Becs de Bosson
The Vallon de Réchy forms a beautiful enclosed valley just to the south of Sierre. It looks almost like a crater (even though it's not). It's a hanging valley surrounded on three sides by steeply sloping hills. Tanya and I went walking there for its reputed wildness and its legendarily large numbers of animaux sauvages. We started from Chalais, took an old and unusual cable car (it was self-service at the start and you paid at the top!) to Vercorin, then another newer cablecar to the Crêt du Midi at 2332 m.
The start of the walk at Crêt du Midi.
The northern part of the Vallon de Réchy, where there is a lovely winding river.
Midway into our hike we walked past an old broken down farm building, made of loose stones. Amongst these stones was running a tiny hermine — a stoat — who was clearly as interested in us as we were in him. He ran back and forth, under corrugated iron, jumped into the air, went into his rocks and out again, climbed on the roof, and never stayed still.
As we got higher in the valley we made the decision to cross the ridge at the Col des Becs de Bosson, and to walk down to Grimentz in Val d'Anniviers. From the col we had amazing views across to a lot of the 4000 m peaks of Switzerland, even though it was a grey and cloudy day.
Tanya with Wiesshorn, Glacier de Moiry & Dent Blache on the right.
Cabane des Becs de Bosson.
While walking down the other side of the col, we saw a sign to the summit of Becs de Bosson, and thought — why not? It was a slightly scrambly route, with a couple of fixed ropes, a cave to walk though, a little downclimb, and an easy boulder to the summit. Becs de Bosson is at 3149 m, so we had yet more amazing views and looked back down at the entire hike we had done so far.
Fast or easy?
Vallon de Réchy, and Le Louché (the lake) from Becs de Bosson.
Vallon de Réchy from Becs de Bosson.
From the summit of Becs de Bosson. Glacier de Moiry, Bouquetins, Dent Blanche, Dent d'Hérens, Sassenaire (dark rock).
We walked down to Bendolla, which turned into a rush down through the ski resort to get there in time to get the last chair lift to Grimentz. As we were half running down grassy ski slopes, it started to rain and marmots scattered away from us through the wet grass. We made the chair lift just in time and rested on the train home.
