Explore the Swiss Alps with a Cicerone guidebook

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Maps
• Further Reading

Up there in the sky, to which only clouds belong and birds and the last trembling colours of pure light, they stood fast and hard; not moving as do the things of the sky … These, the great Alps, seen thus, link one in some way to one’s immortality.

Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome

After the Mont Blanc range the Swiss Alps contain the highest and most spectacular mountains in Western Europe, as well as the longest glacier, the greatest number of 4000m summits, and numerous other peaks on which the foundations of alpinism were forged. The 1786 ascent of Mont Blanc by Paccard and Balmat may have signalled the beginnings of alpine interest and activity under a veil of scientific enquiry, but in the same decade the Benedictine monk Father Placidus à Spescha was busy climbing and exploring the Glarner and Adula Alps with an undisguised passion for mountains and mountaineering that is now shared by tens of thousands of visitors who flock to Switzerland in summer and winter alike.

With their rich variety of massifs, their snowpeaks and immense rock faces, their glaciers, lakes and waterfalls, their forests, flower meadows and pastures, the Swiss Alps may justifiably claim to be the quintessential Alps, a love of which is not confined simply to those who walk, climb or ski among them, but also shared by the frail and elderly and those content simply to sit and gaze in wonder. Yet thanks to its mountains, more than a century after Leslie Stephen coined the phrase, Switzerland remains for many the playground of Europe.

The Alps are without question the best known of all the world’s mountains, and those that tower over the valleys of Switzerland count among the most easily recognised by both connoisseur and layman alike. The Matterhorn instantly comes to mind, but it is not the only one, for Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau are symbolic of the Oberland, and the graceful buttresses of Piz Palu? in the Bernina range, for example, are depicted on calendar and chocolate box with as much frequency as the proverbial edelweiss and flower-hung chalet. Yet familiarity with such mountains should not breed contempt, for the beauty of the Swiss Alps remains a perennial gift for all to admire.

Mountains make up over 60 per cent of this small landlocked country. With an area of just 41,285 square kilometres, small it may be, but if it were rolled out flat it would be enormous! The landscape, being at once abrupt, dramatic and sublime, is what makes Switzerland so appealing,and while the Pennine and Bernese Alps remain the principal focus of attention for the general tourist as well as for climber, skier and hillwalker, elsewhere the Bernina, Uri and Glarner Alps, the Lepontines, Adula, Silvretta and Rätikon – to name but a few – host a great number of compelling summits that remain unknown to all but a relative handful of enthusiasts.

About this Book

This book sets out to redress the balance, to introduce those who have not yet found them to some of the unfamiliar and largely unsung mountains and valleys, while still giving due regard to the giants that dominate the landscape at Zermatt, Grindelwald or Pontresina. It’s a handy resource for the active hillwalker, trekker, climber and ski tourer; a guide and gazetteer to the peaks, passes and valleys, providing sufficient background information to help anyone planning a visit to make the most of their time there. Questions such as ‘Where to walk, climb or ski?’, ‘What multi-day treks are available and where do they go?’, ‘Where are the mountain huts, what are their facilities, which peaks do they serve?’, and ‘Where are the most suitable valley bases?’ – all these and more are addressed in detail.

This book does not give detailed route directions but information is given about all the guides and maps available for every region under review. The aim of this volume is not to lead step by step, but to inspire, to entertain and to inform; to show the first-time visitor – and those who have already discovered one or two of its districts – what the Swiss Alps have to offer. The emphasis is on activity; the intention to help the reader gain a quality experience with every visit. In truth the outdoor enthusiast is spoilt for choice, but armed with this guide, it should be possible to make that choice a better informed one.

Dozens of individual valleys are described, together with the mountains that wall them, with recommendations given for their finest walks, treks and climbs. Such recommendations are purely subjective readers may well take issue with some of the suggestions. That is just how it should be.