Augstbordpass · Switzerland · Europe
Saas-Fee to Gruben: the ledge and the highest pass on the trail
A wire-rope balcony above the Saastal, then the highest pass of the Alpine Passes Trail and a valley that empties every winter.
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Saas-Fee to Gruben: A 2-Day Alpine Passes Trail Hike
See the guide →The ledge and the high pass
An hour out of Saas-Fee the path stops being a path.
It narrows to a ledge with a wire rope bolted into the rock, and the Weissmies fills the entire far side of the valley. We met six people all day, in high season, one valley over from a busy resort. There is a boulder out there with a very long drop behind it, and not everyone in the group was willing to climb it for the photograph. That is the honest measure of day one.
Lunch is whatever you carried, because there is no kitchen up there. Afterwards the trail swings into the Mattertal and the whole cast changes: the Weisshorn ahead, the tip of the Matterhorn beside it, ibex working the slope below a bench somebody placed exactly right. Then a long drop into Grächen, a proper village on a sun terrace with shops, beds and a spa, and the last place you will see any of that.
