The Classic Haute Route (box)
2:4 Val de Nendaz
2:5 Val d’Hérémence
2:6 Val d’Hérens
Tour du Val d’Hérens (box)
Val d’Arolla
Ferpècle and the Dent Blanche
Dent Blanche: ‘The grandest mountain in the Alps’ (box)
La Sage and Ways East
2:7 Val de Moiry
Walks in Val de Moiry
2:8 Val d’Anniviers
Tour du Val d’Anniviers (box)
Val de Zinal
Walks from Zinal
Climbs from Zinal
Moving On
2:9 Turtmanntal
2:10 Mattertal
Walks and Climbs from Grächen
St Niklaus to Täsch
The Weisshorn: ‘An almost faultless mountain’ (box)
Climbs from the Täsch Hut
Zermatt
The Zermatt Basin
Walks from Zermatt
Tour of the Matterhorn (box)
Climbs from Zermatt
Ulrich Inderbinden: The Old Man of the Matterhorn (box)
Zermatt for Skiers
The Adlerpass
2:11 Saastal
Climbs from Saas Grund
Saas Fee
Johann-Joseph Imseng: Priest, Guide and Hotelier (box)
Walks and Climbs from Saas Fee
Tour of Monte Rosa (box)
The Upper Saastal
2:12 Simplon Pass
Access, Bases, Maps and Guides
PENNINE ALPS: INTRODUCTION
Today the Pennines are the mecca of the classic-style mountaineer … Such routes have lost none of their aura and belong to any list of the Alps’ top climbs.
John Cleare, Collins Guide to Mountains & Mountaineering
This tremendous range of snow- and ice-clad mountains holds the largest concentration of 4000m peaks west of the Caucasus, among them Matterhorn, Weisshorn, Zinalrothorn, Monte Rosa, Ober Gabelhorn, Dent Blanche, Grand Combin and Dom – the highest mountain entirely in Switzerland. With some of the best-placed centres for mountaineering in all the Alps, there’s also unlimited potential for walking holidays of all standards, immense scope for top-quality ski tours, and scenery to rival that of anywhere in Europe. Yet despite the popularity of the district, and the iconic status of so many of its peaks, it is still possible to walk and climb there in surprising isolation, even in the height of summer.
Col de Riedmatten, link between the Dix Hut and Arolla (Chapter 2.5)
A succession of valleys and their tributaries drain northward into the Rhône. The headwall of many of these valleys is crowned with snowfields and glaciers, but in some cases the high mountains thrust forward away from the watershed crest along projecting ridge systems that effectively extend the snow cover further north. Beyond the snow and ice, these ridges are crossed by numerous cols of varying degrees of difficulty that attract the walker and trekker. And while mountaineering attention is naturally focused on the higher summits, more modest ascents are possible on numerous ‘lesser’ peaks which, standing as they often do apart from the more dramatic mountains, reward with some of the finest views of all.
Though it will no doubt be the mountains, either individually or as a group, that are the main attraction, many of their valleys are no less appealing. The majority are entered from the Rhône through a gorge that opens to bands of forest and sloping pasture or hay meadow. Alp hamlets, with their ancient barns, chalets and granaries (mazots) with stone slab roofs and almost black timbers perched on staddle stones, stand among the meadows, advertising an architectural heritage unique to Canton Valais. Closely grouped villages huddle above a river or spread in a line facing the sun, with the ubiquitous white-painted chapel standing to one side. Then come the resorts; not only Zermatt, Saas Fee and Verbier with their international reputations to protect and promote, but others that are much smaller and less overtly commercial, such as Arolla, Les Haudères and Zinal, to take just three examples.
Access to virtually every valley is straightforward and reliable, and there’s plentiful accommodation of all standards in the resorts, while remote mountain inns and huts are numerous, making the Pennine Alps one of Switzerland’s busiest and most dramatically attractive regions.
2:1 Val Ferret
With the untamed tributary of Val d’Arpette above Champex, Val Ferret is the most westerly of all Pennine valleys. Distinctly pastoral, it boasts a string of unremarkable hamlets, and very little in the way of tourist infrastructure outside of Champex and La Fouly. Walled to the west by outliers of the Mont Blanc range, the east flank is snow- and ice-free in summer and at no point reaches 3000m, while the headwall is breached by the two Cols Ferret (Petit and Grand) and by the Fenêtre de Ferret. Walkers tackling the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) usually enter the valley from Italy via the Grand Col Ferret, while the narrow Fenêtre de Ferret a little west of the Col du Grand St Bernard is much less frequented, although it has been known for many centuries and is said to have been favoured by smugglers.
Road and rail access is from Martigny in the Rhône valley. At first heading roughly southwest out of town, the road (and railway) then curves to the east along the valley of the Drance to Les Valettes, where a minor alternative route breaks away to the south to climb through the wooded Gorges du Durnand on the way to Champex. The main road, however, continues alongside the Drance, and above the point where it crosses to the north side of the river, the 100m rock wall of
Cupped by mountains and built along two sides of a small lake at 1466m, this is an attractive little resort with year-round appeal and views of the Combin massif. Apart from its admittedly rather limited walking opportunities, in summer there’s boating and fishing in the lake, while cross-country and downhill skiing are practised in winter and a few routes are worth tackling on