WHR day 3: Barrage de la Grande Dixence to Arolla

We’ve had a fantastic day walking through snow covered mountains under bright blue skies. Even the sections of the hike I thought would be tedious were fab, and I had no problems on the steep and scary section, even though there was snow on the ground and the support chains were freezing cold!

We were quite late setting off from our hotel because breakfast wasn’t until 8 and the first cable car wasn’t until 9. We could have walked up to the top of the dam but didn’t want to 😆.

The mountains and lake looked stunning in the sunshine. I thought the first 7 kilometres along the huge Lac des Dix would be boring, but I was wrong. First there was a series of tunnels blasted through the mountains, then pretty waterfalls running down the mountainside kept my interest.

The highlight of this section was seeing marmots sunning themselves on the rocks by the lake. There was even a tiny baby marmot. So cute! John had to drag me away from watching them!

Then, at the end of the lake, there was a waterfall thundering out of a tunnel in the hillside. We think this is water from other areas in the region, collected and piped to be stored in Lac des Dix. We sat and had something to eat here, before starting the ascent to arguably the most difficult section of Walkers’ Haute Route, Col de Riedmatten.

The climb was steep on a rocky trail, at first through green flower meadows. We came across more snow as we climbed and, after a while, descended into a rocky area and crossed a bridge over a small river gorge, carved by spring snow melts over thousands of years.

Heading uphill again, we reached a rocky plateau, surrounded by snowy mountains, and with an icy lake at the far end. The path got steeper and rockier, as we climbed a lateral moraine, and was often muddy and unstable.

Finally, we reached Col de Riedmatten, which was the final and steepest part of our ascent, up a snow filled unstable rocky gully. Having read the guidebooks, I’d been a bit worried about this, but it was fine.

With the chains attached to the mountainside, I was able to support myself, haul myself up, and prevent any slips on the loose scree. One of the girls in front of us was finding it very scary and was only progressing slowly, so we had to be patient and wait our turn… not easy on loose rock with a steep drop below us!

We soon reached the top and were surprised to have our first glimpse of the very top of the Matterhorn in the distance. The Matterhorn is our end destination in Zermatt in 10 days time.

From here, it was all downhill to Arolla, on zigzagging paths, still rocky, but without too many high steps to jar my poor old knees. My rucksack was making my shoulders ache, so John made a few adjustments to it and it seems much better.

Just before we reached Arolla, we unexpectedly came across a cafe bar so, of course, we had a couple of beers! Our hotel was just 10 minutes further on, as we emerged from woodland on the edge of the town. It’s a beautiful hotel and our room is the nicest we’ve had so far. I hope the food’s good. I’m starving!