"Our days are made up of scree, passes and elevation changes. We wash up in mountain lakes and supplement our meals with wild blueberries."
With its 4 official languages, Switzerland is, according to us, the most European of the countries we visited! But be careful, they don't like to be talked about Europe...
Switzerland has not been the country of encounters for us. Not that the Swiss were not open or welcoming, but especially that the opportunities to meet them were rare. Here, village life follows a different rhythm. The mountainous climate, as well as perhaps a more Saxon than Latin culture, leads people to spend more time at home. Chance and spontaneous encounters were therefore rarer and to find people, we had to go looking for them!
Overlooking the Rhone Valley, a 23 km long tongue of ice extends from 4000 meters above sea level down to 2500 meters. For the moment at least. Aletsch, the largest glacier in the Alps, retreats by about 50 meters every year. To discover such a giant was a unique experience. Time and space obey very different rules there...
Designated as the cutest sheep in the world, this Swiss breed has existed since the 15th century. With its white wool, black head and knees, and spiral horns, this little sheep from the Swiss alpine pastures has a lot to offer.
In the Val Roseg, we discovered the Pers Glacier on the Bernina mountain range. It has a maximum length of 4 km with a difference in altitude of 1,800 m and ends at the foot of Piz Palü. On the way, we avoid one by one the crevasses and cross some groups that undertake the ascent like us. A magnificent day of exploration of a rare, fragile and grandiose territory.
Located at 2200 m above sea level and extending for one kilometer by six, the Greina Plain is a unique alpine tundra landscape. Streams run through it, lakes and high marshes characterize its landscape. We felt all the more fortunate to discover this place when we learned that it had almost disappeared under a dam lake in the 1980s. It was saved thanks to the mobilization of the local population and is now listed in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes, Sites and Natural Monuments of National Importance.
"Here we are in Switzerland for three weeks and 460 kilometers. When we enter the country at an altitude of 2,853 meters through the Monte-Moro pass, we don't think that we are leaving the European Union and the Schengen area. Without even thinking about it, we are entering Switzerland illegally.
From valleys to high peaks, our road in Switzerland was 100% mountainous. After already several weeks in the Alps, our habits have changed a lot. We wash ourselves in the high altitude lakes, eat as many wild blueberries as we can and swallow the difference in altitude like ibexes. These trails, these passes and these huts have become our normality, our world.
Discover the pictures of our crossing of Switzerland through the Valais, the Ticino and the Grisons. An adventure in the heart of a mountain country, its high peaks, its glaciers and its refuges.
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