Six passes, four days

We started in glacier country and finished in French.

Four days on foot from Saas-Fee to Evolène, six stages of the Alpine Passes Trail linked end to end. Ninety-three kilometres, 6,100 metres of climbing, three valleys that do not know each other.

Day one runs a wire-rope ledge high above the Saastal with the Weissmies filling the far side, and we met six people on it. Day two crosses the Augstbordpass at 2,892 metres, the high point of the week, and drops a thousand metres into the Turtmanntal, a valley whose only village empties every winter and whose bus you book by telephone. Day three we walked out of German and into French on the Meidpass, in the space of one ridge, and finished a four-course lunch with blueberry cake at a hotel that has stood alone on the mountainside since 1882. Day four ended with raclette at 2,985 metres, the highest point on the entire trail, and a descent we ran in two hours to catch a bus.

What it costs you: two long climbs back to back, one 1,130 metre descent that finds your knees, and beds booked months ahead because there are not many of them. Half our group stopped after three days. The ones who took the cable cars saw the same mountains and enjoyed the week more.

What you get: passes almost nobody crosses on a Saturday, two languages, and the specific satisfaction of arriving somewhere by foot that you could have driven to in an hour. Also the small things that only turn up at walking pace. Ibex on a slope below a bench somebody placed exactly right. A wheel of village cheese so pungent we ate it on a pass only because there was nothing else. A hut kitchen at 2,985 metres where every dish is cheese in a different arrangement and all of it is the best meal of the week.

Here is the honest finish. You do not need to do this much. We could have spent the same four days on half the distance and liked it better. Walk it as three separate weekends, which is how the guides are built and how the mountains would prefer you did it.

Three guides. Three weekends. One traverse.