Sunday July 11, 2021 -- Even though we had come to Valais for the weekend because it is usually drier here, there was a big storm with lots of rain during the night, and we woke up to low-lying clouds, which was a real disappointment, as we had chosen to spend the night in Brig because the bus and cable car ride to our planned starting point of Belalp was only 45 minutes from Brig, right across the valley. (When there are no clouds, you can even see the Belalp chalets on the mountainside). The hike we had planned over the suspension bridge in the Massa Gorge at the foot of the Great Aletsch Glacier and then up to Riederalp in the next valley was about five hours, and we wanted to start early, at 9 a.m.
We debated changing our plans and going elsewhere, but risked it anyway, as this was a hike we have wanted to do for a long time. It was rather depressing to arrive at Belalp in the fog, but at least there was a restaurant open there, where we nursed a morning coffee for an hour until the clouds started to dissipate. As it turned out, we then had the perfect weather for hiking. Sunshine, clear and cool air. The trail was varied and interesting, and even though it took us 2.5 hours to get to the bridge, and another 2 hours through the forest up to Riederfurka on the other side of the gorge, we were not at all tired. In fact, the late afternoon was so beautiful that we added another hour of walking by climbing the ridge to the Hohfluh chair lift station, to get a better look at the Great Aletsch Glacier from above.
Our intention was to take the chair lift down from Hohfluh to Riederalp, but we came too late, as the last run was at 4 p.m. So it meant walking down again, and in total we walked about six hours. But it was worth it. Not only were we looking down at the main part of the glacier, but we also saw the highest peaks of the Swiss Alps (several over 4000 meters), including Mt.Dom and the Matterhorn to our South. This beautiful region is actually a designated UNESCO Heritage Site. (Information HERE)
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| At 8 a.m. a look out of the hotel windows to the Stockalper Palace, and high up on the hillside where we are planning to go today. It's not looking too promising! |
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| Top left was the view from our room. The other photos are impressions of Brig on our way to the train station |
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| Main square in Brig. A last look before catching the bus at the train station. The bus goes to Blatten near Naters, and from there you take a cable car up to Belalp |
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| The quaint villlage of Blatten. Here there was sunshine, but we have already looked at this village, so we decided to head up on the cable car right away. |
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| Heading up by cable car from Blatten to Belalp through the clouds. The scattering of vacation houses in Belalp were in full fog/cloud, so we went into the restaurant for a coffee and waited an hour. |
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| A look at what our hike for the day was like. It took 2.5 hours to get to the bridge, and another two hours to Rieder Furka. The detour we did to Hohfluh took another hour. We ascended almost 1000m altogether! |
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| We had planned to start walking at 9 a.m. But the clouds started to lift at 10 a.m., just as another cable car came up. The trail to the restaurant at Aletschbord with the view of the glacier is a popular family trail, as you can see from the number of people headed that way! |
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| Heading over to the chapel and restaurant at the back. From there you get a good view of the glacier, and the descent to the suspension bridge starts there. |
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| These sturdy cows are Eringer cows (or Hérens cattle) and raised mostly for meat rather than milk. |
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| The clouds are lifting a bit and we got a peek at the mountains on the South side of the Rhone valley. |
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| This is the view at the Aletschbord Hotel Belalp. For most of the day the clouds stayed on the mountaintops, but in the valley there was a lot of sunshine. The Aletsch Glacier is 23 km long, and this is the tail end. |
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| The red line is an approximation of where we walked! |
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| A close-up view of the tongue of the glacier |
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| The first section was a very steep zigzag descent on a trail used by sheep when they are driven to the higher alpine pastures |
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| This steep descent was interesting, although the going was slow! |
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| The zigzag trail has been shored up with rock walls to make it more stable. |
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| What a fantastic landscape. Our trail goes past the little houses behind me, and further into the rocky section. |
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| Lots of goats and sheep up here. These ones followed us for a bit. |
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| They seem to be trying to figure something out! |
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| Obviously these sheep think the day is already too hot. Behind and below is the Gibidum dammed lake. |
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| Behind Urs is a look-out point called "Glacier View", but there is no view of the glacier any more from here. This is approximately where another gorge created by another glacier (Oberaletsch Glacier) meets this one. |
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| Our first glimpse of the suspension bridge over the Massa Gorge |
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| The little guy was licking the salt on my leg! |
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| Urs on the suspension bridge |
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| Suspension bridge over the Massa Gorge |
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| View up the gorge. You can just see the end of the glacier at the back. |
VIDEO:
Massa River flowing through the Massa Gorge
100 years ago, this gorge was filled with glacier ice
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| Where the two gorges meet |
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| Trail no.39 is the Aletsch Panorama Trail. The hike to the Riederfurka was mostly through the forest, the "Aletschwald". |
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| A view of the suspension bridge from the other side of the gorge |
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| At this pond called "Grünsee" we had our picnic lunch, and learned that the glacier came all the way here 100 years ago. |
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| Two hours of an uphiill climb through the lovely Aletsch Forest. After the recent rains, many parts of the trail became little streams. |
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| According to our map, the Panorama Trail should have gone through here. Fortunately there was an equivalent alternate trail. |
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| Almost at the passage at Rieder Furka. We got this nice view of the mountains on the opposite side of the gorge. |
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| (At the arrow is where we started) It took us just over two hours to walk from the suspension bridge to Rieder Furka, which is the passage into the next "valley". From here it was 20 minutes to the cable car at Riederalp, which would take us to the Rhone Valley and the train home. But it was only about 4 p.m, and the afternoon was lovely, so we decided on a detour up the ridge to get a better view of the Aletsch Glacier |
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| A look back at the restaurants at Rieder Furka, and the Villa Cassel (built 100 years ago by a rich Englishman, now converted into a nature museum). From here we could go left down the hill to Riederalp to the cable car, but we decided on another 1-hour detour up the hill behind us |
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| A look at where we walked in relation to the glaciers in the area. The Massa River is created by the water that flows out of the Great Aletsch Glacier. We crossed the gorge below the glacier tongue, then ascended through the Aletschwald (Aletsch Forest) and took a detour to Hohfluh to get a better look at the glacier from above |
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| Our track as depicted on Google Satellite Maps. Starting in Belalp, descending 2.5 hours to the suspension bridge, another 2 hours to Riederfurka, and a detour to Hohfluh before returning to the cable car at Rieder Alp. Altogether about 6 hours of hiking for us! |
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| Heading up the hill to Hohfluh, a 30-minute walk from the Riederfurka passage |
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| The magnificent Aletsch Glacier comes into view. Our plan was to descend with the Hohfluh chair lift (upper right) but we read the schedule wrong. I thought we had till 5 p.m., but it runs only till 4 p.m, and it had just made the final run as we got here. So we had to walk back down later, no problem. |
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| There are many little ponds like this one up here on the ridge. |
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| A closer look at the stunning Aletsch Glacier. |
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| It's now just past 4:30 p.m, and the day has turned into a very lovely afternoon. Also, there were barely any people up here any more at this time! |
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| Across the valley of the Great Aletsch Glacier is the hillside where we hiked down (from the left, all the way to the gorge created by the Ober Aletsch Glacier joining the Greater Aletsch Glacier, then down toward the left again). At the back of that gorge is a Swiss Alpine Hostel.... |
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| A zoomed view to the back of the Ober Aletsch Glacier gorge, you can just see the Swiss Alpine Hostel perched on the cliff, above two glaciers that meet there. Fantastic! |
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| It's getting cool up here, time to head back down to Riederfurka (no other direct trails to Riederalp, unfortunately). Behind Urs is the backdrop of the 4000+ peaks in canton Wallis, including the Matterhorn and the Dom (highest peak totally in Switzerland). We can also see onto the Simplon Pass, where we had spent two days in early June! |
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| A zoomed view of the Mischabel Group which forms the division between the Saas Valley and the Matter Valley. One of these peaks (not the front one) is Mt.Dom (4545m), the highest peak in the Swiss Alps that is not shared with another country. |
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