Just had the great pleasure to take a hut tour around the Val d’Anniviers with a group of “explorer scouts” from the UK. For those of my generation explorer scouts are what we used to call venture scouts and are a mixed-gender organisation. This was a group of 12 explorers and two of their own leaders.

People watching the news from the UK around the world have wondered what’s happening with young people there so I’d like to say what great ambassadors for the UK and the Scout movement the explorer group were and how much I enjoyed our tour!

It’s been cracking weather, some storms in the evening but hot and sunny during the day. In fact it’s been hot down in the valley so being up at 2500-3000m is the best place to be.

That’s the ridge of the Sex de Marinda which we made an ascent of for a picnic lunch, we’ve left most of our sacks on the Basset de Lona which is why nearly everyone (apart from me) is travelling light there. You can see the Lac Lona on that photo as well. The lake is pretty low right now, that didn’t stop the group doing a little wild swimming though. Up at the Becs de Bosson cabane we found they were short of water as their water supply had dried up. That made the night there a little more basic than normal!

There’s some Edelweiss growing on the side of the Becca de Lovégno which we climbed up for the amazing views over the Val d’Anniviers and the Val d’Hérens.

And finally, after a picnic near L’ar du Tsan (first photo) we dropped down the valley and walked in by the Vercorin bisses for our pickup.

Tags: Edelweiss | Grimentz | Hiking | hiking in Switzerland | moiry | Pas de Lona | trekking | trekking in Switzerland | Val d'Anniviers | Vercorin

It seems like an age ago but I setup a Facebook Group for people with connections to the Val D’Anniviers. The group is one of the “old format” ones in Facebook which seems to mean it’s not great on mobile amongst other things.

If the group shows any sign of life they’ll upgrade it. So I just wanted to remind people it existed and where it could be found :

Facebook Val d’Anniviers Group

Here’s a photo just for a bit of summer eye candy :

Tags: Chandolin | Facebook | Grimentz | Saint Luc | Val d'Anniviers | Vercorin | Zinal

It’s easy to see why few people go hiking this time of year above 1500m or so, it can be a bit difficult in places but it is worth it. Probably the most important things to consider are that you have to be prepared for the conditions underfoot which can be difficult with snow and ice presenting a significant danger in places, that you need to be a bit flexible with routes and have a few options to play with on the day and, finally, that it’s winter higher up the mountain and you need to observe usual precautions.

We were following an old road or track that goes parallel and above the Vercorin-Mayoux road, the plaque above commemorates the road being built in 1921 in fact, then up through the forest to join another track to come back along the mountain.

At some point our track vanished under snow, the terrain was awkward as the snow lying on the ground can cover boulders and if you step heavily you can go through the snow to the boulders below and potentially hurt yourself. You also keep going in to your knees in soft snow which is just annoying. So we decided to cut a line up through the forest which was extremely hard work, the terrain kept pulling us away from our waypoint so the 150m became more like 250m. You can see above left the sort of ground it was.

But after we’d hit the track as planned we got to a clearing in the forest and had a picnic enjoying the sun and spectacular views out over the valley.

Tags: Hiking | hiking in Switzerland | Pinsec | trekking | trekking in Switzerland | Val d'Anniviers | Walking | walking in Switzerland