On foot · Valais Chablais · June 2020
Dent de Valère, the one that taunted
A peak that had been taunting her for years and that Emmanuelle thought she could never do. A loop just the way she likes them: almost 20 kilometres and over 1,500 metres of climbing, facing the Dents du Midi.
- Date
- June 2020
- Distance
- 20 km
- Elevation gain
- 1,500 m
- Summit
- Dent de Valère
The route · indicative
The climb
Ridge after ridge
The path climbs through rhododendrons, with the Rhône plain and Lake Geneva below. A small lake in the pasture, a cairn topped with the Valais flag, then the ridge.
The track runs along the grassy crest, narrow and clean, towards the summit. On the other side, the Dents du Midi play with the clouds. At the cross, a bench and the whole valley.
The loop
I did it
Sheep guard the ridge. The way down follows the crest the other way, then drops into the green valleys where the rhododendrons are starting to bloom.
Below, the Rhône plain and the lake in the evening light, a lone larch on the way back. Not impossible at all: I did it, she writes.
