The wry words of English adventure photographer George Abraham at the turn of the last century remain just as applicable to the 2020’s as they were in the early 1900s. The Arolla valley continues to combine in a delightful way the majesty of snow-capped and glacier strewn alps with the tranquil beauty of alpine common pastures and dense stands of Larch/ Arolla pines. There remains “no screech of mountain railway”.
There is no whine from cable car or gondola system. Although there are stanchions for the simple drag lifts in winter there is so far minimal skiing infrastructure. If you want to ascend a big Alp in this valley the boots are put to work from the outset. There is no mechanical advantage to be bought. While the ascent to Cabane Rossier on the Dent Blanche shoulder is no longer on much snow or ice after the ‘hotel’ Bricola, it remains a foreshortened five-six hour escapade just as it was in 1907.
Apart from the mounting summer visitors to Lac Bleu there are no true crowds in Ferpecle or Arolla. By night there is rarely any light pollution, especially in the autumn months. Until the system of transhumance decrees that the redoubtable Vache de Herens are taken to much lower pastures in late October, the dominant sound all summer long is the gentle ringing of cow bells.
Silence is truly attainable in this valley. The same goes for solitude and darkness. There is awe and, at times, the sublime to be found in the valley. It is not only a valley of great spiritual uplift but also one which shares the modern alpine tragedy of shrinking glaciers, thunderous meltwater torrents all summer and too much rock fall from melting permafrost.
The valley retains a network of high mountain huts which is as charming and spectacular as those to be enjoyed in any part of the Alps. They are chiefly differentiated by the fact it is necessary to walk from the valley floor to access any of them. The valley equally retains most of the footprint of its system of transhumance with centuries old, improbable Larch hamlets grafted into the mountainsides up to 2500 metres.
This website is intended to be my homage to this least spoilt and most enchanting corner of the Swiss Alps: the Val D’ Herens. It is not the output of a particularly accomplished or experienced photographer. Instead, it is for the most part the holiday snaps of a mountain lover.
What is displayed here is a collection of images derived from a deepening association with this wondrous part of the Alps. The photography is something I have been attempting to improve at, slowly, as middle age progresses. What I offer here are snapshots of the ambience which has drawn me back to this valley, time and again, for the last ten years.T
The seeds of my fixation with this valley were planted over twenty years ago in the rainless July of 2001 when, on a mission to knock off 4000 metre alps, we happened to ‘pop’ into the valley and ‘pop’ up the Dent Blanche by its ordinary route. The seeds started to grow some five years later when, two toddlers then in harness,’ we decided it was a good idea to go to Arolla’s campground every summer. By 2014 winter visits were aded to August camps and, by 2017, pictures were being taken whenever family activities permitted.
Time and health permitting it is a gallery which I hope will continue to grow.