Valais Sunshine Trail between Brig and Visp

Wednesday December 7, 2022 -- It being so close to the shortest day of the year, it is difficult to judge how long we will have sunshine in the mountains, based on how low the sun is!

We took a trip to Canton Valais, in the Brig/Visp region, as the southern flanks of the mountains in the Rhône Valley get lots of sunshine, great for hiking in winter even when the air temperature is just over freezing.... We had planned on two separate hikes with a 45-minute bus ride in between, and it was difficult to decide which to do first. I thought I had made the correct decision, but it turns out that by the time we got to the second hike in Gampel at 2 p.m., the sun was just going down behind the mountains. (We ended up not finishing the second hike as originally planned).

The first hike was very good though. We started at 10:30 in Birgisch near Brig and walked along the "Sunshine Trail" (aptly named) via Mund, know for its saffron harvest, possibly the only place in Central Europe where the expensive spice is still harvested according to old tradition. The plan was to walk down to the valley-bottom village of Lalden near Visp and take the bus from there to Gampel. But the valley bottom was still in shadow by the time we were near there. My intuition was that we should have stayed up high on the "Sunshine Trail" where there was sunshine till 4 p.m., but Urs wanted to see the irrigation channels in Gampel. The fact that the mountainside there was in shadow by the time we got there, and no water was running anyway, made the rest of the trip rather disappointing. Nevertheless, we had plenty of sunshine on this short December day. 

(Side Note: As we like to try out local products on our various excursions around the country,  and because the local shop owner in Mund especially opened her village shop for us "after hours", we bought the most expensive noodles I've ever had: Saffron Noodles, 10 CHF for a 250g bag of noodles! Well, no surprise, as Saffron costs more per gram than gold!)

Oh, and we saw many Valais Black-Nosed Sheep! Some still in the pastures, most in their small stables in the village centers....

Most of the northern part of Switzerland was under a think blanket of fog. Only here between Spiez and the Lötschberg Tunnel in the Bernese Oberland, there was a bit of break in the fog as we traveled through there. 

From Brig by bus to Birgisch, and we join Trail no.61: "Walliser Sonnenweg", or "Valais Sunshine Trail", a favourite of ours in winter because there is really a lot of sunshine, and in summer it's too hot to walk here. Heading to Mund via the Gredetsch Valley. Started at 10:30 

It's a perfect day for this hike, we have really good visibility of the mountains to the West (this view) and to the East. 

Heading up through Birgisch toward the Gredetsch Valley. Behind me the mountains of the Rhône Valley to the East, and the road up to the Simplon Pass

We saw many of these cute Valais Black-Nose Sheep, some in the pastures, many in the small barns. 

This was one of the two hikes we wanted to do this day, only 2-1/4 hours, (the second was 1-1/4). In retrospect, we should have stayed on the Sunshine trail to Eggerberg and possibly further on. But we took our time for this, and had lots of sunshine. 

On the other side of the Gredetsch Valley to the West is the village of Mund, known for its saffron harvest. 

There are about six irrigation channels transporting water out of the Gredetsch Valley. We have been on the upper channels several times. This is the first time we walked along the lowest one. It was a short detour into the valley, and we had more sun than expected. 

Heading out of the Gredetsch Valley again, a view toward Birgisch where we started. You can see the road we walked, and the irrigation channel below it. 

There were hundreds of choughs in Mund, we don't know why.... 

Heading into the village of Mund, in the lower section where we had not yet been. Always new things to discover. 

A look down to valley bottom to the city of Brig. A large part of the valley bottom here is in the shadow of the mountains for a few weeks in winter. 

It's always fun to watch vehicles navigate the narrow streets in these villages. 

A beautiful brand new stone building amongst the old wooden structures

All throughout the villages are these special barns, many of which are being converted into domiciles. 

Village of Mund

Center of the village, what a beautiful view of the Alps to the south 

The little village shop actually closed at 11:30, and we got there just about at that time. The owner let us in just the same. We were looking for a saffron specialty, and had seen her advertisement for the saffron noodles, so we purchased a pack for 10:50 CHF! There were surely other specialties, but we didn't want to bother the shop-keeper any more. 

The flocks of choughs are still circling above the village

The Mund Saffron Museum. We have passed this many times, have never been in it, though

Another look down at the city of Brig, in the shadows. The elevation we are currently at is the ideal for a sunny winter hike. 

Information panels along the way tell of the saffron harvest. The flowers still grow naturally here (the only place in Switzerland) as the ground is ideal. Villagers collect the flowers in Oct-Nov. and pluck the saffron strands by hand. Harvest is about 2 kg total. That's why the spice is so expensive. It also requires thousands of flowers for that much saffron. 

It is illegal for passersby to pick the saffron flowers. You can be fined 500 CHF if you do so. The harvest is a livelihood for many of these villagers. 

From Mund we walked through the forest to the next village of Waflei. We were pleasantly surprised at how pretty it was here. 

Heading down the village street in Waflei (this is a look behind us).

The villagers here seem to decorate the village for everyone's enjoyment. 

Admiring the Christmas decorations in the mountain village of Waflei

Just a couple of wooden stars set outside an old barn makes all the difference!

Another look at the mountains to the east 

Our picnic lunch spot.

Continuing down the trail we came across this interesting chapel built directly into the cliffs. 

Inside the stone chapel, built into the cliff wall

For a short section we followed the Badneri Irrigation channel, which is one of the channels drawing water out of the Gredetsch Valley. 

As this region has little rain and is very dry, these irrigations channels were a necessity of life for many centuries, and required a lot of work to build, such as here, hewn out of the rock. Many of them are still in use, but in winter, the water flow is often "turned off". 

Down below us is the little train station of Lalden on the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon (BLS) Railway line called the South Ramp. Our trail heads down there. Below us is the city of Visp (mainly the large Lonza industrial compound) which only gets a couple of hours of sunshine in winter.  

I was hoping that the village of Lalden would have the sunshine by the time we got here at 1:15 p.m., but we could see we wouldn't have sun by 1:30 when we had to catch the bus. I would have preferred to continue along the railway tracks above the shadows, but Urs wanted to see the other irrigation channels in Gampel 

Christmas Nativity Scene in the village of Lalden. 

Side note: Back in February 2017 I did a hike on my own, starting in the village of Lalden and walking up to the railway line (reverse of what we did this day) and continuing along the sunshine trail to Eggerberg and Ausserberg, what I would have liked to repeat this day. Those photos are HERE.  There were definitely more hours of sunshine in February than in December!

It was about 7 km to walk from Birgisch to Lalden. We timed it well to catch the 13:30 bus to Visp (having started at 10:30 for the 2-1/4 hour hike)

The region of the Sunshine Trail is a popular one for us, because it is easy to reach in about 3 hours from home. We chose the trail from Birgisch to Lalden on purpose this way, because we hadn't walked that stretch yet. 

From Lalden we took a bus to Visp (15 minutes) and had to wait 20 minutes there for our connecting bus. Within 10 minutes of getting there, we lost the sunshine. Then another 25-minute bus ride to Gampel where we wanted to start our second hike. It was tough seeing the sunshine on the hillside where I had wanted to continue hiking.  

Heading West by bus, there is so much sunshine still on the hillside here in the Baltschieder Valley. I would have preferred to continue our walk up there just above the shadows and along the railway line. But we had walked into that valley several times already. 

Passing through Raron with its renowned chapel on the hill. The Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke is buried here. 

By 2:30 p.m. we reached Gampel for the start of our second hike where the trail would take us up and past the chapel on the hill. Not 10 minutes later, the hillside was in shadow. It goes that quickly!

The second hike we did was another 4 km, but wasn't actually what we wanted to do. Starting at the base station of the Jeizinen cableway we wanted to walk the "lower" then the "upper" water channels, then continue further west to the next village called Niedergampel but I saw no point to this anymore, so we returned to the village and caught the bus straight up northward through the Lonza Valley to the train station in Goppenstein. 

Part of the "Lower Channel" (Untere Wasserleite). 

Looking toward the east, it was pretty clear we should have started here at 10:30, and done the second hike later in the day!

Heading westward along the Upper Water Channel (Obere Wasserleite), I decided I would prefer to try this again when the water is running and the sun shining here! So we returned to the valley bottom instead of continuing on to Niedergampel

Well, it's 3 p.m. now, and the day is pretty well finished here! This is actually two cities, Gampel and Steg. We returned to the city center and caught a bus north at 15:45, and got back home at 7:15 p.m.

Three Irrigation Channels from Belalp to Mund near Brig

 (This post done on September 14, 2021)

Friday August 27, 2021 -- The final day of our 5-day hiking trip in Canton Valais dawned cloudless as we prepared to leave our little hotel in Les Collons high up above the Rhône Valley. We had to leave fairly early as there are only three daily bus courses that take you off the mountain from Thyon to Sion. (Side note: This was the first day of school, and many tiny French-speaking humans rode the bus with us, heading off to primary school in Vex, about half-way down the mountain...)

Although the weather would have been perfect in this corner of Canton Valais, we had again planned something further along on the "way home", namely an irrigation channel hike high up on Belalp near Brig, where we had actually been the month before when we hiked on the Aletsch Panorama Trail in July (photos HERE). At that time we had lots of fog and had to wait out some time at the restaurant there, before starting on that hike. We had high hopes to see the alp without fog this time...

Which turned out not to be. It was basically a repeat of last time, a cable car ride from Blatten through the clouds, an hour spent at the restaurant waiting for the clouds to lift (as it turned out, they remained all day) and then off on our hike anyway. We started with a 3.5-kilometer walk along the Nessjeri irrigation channel (built in the 15th Century), at an altitude of 2100 meters one of the highest irrigation channels which still conveys water to irrigate the farms in the Rhône Valley below. Even with the fog, it was a lovely hike. As we got further and further from Belalp, the magnificent Aletsch Glacier appeared more and more behind us, until the best view-point before we started on our long descent: At a little hamlet called Nessel, we were able to look North to the Aletsch Glacier, and over the entire Rhône Valley to the South. So not a wasted day at all.

After the long and tiring descent (750m) toward Birgisch, we still had enough energy to walk along two more irrigation channels (Oberschta and Stigwasser, both even older than the Nessjeri channel, namely built some time in the 13th Century) into and out of the the fabulous Gredetschtal Valley to end our hike in Mund, the Saffron Capital North of the Alps.... (30-1000 flowers handpicked per day over 18,000 sq.meters, producing 1 to 4 kilograms of saffron per year). The Mund Saffron Museum is housed in a tiny wooden building which has been dated to 1437 and is one of the oldest structures in Canton Valais. 

The day starts with a nice breakfast at the "Auberge de l'ours" hotel in Les Collons. There weren't many guests, and we are the first up this early.... (7 a.m.). 

At 8 a.m. we are heading back down to Sion from Les Collons, a 45-minute bus ride where more and more children were getting on, going to their first day of school in Vex below. 

The Chateau de Valère in Sion. Here the weather was fabulous. Webcams for Brig already indicated way more clouds in that direction, and we could have changed plans, but that becomes tiring. So we stuck to our original plan and headed to Belalp

From Blatten bei Naters you take a cable car to Belalp, where we nursed some coffees again on the restaurant terrace while waiting for the clouds to disappear, which they did not. (I was so annoyed at our lack of spontaneity to change plans, that I forgot to take a photo of our coffee break...). From there we walked up to the irrigation channel called Nessjeri, at 2100 one of the highest irrigation channels where water flows. 

Looking across the valley we could see that the irrigation channel trail at least was not directly in the clouds, so we headed off anyway.... Considering that we left the hotel in Les Collons fairly early, we only started on this hike at 11:30 a.m. 

Heading toward the irrigation channel (not here, although this is the river which provides the water for the channel higher up) we at least had some sunshine, but the surrounding mountains had disapeared in the clouds. 

Here we are near the origin of the Nessjeri irrigation channel

For the next 3.5 kilometers we walked South along this irrigation channel

The colours of the landscape were very pretty up here, even without much sunshine

VIDEO:

Walking along the Nessjeri Irrigation Channel

(This is my own video, open up in YouTube)

A look behind us at Belalp where we started our hike (above the forested section). The Aletsch Glacier is just coming into view on the right. 

This is how the water is diverted to the various fields. Back in the middle ages there were very strict rules about which farmer got to use the water and when. Only those who participated in building the channels had "free" use (according to strict schedules), others had to pay to use the water. 

The more we headed South, the more we could see of the Aletsch Glacier to the Northeast (It was such a shame that the sky was not blue). 

A zoomed view of the Aletsch Glacier (the largest glacier in the Alps) looking back toward where we came from. 

Just before starting on the long descent, we arrived at the little hamlet called Nessel

Little hamlet of Nessel near Belalp

Another very cute and very old chapel, which contained a little surprise

Inside the Nessel Chapel is a very old original piece of artwork, a type of box whose doors can be shut. The date on the box reads 1656.... And interestingly enough, the artists in the middle ages don't ever seem to have seen any real human babies. (They simply look like tiny grown men). 

To the Southwest we can see the Mischabel Massif on the left, the Matterhorn in the middle, and the Weisshorn on the right. (It was really tough realizing the skies were clear there... we could have done a hike in the Vispa Valley instead...)

A zoomed view of Mount Matterhorn which is way South at the back of the Vispa/Matter Valley on the Italian border

We found a really good place where we could look North into the Massa Valley, and South into the Rhône Valley. 

A look North into the Massa Valley, to the Gibidum Dam below, and the Aletsch Glacier at the back. 

Panorama view of the Massa Gorge and the Rhône Valley, with the city of Brig below. In the back is the road toward the Simplon Pass

A last look at the city of Brig below before starting on our descent. We had barely any sunshine while up here because of a single cloud between the sun and us.

On our way down the mountain we mostly walked through the forest, with glimpses down to the city of Brig, including the fabulous Stockalper Palace

When we finally reached the Oberschta Irrigation Channel above Birgisch after an 80-minute and 730-meter descent, it was time to massage my feet and cool them off in the ice-cold mountain water!!!

Instead of descending to the bus stop in Birgisch, we decided to walk along the other two irrigation channels Oberschta and Stigwasser to Mund, via the Gredetschtal Valley. It was only an additional hour, and a level trail. These two irrigation channels were built in the 13th Century. 

A glimpse across the valley to Mund, the end of our hike. 

On this irrigation channel there were many tunnels built to accommodate the flowing water. 

(More than likely, the original irrigation channel was built of wooden troughs attached to the outside of the cliffs, and then later redirected through tunnels)

VIDEO:

One of the many tunnels along the Oberschta Irrigation Channel

(This channel constructed in the 13th Century...)

A look up the beautiful Gredetsch Valley. 30 minutes on this side, and 30 minutes on the other on the way out (in the shadow of the mountain). On the other side is another "exciting" irrigation channel much higher up. 

Looking to the back of the Gredetsch Valley. 

You can walk further back into the valley, but here at the bridge crossing the river is where we headed back out the other side of the valley. We came along the Oberschta Suon, and went out along the Stigwasser to Mund. 

Some more tunnels to walk through, some quite dark!

A narrow trail next to the irrigation channel. But the way out was in the shadow of the mountain. 

Out of the valley again and heading to the village of Mund

Another look down into the Rhône Valley and the Simplon road in the far back

Heading down into the village of Mund to catch to bus to Brig

Old wooden Valais buildings. Many of these are old barns, some have been converted to small homes. 

This building houses the Saffron Museum. It has been dated back to 1437 and is one of the oldest structures in Canton Valais. 

The Saffron Museum. 

Entrance to the Saffron Museum. We still are planning to come to Mund sometime in October or November to experience the saffron harvest first-hand. 

A four-hour hike along three ancient irrigation channels (14 kilometers). As with the other four hikes we did, there was more downhill than uphill. 

Obviously, this is another area where we have done a lot of walking. This time it was starting at Belalp and walking to Mund via Nessel and Gredetsch Valley. In previous years we have already walked along the two lower irrigation channels (Oberschta and Stigwasser).

This is the area of the lower Valais where we spent five days toward the end of August, and the regions where we did the five hikes.