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.

Excursion with Aunt Ruth to the Remote Village of Indemini

(This post done on December 14, 2021)

Friday September 14, 2018 -- Once in a while, instead of doing a hike, we go on a day's excursion with my Aunt Ruth, to see a part of Switzerland that she is not familiar with. Generally this is some remote valley in the Ticino, as we know of all kinds of neat places off the beaten track there.

On this day we took the long and winding road with the bus from down on Lago Maggiore across from Locarno, up the mountain called Monte Gambarogno, to the furthest community just before the Italian border: Indemini, one of the remotest and most difficult villages to access in Canton Ticino. 

(NOTE: Before the Gotthard Base Tunnel opened in 2017, we were not able to access this village on a day trip. The base tunnel cuts travel time south by about 40 minutes!)

After the one-hour bus ride, we had lunch in the single local restaurant, walked around the old village, discovered a local museum, and returned to the restaurant for dessert.  As we were enjoying dessert, there was some helicopter action in the valley, which always sparks questions of what kind of search might be taking place. Later on we found out that on this very day, on the hills just across from Indemini (in view of our restaurant), an older Italian gentlemen had died while out foraging for mushrooms. He was discovered by hikers on the trail. A trail we were longing to walk on this beautiful day... but that would have been a hard surprise.

More information on this interesting village can be found at this WEBSITE. Of particular note is that it is actually the only Swiss Village in the otherwise Italian valley called Veddasca (to the South), and before the road was built in about 1920 (accessing the village from the North via the Neggia Pass), the only access was on mountain trails. Furthermore, this is the only village in Canton Ticino whose buildings have been built entirely of locally quarried stone. 

NOTE: For some additional very nice photos of the village of Indemini, please also look at the album of the first trip we made there, in May of 2016: CLICK HERE

As the bus heads up Monte Gambarogno from Lago Maggiore, we look down at one of the lakeside villages: Vira, with its two churches

Just a small piece of the 25-km road built in 1920 to basically access the remote mountain village of Indemini, near the border with Italy (the road continues down on the Italian side as well). 

This is a look down at the northern section of Indemini, as we get off the bus (final bus stop on the Swiss side). The village is built on a very steep hillside. 

Here's the restaurant where we had lunch, and returned to for dessert after walking through the village. It's the only open restaurant in the village. 

A selfie of me, Urs and Aunt Ruth at lunch in the Ristorante Indeminese

After lunch we strolled to the South end of the village, where the road crosses into Italy, and into the Veddasca Valley

Chiesa di San Bartolomeo at the very South end of the village of Indemini, just this side of the Italian border. 

Village fountains are always welcome!

Walking back and forth through the very narrow alleyways of Indemini

Alleyways in Indemini

Due to its remoteness and inaccessibility, this village has remained relatively unaltered in the past centuries. 

We discovered a small museum, with old photos about how life used to be in this mountain village

Cool old snowshoes!!!

A look eastward across the valley to the Monte Tamaro (on the left) / Monte Lema range. It was exactly on this forested hillside that hikers found an Italian man (deceased) who had come here to pick mushrooms. 

A sample of some very nice and old architecture here. 

On our way back down the mountain by bus, we got some nice glimpses into the Verzasca Valley and its famous dam, on the North side of Lago Maggiore

Before the 20-km road from the lakeshore was built in 1920, the community of Indemini was accessible only via mountain trails. 

On Google Satellite maps, what the 20-km road looks like: From lake level, over the Neggia pass, and down to Indemini (the road continues down the Veddasca Valley on the Italian side, back down to the lake). 

NOTE: For some additional very nice photos of the village of Indemini, please also look at the album of the first trip we made there, in May of 2016: CLICK HERE.

Here is just a sample:

Village of Indemini, on the first trip we took here in May 2016

On the Four Headwaters Trail from Nufenen Pass to Capanna Pian Secco

Tuesday September 11, 2018 -- We are having an unusually warm September... they say this happens only every 5-10 years. So we decided as long as we still can, let's go up to the highest alpine pass road in Switzerland, the Nufenen Pass (2,478m), and hike to the dammed lake called Griessee from where you can cross the border into Italy, although our plan was to head East along the South side of the Bedretto Valley. 

Now this warm weather has been the cause of many mountain flanks becoming unstable, and we have been surprised several times this summer by trails that have been closed due to danger of rock slides. We knew that the trails BELOW the road we wanted to walk were closed, but there were other trails we mapped out, so it should have been OK.

We got up very early to be at the Pass at 9 a.m., but one look at where we were going told us it would be a long, dark journey, so we got the cook at the pass restaurant to fire up his deep fryer to make us a breakfast of French Fries, in the hopes of having less shadow by the time we got going at 9:30 a.m. Well, after barely leaving the restaurant, we came across a sign that informed us that the entire area all the way to the lake was off limits.... luckily, we had the option of a Plan B, i.e. walking Eastward on the North side of the Valley, which actually meant more sunshine... and the day was just as successful as if we had planned this originally.

The trail we ended up walking is part of the "Four Headwaters Trail", which is an 82-km trail which takes you to the source or headwaters of four of Europe's most important rivers: The Rhine, the Rhone, the Reuss and the Ticino. We were at the source of the Ticino this time (having already been at the source of the other three on previous hikes), so that was special in itself. And what made the whole day a success was the fabulous fall colours. The entire hillsides on both sides of the valley are covered with wild blueberry bushes turning red: a tableau of greens, yellow and reds, it was stunning. And I ate my fill of blueberries along the way.

Since we had already had a change of plans, we also did a 40-minute detour to a little alpine lake which we hadn't noticed on the map, but the trail markers pointed to. Idyllic place for a picnic lunch, then on to the Pian Secco Hostel where we had an hour to kill before descending to All'Aqua in the valley bottom to catch our bus back out to Airolo.

Just as we got to the bottom we saw a rescue helicopter hovering... hovering, means something bad had happened. Then the first, second and third of about 10 fire engines and police cars raced past toward the pass... our bus came and the driver turned on the news, and we heard a small plane had crashed into the mountainside not 200m from the place we started out this morning, and this happened just after we left the hostel. More to the point, I saw such a plane flying up the valley earlier as we were hiking, and it might very well have been the same. So tragic.

On the way to the Nufenen Pass (on the right) is Mount Nufenenstock ahead. Our plan was to walk behind this mountain and come up to the hostel on the left, then walk along the hillside on the left.

The lake and restaurant at the Nufenen Pass... we had a breakfast of French Fries at 9 a.m.!

 

From the pass we can see Lake Griessee where we wanted to walk to, but this entire section was off limits due to danger of rock slides from Mount Nufenenstock on the left. The wind-turbine on the left is apparently the highest-altitude wind-turbine in Europe. 

Looking to the West, the Nufenen Pass road descends to the Obergoms Valley where the Rhone River flows from the Rhone Glacier south-westward toward France

This sign warned us that the area we wanted to walk is totally off limits. So we decided to simply walk the northern trail instead.

Our original plan was to walk to Lake Griessee, cross the Corno Pass and walk to San Giacomo before heading down to the Valley bottom. But our Plan B was just as successful.

On this hillside East of the Nufenen Pass are the headwaters of the Ticino River, which eventually flows into the mighty Po River in Italy

Heading eastward down the Bedretto Valley

Walking along the very young Ticino River

After crossing to the North Flank, a view backwards shows us the Nufenen Pass on the right, and the Pass Road below

Zoomed view of the unusual structure near the Corno Pass... this is the Corno-Gries Swiss Alpine Hostel that we wanted to walk to from the other side. We'll go up there on a different trip.

Stunning landscapes

The hills are covered with wild blueberry bushes turning red

This almost looks like a mosaic

We were wading in blueberries. Whenever I felt like it, I just picked a handful

Here is where we did a detour to the little lake called Lago delle Pigne

It was idyllic up here, so this is the place we picked for our picnic lunch.

Perfect place for a picnic lunch and to take off one's shoes!

I can't get enough of all the rock formations in these mountains

Down the other side from the lake was a bit trickier

Below, the Swiss Alpine Club hostel "Pian Secco", a popular rest stop along the Four Headwaters Trail

We decided to stop here for a Panaché/Radler break before heading down to the valley

Taking it easy, no racing down the hill today to catch the next bus...

A map on the hostel wall shows the entire Four-Headwaters Trail. 

A very nice easy 45-minute walk took us back down to All'Aqua, where we watched several fire trucks, police cars, and rescue helicopters pass by before our bus came to pick us up. We found out shortly thereafter that an airplane crashed nearby

Heading out of the Bedretto Valley toward Airolo

It was not a hardship to scrap Plan A for Plan B. Plan A would have taken longer than the 5 1/2 hours it took us to walk the 13 km for Plan B

This was the news item about the crash. I saw a very similar small plane flying up the valley past us about 3 hours earlier. Might have been the same one doing a couple of runs.