The Cabane Rambert

Dwight Peck's personal Web site

The Cabane Rambert
(Grand Muveran)

An excellent late-summer or early fall walk for even the feeblest amongst us. After a summer of 40 degree (100 degree F) temperatures tearing away at our sanity, September brings some of the most stunningly pleasant weather that Switzerland has seen during our brief 27-year tenure here.

Thus one finds oneself in beautiful downtown Ovronnaz on 6 September 2003 at about 11 a.m., suiting up in one's new "Happy Fish from Slovenian River" T-shirt, plastic water bottle belt, and Fujifilm digital camera, setting out to see whether flitting memories of the same promenade to Rambert in 1982 can claim any sort of accuracy at all.

The village of Ovronnaz (1332m) is a modest vertical tourist station perched implausibly but so far successfully above the valley of the Rhône river in the canton of Valais, on the Bernese side, near Riddes between Sion and Martigny. One departs thence and trots along up to the hanging valley of Saille (above) at 1790m. The Petit and the Grand Muveran loom ahead, the Rambert somewhere amongst them.

From Saille one looks up and wonders . . . to the left or to the right. As Bog would have it, the trail leads to the right of the Petit Muveran (left photo), as seen in the right photo . . .

. . . and passes over the headwall above the Saille . . .

. . . into the hanging valley of Plan Coppet, with its only intact building at 2125m. The cartons in front of the doorway are filled with water bottles, stored there to be charitably passed out to runners in the annual Rambert running race. All the fine but vertical places that you see on this page were traversed in a mad hurry the following day (and annually) by a crowd of sturdy runners, none of whom, probably, aspires to fame in golf, shuffleboard, curling, or video games.

Sunless Plan Coppet and a first look at the Grand Muveran, which at 3052m altitude forms a central anchor of the Dent de Morcles range, between the Préalps and the true Alps. The path leads up along the right of and then leftward across the big scree slope just to the right of the central gulley.
[Grand Muveran from the other side, click here.]

As one passes up over the Plan Coppet headwall, called Brotset, one views amazing scenery in the variable cloudy weather . . .

. . . and reaches the Plan Salentse (2350m), a big flat bowl nestled between the Petit Muveran on the left and . . .

. . . the Grand Muveran, in all its sandy and muddy glory, on the right. A call-it-a-path-if-you-want-to leads high along the scree and over the ridge just left of center and descends implausibly to the Pont de Nant. But we're turning abruptly up to the right.

The Cabane Rambert eludes us still, and taunts us -- the flag on the ridge (left), the flag and rooftop in the center of the ridgeline (right).

Nearby irregularities in the landscape, as we plod upwards . . .

. . . to the Cabane Rambert (2580m) in the shadow of the Grand Muveran.

The cabane, with the Petit Muveran in the background, and the clifftop loo on the left.

And a classic loo it is!

Last look at the Rambert, not much changed since our last visit here, 21 years ago it was, oooff.

The route back down towards Ovronnaz. Gotta dash, we've got unfinished business in the valley. Ciao for now, Rambert.

Mr Chamois observes our halting progress on bad knees warily, and then darts straight up with a sardonic grin as we lean upon our skipoles to ease the knees' discomfort and regard him or her enviously, then totter down along the Salentse flat.

From the headwall below Salentse, the pleasant view back down on Plan Coppet and the farm building, and the valley of the Rhône a mile and a half below.

Right the way down into the bowl at Saille again . . .

along the path newly bedeckt with little flags to guide tomorrow's runners.

These folks who run these paths competitively must eat their Wheaties regularly. That's all I have to say on that subject.

Some of our favorites mountain (recommended)