centre with mountain huts, alp hamlets and tiny lakes to visit. Rising above the village some of the mountains are ringed with glacial moats, like Mont Collon, Pigne d’Arolla and Mont Blanc de Cheilon; the big wall of rock east of the village is jagged with spires and teeth, while to the west the Aiguilles Rouges have their own unique appeal.
Val de Bagnes
Accessed by train from Martigny and Sembrancher, Val de Bagnes makes a long southeasterly sweep towards the gigantic Mauvoisin dam, with modest villages like Le Châble and Fionnay in the valley, and Verbier perched 700m above it on an open terrace facing west. Rising vast and high above the valley, the graceful Combin massif is, from choice viewpoints, a Mont Blanc look-alike with three summits over 4000m, a great dome of snow, and long fingers of ice carving from it. Some of the walks described in these pages are dominated by its dazzle of white, and it comes as no surprise to discover that the Grand Combin offers one of the classic ski ascents – first tackled in 1907. South of Lac de Mauvoisin the valley headwaters retain a sense of wild remoteness, with the Italian border traced along the walling ridge, and the Cabane de Chanrion perfectly placed to accommodate both walkers and climbers in the pastures below.
Val d’Entremont
The Combin massif is seen at its best from the Sentier des Chamois (Walk 98)
Branching southeast of Orsières, this valley carries the road to the Col du Grand St Bernard and edges the western side of the Combin massif. Its villages, apart from Orsières at its entrance, are the modest settlements of Liddes and Bourg-St-Pierre, both fortunately bypassed by the road to Italy. Bourg has been used
