Saas-Fee is a car-free village, and in fact, it always has been. When the far-sighted locals had the good sense, in 1951, to ban automobile traffic to stave off air pollution, no roads had yet been built here – so no cars (except electric trams and delivery vehicles) have ever made it onto the streets of Saas-Fee and villages of Saas-Grund, Saas-Almagell and Saas-Balen, all connected by bus.

It all contributes to an atmosphere of great calm. And yet, while hiking in the hills is the classic summertime activity here, there is plenty to keep thrill-seekers occupied, too. One of the more hair-raising, yet still very accessible, activities is the Gorge Alpine Experience, which leads intrepid visitors on a guided trek through the Fee Gorge, which runs from Saas-Fee down to the village of Saas-Grund. The gorge was formed during millennia past by meltwater from the Fee Glacier, which relentlessly carved deeper and deeper into the rock over time.

This experience is available year-round, with blankets of snow and otherworldly ice sculptures adorning the gorge in winter – but I’m glad I’m here in the summertime, when sunlight dapples through the larch forests high above, and the cracks and crevasses which riddle the walls of the gorge burst with bright green shrubs and trees.

It’s just the right amount of scary, and I feel perfectly safe – I’m roped to, and ably directed by, my guide, Saas-Fee local Marco. He is a man of few words, but he does give a surprising answer when I ask him about his favourite part of the Gorge Alpine experience. “Raclette,” he replies with a nod.

Raclette is the ultimate Valais meal: a hearty dish of semi-hard alpine cheese made from the milk of Valais cows, including the Hérens, a local breed of jet-black cattle famed for their fiery temperament. A raclette melted over a fire in the woods, served with a crisp glass of fendant, the archetypal Valais wine, is a classic add-on to the Gorge Alpine experience – but today, I’m heading elsewhere for lunch.

Once Marco has dropped me back in Saas-Fee, I board a cable car for the steep five-minute ride(which is free in summer and autumn) up to the Hannig viewpoint on the south-facing Hannigberg mountain, which is bathed in sunlight in the summer months, affording magnificent views over the many 4,000-metre-plus mountains which surround the Saas Valley.

I take a seat on the terrace of the Mountain Restaurant Hannig and, needing to refuel after my morning’s exertions in the gorge, order a coffee and a hearty Älplermagronen, a Swiss alpine dish of pasta, potatoes, cream and cheese, topped with fried onions and served with an apple compote.

Such magnificent feats of engineering, dotting the pristine alpine landscape, are a feature of this part of the world. Heading back down to Saas-Fee on the cable car, I board a bus for 25 minutes south to Lake Mattmark (also free of charge), a glacial reservoir lake in the Saas Valley created in the 1960s by the construction of the Mattmark Dam, the largest earth dam in Europe.

Mattmark was created to provide electricity for the area, but despite its manmade nature, it feels incredibly peaceful – as I look out across the still, appropriately electric-blue water, I even spot a family of marmots wriggling up a green valley wall.

For all its serenity, though, Mattmark’s history is not without tragedy. In 1965, this was the site of the biggest disaster in recent Swiss history, when 88 construction workers were buried underneath an ice avalanche while working on the dam. Much has been done to commemorate these people over the years; there’s even a Mattmark Memorial run every September.

I embark on a walk on the trail which hugs the reservoir’s western shore. It’s a rare combination of easy accessibility – there are even families with pushchairs here – and extreme natural beauty, with the giant peak of the Allalinhorn (Mount Allalin) soaring in the background and the icy tongues of the Allalin and Schwarzberg glaciers slithering down the grey mountainsides.

After an easy 45-minute stroll, I arrive at the lake’s north shore, and look up at the wood-clad Mattmark Restaurant, where groups are gathered in the sunlight on the terrace, over ice-cold beers and platters of pasta and pie and grills bubbling with melted cheese.