Product Description

The ultimate walkers playground, this Cicerone guidebook shows 120 routes through the Swiss Valais in the Pennine Alps, with such peaks as the Matterhorn, Dent Blanche and Monte Rosa providing the backdrop. Covers Bettmeralp, Lötschental, Saastal, Mattertal, Turtmanntal, Val d’Annivers, Val d’Hérens, Val de Nendaz, Val de Bagnes, Val d’Entremont, Val Ferret, Vallée de Trient. Ideal for the following seasons - June to September should be mainly clear of snow, and most of the mountain huts will be open.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #118670 in Books
• Brand: Cicerone
• Published on: 2003-04-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Vinyl Bound
• 315 pages

Review
'The great affection which is penned so effectively into this walking guide to one mountain district ... reveals the work of a specialist.' (Van Greaves, High) 'Another Cicerone Press walking guide from the tried and trusted Kev Reynolds stable. The format is familiar, user friendly and crammed with useful and essential information about the geography, places to stay, how to get there and of course 120 route descriptions in the eleven areas that make up the Valais region of Switzerland. ... Mouth watering colour photos illustrate the descriptions.' (Richard Ayres, The Leader)

About the Author
A lifelong passion for the countryside in general, and mountains in particular, drives Kev's desire to share his sense of wonder and delight in the natural world through his writing, guiding, photography and lecturing. Spending several months each year among various high mountain regions researching guidebooks, makes him The Man with the World's Best Job; a title he aims to keep by remaining active for another 100 years at least. Kev has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Cicerone since the 1970s, producing walking and trekking guides to the Pyrenees, Alps and Himalaya, as well as walking guides for Kent, Sussex and the Cotswolds and he has several more books in the pipeline. A frequent contributor to outdoor magazines, he also writes and illustrates brochures for national tourist authorities and travel companies. When not away in the mountains, Kev lives with his wife in a small cottage among what he calls 'the Kentish Alps' with unrestricted walking country on the doorstep. But he also travels throughout Britain during the winter months to share his love of the places he writes about through a series of lectures. Check him out on www.kevreynolds.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Quite useful in the Zermatt area
We bought this guide in preparation for our recent week walking around Zermatt and were a little disappointed by it.

The guide covers quite a wide area, and just one of the 12 chapters covers the Mattertal. Given this wide coverage it is not surprising that only a few of the walking routes around Zermatt were covered. In two of our four days on hill we did most of two routes and parts of four others. On the other days we just followed the excellent local system of route markings. What was surprising was the uneven coverage: in some places the route was ludicrously over-described with whole paragraphs devoted to a few hundred metres that was obvious on the ground; in other places the descriptions were sketchy at best. It's also rather short on practical information (for example there is no discussion on the pros and cons of buying a lift pass), and (worst of all) it weighs 400g!

Having said all that it is robust, nicely designed, clearly written, and has some excellent photographs and some useful overview maps.