An Exciting Walk along the Wyssa Suon into Gredetsch Valley near Mund

September 15, 2018 -- A year ago we came to the Gredetsch Valley to walk one of the more adventurous irrigation channels called the Wyssa Suon, but on that day it started to rain, so we didn't want to risk it.

So on Saturday we planned our second attempt. At first I thought we would have a repeat of last year as the cloud hung low over the mountain, but the climb to the start of the irrigation channel took an hour, and by that time the low clouds had cleared.

Our excursion started in the small village of Mund in Canton Valais, the only place in Switzerland where the valuable spice called saffron is still cultivated (brought here in the mid 1400's) and the northernmost city in Europe where saffron is grown. (Interesting fact: it takes 130,000 hand-picked and processed flowers to yield one single kilogram of saffron, which makes this spice more valuable than gold). The flowers emerge in mid-October, so we might do a return visit then.

In the meantime, the Wyssa irrigation channel has many warnings that you walk at your own risk and must be vertigo-free, but with concentration and care it is not difficult and really rather exciting! First of all and always amazing, how the farmers 500 years ago managed to build their irrigation channels on these high steep cliffs! Mostly wooden troughs attached to the sides of the cliffs, although the water now runs mostly through tunnels. In the Gredetsch Valley alone are 8 irrigation channels still transporting water from the Mund River to water the hillsides around Mund and Birgisch.

We covered the 1.6-km stretch in about an hour, taking it nice and slow. At the very narrow places there are cables to hold on to, and the tunnels are particularly fun: There are boards above the channels to walk on. One particular tunnel was so narrow, Urs barely made it through with his back pack.

All summer the Gredetsch Valley is used as grazing ground for a variety of cattle (Swiss Brown, Simmental, Eringer/Hérens, Evolène and even Highland) as well as the very cute Valais Black-Nosed sheep, but we missed the sheep by about a week as they have already been brought out of the valley and received their fall shearing.

On our way back out of the valley, we returned by one of the lower irrigation channels called the Stigwasser Suon, an easy and pleasant walk in the woods, and since we had to wait an hour for our bus, we treated ourselves at the "Restaurant Safran" to Saffron Parfait and Saffron Cake, which was surprisingly tasty, and slightly less expensive than gold...

Our excursion started in the village of Mund, the only place in Switzerland where Saffron is cultivated.

A couple of small Valais villages on the hillside on the way to the Wyssa Suon

After 50 minutes of steep uphill we reach the Wyssa Suon, which is still in use to irrigate these hillsides

Even though the Black-Noses have received their fall shearing, they are still very cute and we are always thrilled to catch sight of them!

I'm otherwise not fond of sheep, but these are totally the cutest.

We passed through that village on the way up.

At the start of the trail, which is vertically about 200m above the valley bottom, there are lots of warnings suggesting you are walking at your own risk, need to be surefooted, and not suffer from Vertigo

The start of the hike is pretty "tame", no difficulties here. But the shrubs are hiding the vertical drop, so it's easier to picture you are walking on a wider path

There were about 20 tunnels to pass through, all either beside the water ditch, or above it on planks.

Sensational view to the back of the Gredetsch Valley and the Gredetsch Glacier from up here.

 

For Urs some of the tunnels were so low he had to go on hands and knees.

Urs and the tunnels. On the last one, he almost got stuck with the back-pack.

On this short section a sample of an old wooden channel still remains, showing how dangerous the job was to attach the channels to the vertical cliffs.

The water no longer runs through these channels. It has been diverted through the tunnels.

This here was probably the trickiest section, but there were always cables to hold on to. As long as the trail was dry, it was no problem.

After an hour on the narrow cliff trail, we got into the wide valley, where there was surprisingly lots of snow still left from Spring avalanches. This snow won't melt anymore before the next one.

Raw, wild, peaceful, calming... and perfect though unusual warm Fall weather for this hike. (This is the Mund River)

Finally, we reached the place where the cows are still grazing (they will return off this Alp to lower elevations pretty soon). The sheep have already returned to Mund.

At least five different kinds of cows up here: Evolène, Simmental, Hérens (Eringer), Highland, and Swiss Brown.

Swiss Brown, still my favourite....

The furthest back in the valley that we walked to is called Strick, where sheep used to be sorted in these stone pens before returning to their respective owners after the summer on the alpine pastures.

Evening sun on the Western Slopes. We saw several marmots preparing for there winter sleep up here.

One of several marmots on the slopes, looking to fatten up for winter.

Also many butterflies. There was an elusive butter yellow one which never landed, so I couldn't photograph it.

Heading South out of the Gredetsch Valley, back along the same trail we walked in.

VIDEO:  Walking back past the herd of Eringer cows, we chanced to see two of them "locking horns" to remind each other who is the boss. This characteristic of these cows is exploited in ring "fights", but the cows don't actually hurt each other. They only push each other around. 

On the way in, we walked high along the cliff on the right. On the way back, we kept to the valley bottom and returned via the Stigwasser Suon further down.

Beautiful late afternoon in the Rhone Valley above Brig

We had an hour to kill in Mund, so we treated ourselves to some Saffron specialties at the "Restaurant Safran"

Here we are sitting under the "Saffron Museum", which is a museum within a museum, as this structure was built in 1437 and is one of the oldest wooden structures in Canton Valais

This Google satellite image gives a bit of an idea of how steep the cliff is where the water runs through the irrigation channel.

In 2017 we attempted the hike but had to opt to go through the 1.5-km tunnel. This year we did a round tour starting and ending in Mund. Total 12 km, took us almost 5 hours.