On foot · Dents du Midi, Valais · August 2018
The Tour des Dents du Midi
We had wanted to do it for so long: four days with friends to walk all the way round our Dents. Some 70 kilometres and just over 3,400 metres of climbing, from Susanfe to Salanfe, from the Col de Jorat to Chindonne, all the way to Anthème and the Belle Étoile footbridge.
- Date
- August 2018
- Distance
- 70 km
- Elevation gain
- 3,400 m
- Duration
- 4 days
The route · indicative
Days 1 and 2
Susanfe, the Haute Cime and Salanfe
Setting off towards the Pas d'Encel, then the Susanfe hut, the hut of happiness, where a band plays a concert after the raclette. Little sleep in the dormitory, and the next day the Col de Susanfe, with its view over Lac de Salanfe.
We hesitate below the Haute Cime, we try, we give up; only one of the group climbs it alone. Edelweiss, asters, a swallowtail on a scabious, the Trient glacier in the distance, then the Col des Paresseux and the arrival at the Salanfe hut in a fine thunderstorm.
Days 3 and 4
From Salanfe to Belle Étoile
Waking up at Salanfe, a little gem of a dam, then the climb to the Col de Jorat and its view. Down to Mex, the eastern end of the tour and its lowest point, before climbing again under a blazing sun. Sunrise from Chindonne.
The last day goes from one hollow to the next, up and down, below the Dents and their rushing torrents. Lac d'Anthème and chanterelle rösti at the hut, a deliciously cool waterfall, and the finish on the Belle Étoile footbridge. Tired, but happy.
