The Other Half of the Goms Winter Trail

February 7, 2017 -- We swapped our day off this week from the regular Wednesday to Tuesday, as that was the forecast's relatively best day of the week. Still there wasn't much sun in the mountains, only a little teaser for about an hour, just enough to warm us up a bit.

Back in December 2013 we walked the first part of the Goms Winter Trail (this is the valley where the young Rhone River flows toward Lake Geneva) from Oberwald to Münster (9km) and had always been meaning to walk the rest, starting where we left off and walking an additional 12 km to Niederwald. The walking trails are prepared and easy to walk and you pass through several lovely villages with typical Valais houses, and lots and lots of barns and stables as this is a pastoral area in the Alps.

The Goms valley is a Mecca for cross country skiers, and the name is apt as the skiers get very "cross" if you should happen to err off the walking trails onto their sacred skiing trails! This happened to us on our walk as someone had removed the pink trail marker and we weren't sure if this was a shared trail, until we were half-way along the stretch and getting dirty looks from the skiers!

Oh well, survived that one....

Pink signs show the Winter Walking Trails

Looking Northeast to the mountains through which runs the Furka Tunnel

The villages here are lovely to saunter through. Each home is unique and interesting

The villages here are lovely to saunter through. Each home or stable is unique and interesting

The Gotthard-Matterhorn train runs along this valley toward the Furka Tunnel and Andermatt.

We are walking southwestward, but this view is to the NE

Déjà-Vu, except further East in 2013.

We ended up on the Cross-Country Ski Trail by accident, the skiers were not happy... (But walking through the wooded area was lovely. The Walking Trail is not through the woods...)

More cool barns

More cool barns

The Cross-Country Skiers start in Oberwald and ski down the valley (approx. 25 km), then return by train.

Our final village, Niederwald, before we got back on the train.

On Dec.31, 2013 we walked 9 km from Oberwald (on the South Side of the Furka Tunnel, train only, cars have to load on trains) to Münster, and this week we walked an additional 12 km from Münster to Niederwald, completing the Goms Valley Winter Trail (in the back, upper right, is the Rhone Glacier, source of the Rhone River, which flows through this valley on its way to Lake Geneva (and France, and the Mediterranean).