Hike Half-way up the Mountain from Betten to Fieschertal in the Aletsch Arena

Wednesday June 5, 2024 -- We made a good choice today in traveling to Canton Valais (south of the Alps but not in the Italian part!) to the Aletsch Arena, where we haven't been for a long time!

The Aletsch Arena is best described on the website https://www.aletscharena.ch/en/aletsch-arena/destination: "At the heart of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage Site lies the breathtaking Great Aletsch Glacier. ....The car-free destinations of Riederalp, Bettmeralp and Fiescheralp are perched high on the sunny Valais plateau. Down below in the Rhône Valley are the idyllic villages of Mörel-Filet, Lax, Fiesch and Fieschertal. And in between, halfway up, there are other villages to discover: Ried-Mörel, Greich, Betten Dorf and Martisberg."  

We have been often in the alpine villages enjoying views of the largest glacier in the Alps, but at this time of year there was still too much snow for us. So we decided we would discover the "halfway up" villages, where we had not been before.

We would have liked to start in Ried-Mörel, having ended there after a fantastic hike through the Massa Gorge in October 2015, but it would have made the hike too long, so we started at the village of Betten Dorf (after a cable-car ride from the valley bottom) and walked down to Fieschertal via Martisberg and the Fiescherwyssa irrigation channel. It was a fabulous 4-hour and 13-km hike, not too hot as mostly there was a cool wind blowing. And on the way home we took the train over one of our favourite landscapes via Goms and Andermatt, the same wonderful journey that the Glacier Express takes, only using a regional train with much fewer people! (A four-hour trip home)

One of my favourite views on the way from Bern to the Valais: Lake Thun with the Bernese Alps in the background. The mountain in the center is Mt. Schreckhorn, and the one on the right is the Eiger. 

Continuing down the Kander Valley toward the Lötschberg Tunnel, the Blüemlisalp Massif dominates the landscape. 

After emerging from the Lötschberg Tunnel into Canton Valais, we change to the Gotthard-Matterhorn railway line and head northeast up the Rhône Valley. Here the river is called the Rotten. 

Having left home at just after 6 a.m., we get to the Betten cable car station at 9:38, so a 3½-hour trip to get here. There are two cable cars here: A larger one directly to Bettmeralp higher up on the mountain where there was still too much snow for our taste, and the smaller one to the village of Betten about half-way up.  

About a dozen people rode the larger cable-car all the way up, but we were the only passengers on the smaller cabin to Betten Dorf (Betten Village). 

Looking down the Rhône Valley as our cable car heads to Betten Dorf about 400m higher up on the mountainside.  

This is the summit station of the Bettmeralp cable-car to Betten Village. You can change to another one to go higher up, or take the direct cabin. We were the only passengers on this run!

Watching the cable-car head back down to Betten valley station with one passenger who was waiting when we got up here. 

Our end destination of Fieschertal is not marked on these trail markers, but we are headed to Martisberg, one hour from here along the mountainside. (We took a longer route along a higher trail, though). We started here shortly after 10 a.m. 

The reason we planned the hike this way is that we wanted to walk the irrigation channel between Fiesch and Fieschertal. As it turns out, the channel is actually being renovated at this time, and officially closed. In retrospect we could have started at Ried-Mörel and descended to Lax or Fiesch. 

Center of Betten Village with the little village church. 

There are always special decorative things to admire in these villages, but this one is slightly disturbing. 

Looking past the side of the church to the upper part of Betten. The houses here are all dark-brown wood, typical of this region. Our path continues up that way. 

On our way up the road we encountered this beautiful animal! We often see regular red or black slugs, but have never seen this one, called a leopard slug (in German = Tigerschnegel"). They are apparently very common but are nocturnal and usually hide during the day, so one doesn't come across these often. It was about 15 cm long.

A look back at the lower part of Betten Village as we head up the hill. 

Several stalls at the end of the village

The stalls or barns on the "mushroom" pedestals are always an attraction. 

Another interesting piece of artwork to hold some flowers. 

At the bottom of the photo you can see the larger cableway cabin making its way down from the higher alpine village of Bettmeralp, from nearer to the glacier. 

Directly across the valley to the south is a peak called Bättlihorn, just under 3000 meters. 

Here the mown grass makes walking easier!

Even here in the Wallis where it rains less than in the rest of Switzerland, there has been more rain than usual and the farmers are glad for a sunny day to finally get their mountain meadows mowed. Far down in the valley is the city of Brig, from where there is a road over the Simplon Pass to Italy (on the left). 

Now directly across the valley is the town of Grengiols, where we ended a wonderful hike down the Binn valley back in August of 2014 (no photos on this blog as of the date of this posting!)

A look way down below to the railway viaduct and the motor-vehicle road. The railway line enters a tunnel here and does a 240-degree loop before exiting 50 meters higher up. 

We had several very nice forested sections on narrow soft paths. 

Even the wider roads next to lush flowering meadows were quite nice to walk on!

Beetles were flying like crazy this day, especially the striped June Bugs (upper left). Once in a while one of them would bump into us in their flight! After some Internet research, it looks like all of these three types of beetles are called June Bugs!

We got to Martisberg at 11:40 and figured this bench would be the perfect place to have our picnic lunch. We stayed here for just over 20 minutes. 

Details of the small church in the mountain village of Martisberg. The church, called Antoniuskapelle, was built in 1951, so not very old.

The view from out picnic bench in front of the Antonius Chapel in Martisberg. 

VIDEO:

We were taken by surprise as the church bell started ringing behind us at exactly noon! It was so loud, that it was quite a shock!

Continuing on now at shortly after noon, we have another 2½ hours to our goal of Fieschertal.  

What a cute house! This is in Martisburg. 

Some of the path was through an overgrown meadow!

Another look across the Rhône Valley 

A very pretty colour for this poppy!

Such a pretty meadow!

So pretty!

The trail here was through an unmowed meadow. 

After about 15 minutes of a steep downhill section through the forest we get to a river without a bridge. The water was pretty high, and it was hard to find a place to cross. The two people coming from the other side may not have made it across. 

Three men came down the hill behind us on the trail, and this is how they crossed the river. We sort of did it that way as well! 

Always interesting sections when there are cable hand-holds!

First look up the Rhône Valley to the city of Fiesch below.  

There were hundreds of these butterfly-type insects flying around, and very difficult to photograph with their wings open! A lovely yellow-green colour. An Internet search says it has the interesting name of "Owly Sulphur". Apparently they are rare in Central Europe, usually only found in southern Europe like Italy and Spain. It's like a cross between a dragonfly and a butterfly. In fact, in German it is called a "Libellen-Schmetterlingshaft". (Libelle=Dragonfly, Schmetterling=Butterfly). 

Here we are just above the town of Lax. 

A zoomed view of the small town of Lax and the Glacier Express Train passing through, filled with tourists on their way between St.Moritz and Zermatt no doubt!

Across the valley is a village called Ernen which we visited in 2014 when we spent a week in a vacation chalet close by. There is a very special 16th-Century organ in the church in Ernen, which has seven bells. We met the organist who plays the bells since 80 years, and he is one of the few remaining people who can do this. 

This little village is simply called Wiler, which means "Hamlet". 

Typical buildings in this area.

They look like Sam the Eagle from the Muppets. From here we hiked a small stretch up the hill to join an irrigation channel called Laggera, which we had seen on the map. 

When we reached the upper trail where there is an irrigation channel called Laggera (2:15 p.m.), it was another 1¼ hours to our destination of the bus stop in Fieschertal. The official trail is here, but a few meters below us we saw people cleaning out a second irrigation channel.  

A  look down at the city of Fiesch and the village of Ernen across the valley on the other side of the Rotten (Rhône) River. 

As we headed out on the trail, we saw that there is no water channel here at all, so either the water has been rerouted through underground pipes, or the channel has not been used since a long time. 

About 10 meters below the Laggera trail was another irrigation channel called Fiescherwyssa, which also was not running water, but at least it looked like it could. Along the way we found a trail joining the two, so we continued on the lower one. 

It was obvious to us that this lower channel was bing renovated and cleaned out. When we got to the end of the trail joining the upper and lower paths, we saw that there was "no access" sign on the path we had just walked! This was confirmation to us that they were indeed restoring the lower channel. 

When we got home, I checked the Internet, and sure enough, there was an article on the local website describing the renovations they are doing on this channel. They anticipate being completed by the end of 2024, although we don't think that is possible. 

Crossing another bridge over a stream called the Milebach

On the north side of the Milebach River, the channel carries water, which made us very happy! This is the part of the Fiescherwyssa Channel which was restored in 2023. 

We are so happy that we can at least have flowing water for the final kilometer of our hike along the channel. 

Hikes along the irrigation channels are much more fun when there is water flowing. 

On our final descent into the back of the Fiescher Valley to our bus stop.... of course there are cows blocking the hiking trail and watching us closely!

Crossing the Wyswasser River which comes down from the Fiescher Glacier at the back.  

Waiting for the 15:45 bus in Fieschertal. We got here just a few minutes before the hourly bus out of the valley. In October of 2017 we ended a hike here as well, crossing the recently-built Aspi-Titter Suspension bridge and descending from the right. HERE are those photos. 

What our hike from Betten Dorf to Fieschertal looks like on Google Satellite Maps. We are below the Aletsch Glacier, the largest Glacier of the Alps (we have been there several times already). 

These are all the hikes we have done in the region of Aletsch Glacier. 

We had decided to go a different way home, via Andermatt. Here's our train coming in to the station. This is a lovely trip and part of the Glacier Express stretch. It is a long trip home. We got into the train here at about 4 p.m., and were home by 7:45 p.m. The trip home via Brig in the other direction where we had come from in the morning would have taken just as long. 

Leaving Fiesch, we look back at the Fieschertal Valley, and the village of Bellwald up on the right. We started two hikes in Bellwald in the past: 1) The hike we did over the Aspi-Titter bridge in 2017, and the circular tour across this entire hillside to the Fiescher Glacier at the back in 2018. 

Traveling up the Goms Valley. There are very many pretty villages here, and it's a favourite for cross-country skiing in winter. The train passes through the Furka Tunnel here to the Urseren Valley on the north side of those mountains.  

The Urseren Valley from Realp to Andermatt is a favourite. The little village is called Zum Dorf, supposedly the smallest village in Switzerland. Bottom left (mountains in the back) are the road to the Furka Pass, which is still closed. 

Near Andermatt.

From Andermatt we take a train down the Schöllenen Gorge. 

Approaching Göschenen, where we have to change trains again. 

A favourite site in the Reuss Valley is the town of Wassen, which the train passes three times as it makes two 180-degree turns here. 

This is the trip we made this day. on the way to the starting point of our hike, we traveled via Zurich, Bern and the Lötschberg Tunnel. On the way home we traveled up the Goms Valley to Andermatt and then north via the Reuss Valley back to Zug. (Altogether about 7 hours or more of travel time). 

These are the communities on the upper part of the mountain (this one is called Fiescheralp, and the other two are called Bettmeralp and Riederalp) just below the glacier. But there is too much snow up here and we weren't interested in going up this far. That is why we chose to do the half-way up hike.