Domodossola - just a train ride away

Domodossola

Just an hour's train ride from Sierre and you're in Italy and the beautiful historic town of Domodossola. The old town dates back to the C14th and wandering around you'll definitley come into the Piazza Mercato - an irregular shaped square surrounded by elegant medieval town houses with beautiful balconies and loggias.

Wander the medieval street and churches

Domodossola has long been a hub town which became more important in the early 1800's when Napolean finished the building of the road across the Simplon pass, one hundred year's later the railway tunnel was opened allowing even easier connections with Switzerland.

It's a great day out - topped off with a coffee and a delicious Italian ice-cream at 1/3 of the price.  PK

Vallon de Rechy - downhill (nearly) all the way

Alpenrose in bloom as we descend from the Cret

Views of La Maya at the head of the valley

The gondolas in Vercorin started their summer timetable last weekend. With the current heatwave the 1000m ride up to the top of the Cret de Midi at 2330m meant the air was a lot cooler and we reached the start of one of the area's more gentle mountain walks and prettiest ways into the Rechy valley  - without even needing to walk up hill.

Flowering marsh meadows at l'Ar du Tsan

Crossing back before starting our descent

From the top of the Cret we followed a wonderful gentle descending traverse that scribed the hillside south, past blooming alpenrose, to the buttercup filled marsh meadows at L'Ar du Tsan (2180m). From here you could turn north and continue to descend (more steeply) to the next flat area at La Le and the start of the bisse waterway which flows with you all the way back to Vercorin. But we decided to extend our route and climbed up to the next flat area (near Lac Louche) for closer views of La Maya and a great picnic spot before making a loop which brought us back to the Tsan meadows and on down. A great day out.   PK

Descending from Tsan to La Le

Ahead of the game

Frogs have already laid their eggs in the ponds in Zinal

Spring has definitely arrived early this year. The swallows and martins flew in at least 3 weeks ago and up in Zinal the frogs have filled the little pond with spawn, the willows are in full flower and the Plats de la Lee has virtually no snow on it

Pussy willow in full flower

It's been about 4 weeks since we were last able to  cross country ski here

One fine day

It's been a week of blue sky and warm spring weather but the forecast says it's changing at the weekend. So today we headed up to the Cabane d'Arpitettaz for lunch out on the terrace. After a 1200m climb a cheese sandwich never tasted so good. The view up to the glacier is amazing, as was the spring snow we found on the ski back down. PK

Where the river runs through

The gorge at the end of the 'Plats'

The southern end of the 'Plats' flood plain is blocked by a wall of rock -while the footpath climbs up and over, the Navisence river has cut down through it, forming a narrow gorge. This steep gorge is impassable in summer due to high water levels, but at this time of year you can climb across the exposed boulders and work your way up gorge. It's a wild mysterious place - especially today with the swirling mist and low cloud. PK

Tele-marking time

You don't need much snow to have knee deep powder.

After some promising snow in November, we had virtually nothing in December. In fact, it was the third driest month recorded in the last 150 years, and the level 4 hazard was for fire not avalanche. However, there was enough cold for the resort to make snow and so, as we waited for the season to really begin, we took up our telemark skis and started to practice.

Last April we decided to give tele-marking a go, and spent four days with Nicko of Telemark Tracks (www.telemarktracks.com) over in Val d'Isere. (You can read how we got on in the follow feature in the Financial Times )

When conditions require you to stay on the groomed stuff, this is certainly one way to not get bored with the piste. We've moved from blues to red and (with a bit of fresh snow) to some gentle off piste. More practice required but things are slowly getting better - as are the snow conditions. PK

Besso

View from the kitchen sink

From our kitchen window we get a fabulous view of the steep, rocky, NW face of the Besso - this evening it had a rosy alpenglow, against a clear sky scattered with a few early stars. At 3667m it's not the highest mountain in the valley, but it's perhaps the most distinctive.  The two peaks gave it its name - 'Besso' meaning double or twin in the old local patois.

It was probably first climbed in the 1860's by two local guides via a route not seen from the house. The 'standard' route to the summit starts from the Grand Mountet hut, and goes up the rocky, and at times exposed, SE ridge. The view from the top should be amazing but for now I'm happy with my view from the window...  PK

Views and colours of the NW face of the Besso

From the ski domain it looks quite tiny - seen in the centre of the picture

New route to Lac d'Arpitettaz

After a snowy day the sun came out and we just had to go for a walk. It's been a while since we've done this route and we found quite a few changes. 

Across the Plat de la Le and up the first section everything was covered in an inch or two of fresh snow - not enough to completely cover the autumn colours, but it gave it a certain something.

Walking up from the Plat to the bridge

Reaching the upper level, we came to a new bridge spanning the Navisence. Since a storm in August 2013 washed away much of the river bank, (including the original bridge), several temporary bridges have been used to span the multiple streams and rocky floodplain, but these too were vulnerable to flooding. Now that's changed as this new wooden structure is built up on solid concrete footings.

New bridge spans the Navisence

Once over on the east side we found the path has been re routed. The new way, freshly carved into the turf, heads south to pass close above the cascade, before climbing up to the cross and enclosures at Le Chiesso.

The new path goes above the Cascade de la Volermo

Continuing on up to the Lac, there was another surprise - two shepherd's huts with solar panels had been dropped in for the season. Designed by three carpenters from Diablerets these high tech, mini pods are light enough for a helicopter to lift up to the high 'alpages', giving shepherds a more comfortable night under the stars.  PK

Temporary shepherd's huts by Lac d'Arpitetta

You can read more about this project on www.24heures.ch

The 'high' way from Zinal to Petit Mountet in early autumn.

Fresh snow on the mountains are golden autumn colours

A real gem of a walk and at this time of year the colours are jewel like - sapphire blue sky, emerald ferns and ruby red leaves of the myrtile bushes - and to think autumn has hardly begun. A real contrast to the last time I wrote about this route which was in July when there was still snow to cross and the pink alpenrose was in bloom.

A wonderful traverse with fabulous mountain views

It's a real favourite and by using the cable car there's hardly any climbing. You just stroll south across the mountain on a long traverse which slowly descends via the Cabane Petit Mountet to Le Pla and back to Zinal village. For nearly half the walk you are over 2400m and the views to the east are unbeatable, plus at this time of year we were the only people up there.    PK

Descending to the Cabane Petit Mountet

Green & Black

Crop of blackcurrants and gooseberries

It's harvest time for our fruit bushes and what a crop. We picked 9kg from the three blackcurrant bushes, and nearly 4kg from the two gooseberries. The rest of the afternoon was spent washing, top and tailing and freezing - keeping a few back top make some fool.

August fool

August Fool

- Stew some berries with sugar and a little water
- Puree, sieve and leave to cool
- whip some double cream and then fold into cooled berry puree.
PK

Sky at night

Looking south towards the Besso

Last night was a beautiful, warm and moonless night. You didn't need to go far from the village to get the most amazing sky-scape. No telescopes required it was all just there - layer upon layer, from the bright to the milky way 'cloud'. A mind boggling look back in time.  PK

Looking west

Snow angel

The Besso's snow angel

Can you see her? Go straight down from the left peak and she's lying on the rock. We've never spotted her before, but this weekend our neighbour pointed her out. Of course she's not always there -and she can vanish overnight.

Incase you still can't see her.....  PK

...she circled in pink.

Look back on winter 2015/16

As the season comes to an early end, it's nice to look back to just some of the epic ski days we had. After a lean start it turned into a great winter.

Direct line

Direct line to Mottec

It took one exciting (and wrong) try to finally work out the direct line back to Mottec. It's taken a while but we've finally done it and it's a new favourite route. Lovely snow, nearly 1500m of continuous descent, some exciting terrain, and a cup of tea waiting at the chalet.  PK

Some great snow...

...and interesting terrain

Marinda - East Face

A new route for us - the east face of the Marinda. Seen from Zinal the face appears to be nearly vertical, however, it proved to be a beautiful ski and with very little skinning.  Happy days :)

Seen from Zinal it seemed almost vertical

The first short skin and ski down to the river

The second skin and lunch on the Basset de Lona

Perfect snow on the first main pitch ... 

and the second