To listen along to this story on the Valais region of Switzerland, or to pause the playback, click the play button:
Hiking guide Anita Stadelmann leads the way along the southern road out of Nendaz, past smart wooden chalets and rickety raccards, the historic grain stores characteristic of the Valais, made from planks of wood and raised on pillars of stone to keep out inquisitive rodents.
The relics of civilisation dissolve as we reach the outer edges of town, the forest closes in, and we walk gently uphill along natural terraces enclosed by avenues of conifers, the scent of pine hanging on a gentle breeze. Through gaps in the trees, glimpses are afforded of the Printse Valley, the bright sunlight beaming against the huge, slate-grey mountainsides, with the river snaking like a tiny snail trail far below at their feet.
High in the Valaisian Alps, the summer sun distorts all sense of perspective and scale. The mountains are grey-faced and bare, robbed of their coats of snow by the warmth and the light, elevating their already great size – the Valais contains the highest mountains in Switzerland, with dozens over 4,000 metres – to seemingly celestial proportions.
Sunshine is no stranger here, lighting up the skies more than 300 days per year, and here in Nendaz the temperature regularly exceeds 20°C in the warmer months, despite a lofty elevation of 1,252m.
Were it not for the constant tinkling of cowbells and the occasional wooden cattle barn, it would be easy to mistake this landscape for pure wilderness, unsullied by human hands. But then Anita points out that we’re following the route of a bisse, a wooden irrigation channel – half-buried here beneath vegetation to the side of the path – of a type which was built across the Swiss Alps as long ago as the 13th century.
These marvels of engineering are directly related to the Valais’ sunny weather: the dry climate here means that irrigation is needed in order for the land to support grazing livestock, so the bisses were built to carry water from mountain streams to otherwise arid pasturelands.
The grass which this then produces is used for grazing animals in the summer, and is then cut down for animal feed in the winter, representing one of the earliest forms of intensive farming. Even this earthly paradise, then, has its challenges – but the people of the Valais were determined to stay and make a life here. I can’t exactly blame them.
It’s not yet lunchtime, but hiking is hungry work, and I could do with a snack. Happily, nature provides. Anita motions to a flat, slab-like stone by the side of the path, which is laid out neatly with three pine cones, each nibbled away to varying degrees.
“A nutcracker’s dinner table,” she says with a smile, and, picking up the least nibbled of the three cones, turns it to its untouched side and begins to pull it apart, extracting a few woody scales and breaking them between her teeth to reveal pristine pine nuts within.
We snack on them – sweet and earthy, as fresh as it gets – as an irked-looking nutcracker croaks at us from the branches of a conifer, ruffling its black-and-white, polka-dotted plumage.
Pine nuts foraged from half-nibbled cones are very much just the appetizer, however. The Valais is one of the food capitals of Switzerland, home to raclette cheese, exquisite cured meats, brisolée (roasted chestnuts), and more.
As we reach the hamlet of Planchouet, civilisation begins to reveal itself once more in the form of a cluster of wooden chalets, nestled in the cleft of a forested valley beside the burbling River Printse. We take a seat on the terrace of one of them – the Restaurant & Gîte de Planchouet – and are served a delicious three-course feast which showcases the Valais’ characteristically hearty country cuisine.
First up come plates of oozing raclette, the famous melted cheese which this region has been producing since at least the 1300s. During our walk this morning, we had passed a barn used for maturing wheels of the semi-hard cow’s cheese, also called raclette, which is used for this dish.
“A cave of the alpage,” as Anita had described it when we poked our heads inside – the alpage being the name of the high mountain pasture on which the cows graze during the warmer summer months.
Cool and dark, the barn had been filled with the zingy, salty smell of the cheese, and I’d been craving it ever since – and it didn’t disappoint.
Next up, it’s mouth-wateringly juicy and tender rib-eye steak from the Hérens cow, the jet-black, famously hot-tempered cattle whose clinking cowbells have served as the accompaniment to our day’s walk.
In a month or so’s time, in late September, these cows will be garlanded with flowers and led down from their summer pastures to graze at lower altitudes – a tradition, known as the Désalpes, which has become a tourist attraction in its own right.
Finally comes dessert: a selection of sorbets from Hasta Glaces in the Valais capital of Sion, made from natural produce of the canton: raspberries, strawberries, and particularly the apricots, delicate and sweet, which thrive in the near-Mediterranean climate of the Valais between July and August.
It’s all delicious, so I react with alarm, swollen from the sumptuous produce of the Valais, when Anita stands up and says, “Right! Time to walk home.” I rouse myself from my post-prandial daze and haul myself out of my chair with a grunt. At least the way back is downhill.
Need to know: Nendaz
Getting there
SWISS Air flies direct from London Heathrow to Geneva and to Zürich.
These cities are connected to towns and cities across the Valais region by SBB and Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn trains and buses.
Best time to go
Hiking in the Valais is best enjoyed in the summer but possible all year round.
The bisse walk here, including three-course meal, is available between late May and late October, which is also the most colourful time.
Where to stay
MAD Mount Hotel is your best bet for accommodation in Nendaz.
From £191, B&B. madmount.ch
Must-pack item
Walking boots and coats are essential in this part of the world.
How to do it
The walk described in this article can be booked on the official website of Nendaz Tourism.
Anything else
More information on the activities and destinations described in this article can be found on the Valais region’s tourism website.
