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Hiking trip report by site editor Rick McCharles. Day 6 of 7.

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Out of bread, as usual, I wanted to stop in the quaint, quiet town of Gruben for supplies.

There was only one stale loaf of bread left in the small hotel shop. What! This is Europe. The grocery stores are terrible. But you can always get good fresh bread! (subsidized by the National government)

Turned out that these blokes had tented by the river in town. And then bought up all the bread first thing in the morning.

Here are manly men, even the 2 wearing skirts. They were the first to pass me on the trail since I started this hike.

Amongst the 7 friends they were fluent in French, German, Spanish and Italian. Nice.

We hiked the same day towards a challenging goal, Augstbordpass. It was high. Well above the helicopters.

In fact, Augstbordpass is the last high pass before the Zermatt valley. Many are excited to cross it. I was less so having opted to do the high, long and difficult 31km Europa Way traverse to finish.

But it was fun to drop down and down towards the valley far, far below.

A hiker walking the other direction tipped me to the fact that Ibex were posing on the rocks.

We assumed they’d been staked there by the tourist industry. What a photo op!

When we finally got to the valley floor, I dashed around like a madman trying to resupply with food. And still catch the bus up the other side to the trailhead. I wanted to get up high so I could start the long traverse to the finish first thing in the morning.

… the U.K. hikers passed me again! Waving from another bus.

Blast.

Pushing hard, I did manage to climb back up to 2300m to greet St. Bernard at dusk.

Kev Reynolds:

The satue of St Bernard … commemorates the opening of the Europaweg in 1997. This patron Saint of mountain travellers was … Bernard of Menthon, who had spent many years caring for travellers and pilgrims in trouble after crossing the alpine pass named after him…

Bernard died in the 1080s and was beatified shortly after. In 1923 Pope Pius XI conifrmed St Bernard as patron saint of the alps. …

I could just see the top of the Matterhorn in the distance.

The goats were my only companions up there.

My best tent site of the trip.

See the rest of my photos from day 6.

… on to day 7

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Hiking trip report by site editor Rick McCharles. Day 5 of 7.

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From my ideal tent site it was a pleasant wander down into the valley of Lac de Moiry.

At the same time, an American couple hiking the Haute Route were descending from their night at this interesting farm refuge.

We crossed the Lac de Moiry dam at about the same time.

And met up at the bus stop on the other side.

We decided to cheat (again) by skipping the next pass, and bus instead to Zinal. It was an “easy” pass but I was turned off when I saw a car joy riding the switchbacks up that slope. I’ve no desire to hike where there are roads.

If you ask hikers what impressions they remember of the Alps, early in the conversation they’ll mention the cows and their loud cowbells.

Everybody loves them. I never got tired of them.

Famed Hotel Weisshorn disappointed.

The area around the hotel was under some serious construction. I’m happy I didn’t stay there. The American couple walked on to Bella Tolla cabin.

I walked from the Hotel to the next high pass. It was easy and interesting, though the typical afternoon rain began again.

Another superb hiking day.

I had supper on the other side sitting out of the rain near a giant teepee. (Europeans love North American Indian culture.) Then chased some deer away from a spot they liked to sleep upon in the trees and set up my tent.

About 4AM one of the deer was barking up a storm. Perhaps barking at my tent.

See the rest of my photos from day 5.

… on to day 6

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Hiking trip report by site editor Rick McCharles. Day 2 of 7.

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Morning dawned clear yet again.

I quickly descended from snow, rock and ice to lush alpine meadows.

When hiking I like to rise early. Put in a full hiking day of 4-6hrs. Relax for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. Then put in another 4-5hrs of hiking. Setting up the tent at around 7-8PM.

Here I am airing out the bunions at Champex-Lac.

Waiting for the bus, I stopped by the finest alpine flower garden in the Alps, Champex-Lac Alpine Garden.

Sadly in early August most of the species were already done. The bees seemed only interested in thistles.

Up high in the mountains wild flowers were still going strong. But Champex is too low, too hot.

Soon I found myself up above one of the most famous ski resorts in the world, Verbier. I skipped over 15km of valley walking by taking bus, train, train and cable car. This cheat was well worth doing.

In Summer the sprawling ski town seemed to be more fixed on mountain biking than hiking, however.

I departed as quickly as possible for the wonderful Sentier des Chamois, a traverse high above the valley. Some exposure. But good opportunities to see Ibex and Chamois.

Late in the day I spotted another Chamois on a very attractive chunk of snow.

Normally very shy, this Chamois hung out with me for many hours … once I set up my tent on his snow supply.

See the rest of my photos from day 2.

… on to day 3

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