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Saas
Valley
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Saas
Valley
July 7, 2003
Dear Friends and Families,
Switzerland is filled with mountains. I know, this isn't news to anyone, but we were reminded again of the difference between knowing and seeing. We left our mountain retreat at Stechelberg and headed around the mountains we had just been looking at from Schilthorn. Our goal was a place called Saas Fee, picked simply because it was at the end of another valley. On our map, the name was written in letters big enough to indicate available lodging, so that was good enough for us.
From Stechelberg we drove out the valley north to Interlaken and turned right. We followed Lake Brienze until it ended and then drove south again, through the Greimselpass. The road was an impressive climb through harsh rock mountains. Traffic was light but included a number of bicycle riders struggling up through the 2165-meter (7000 foot) pass. I can't imagine doing the trip their way!
At the pass, there were a couple of restaurants and tourist shops. We were driving slowly past when Marianne heard Alpine horns and decided we must stop for pictures. She found a parking place across the road, we jumped out, and we hurried to the players just in time for the music to stop. I said "darn" but she said a whole bunch of things in German and the horn players gave us a personal encore.
On the other side, the road was as spectacular, but I have to admit that even dramatic mountains begin to blend, so we hurried on our way. We were now in the Rhone Valley, heading downstream toward France. The valley was filled with productive farms, as it probably has been since before the Romans. We stopped once to pick up local apricots, delicious, and then turned south into the Saas Valley, off the main road again.
Our map only showed Saas Fee, but before we got there, we went through Saas Balen and Saas Grund. Both were perfect Apline ski villages. We turned up to Saas Fee and climbed yet again, glancing at new valleys and glaciers in the gaps in the trees. Finally, we arrived ... in a ten-story parking garage. Saas Fee is not only big enough for lodging for the two of us; it's big enough to hold a zillion skiers in winter, but not cars.
We decided that the villages in the valley were more our style, so we immediately left the garage and descended. At the bottom, we turned right again to see the village at the end of the road, Saas Almagell. This, too, was a perfect Alpine ski resort and we picked a "downtown" hotel. In ski season, I suspect reservations are required for these places, but summer hikers hardly fill any of the hotels, so owner Egon Anthamatten was glad to have us.
During our three-day stay, we joined the hikers. We're not as serious as many, so our first challenge was an easy walk up the broad path back to Saas Fee. It was a pleasant two-hour walk, longer than expected because we needed to take flower pictures every few minutes or just look out at the mountain scenery.
At the top, the picture of Saas Fee from the pedestrian entrance was completely different from the scene at the mega-garage. The town itself was mostly hotels, ski shops (hiker shops in summer), bars, and restaurants. We saw several groups of skiers coming back from glacier skiing. Their heavy boots and clothes looked out of place alongside the shorts and sneakers of us walkers.
In all, the Saas towns are reminders of the old village life. Small barns for winter housing of animals are found squeezed among the ski chalets. Somehow, this farm life is still maintained alongside the tourism business and, in summer, hay was still being cut and gathered by hand and stored in these ancient barns.
On our last day in Saas Almagell, we decided to walk up to Lake Mattmark, the lake behind the huge dam at the head of the Saas Valley. Our hotel owner recommended a path along the east side of the valley and assured us it was a nice two-hour walk. Initially, we just walked along the road enjoying the sights. The highlight of this stretch of road was passing a herd of genuine Swiss cows, complete with giant cowbells. Up close, these animals looked far less friendly than in the TV commercials, but the cowherds didn't seem to feel threatened, so we passed without too much concern.
After that, we left the flat road and started up a path through the trees and rocks. This was not the same as the flat path to Saas Fee, but we managed to walk for quite a distance. We were slow walkers, in part because we stopped to take pictures, but mostly because this really was a case where the journey was the goal. About an hour-and-a-half into our hike, our outbound journey ended abruptly when we ran into a boulder that was too steep, flat, and smooth to cross and too big to go around. After struggling for five or ten minutes, we reminded ourselves that the walk back down would be pleasant too.
In the morning, when we drove out of Saas Almagell, we left with a good feeling about this Swiss valley and Switzerland in general. Now we were headed across the last of the Alps to see what the Italian side held, but that's another story.
Take care and stay off slippery rocks.
John and Marianne
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ps: Related weblinks
general: www.saas.fee.ch
hotel: www.portjengrat.ch
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