Dents du Midi

Summit · canton of Valais · 3257 m

Jagged seven-pointed ridge above the Rhône plain and Lake Geneva.

From the basket

Between the Rhône valley and the Champéry valley, the Dents du Midi raise a ridge three kilometres long, cut into seven limestone points. From the balloon they look like a jaw set against the sky. Every one of the points rises above three thousand one hundred metres, and the highest comes close to three thousand two hundred and sixty.

Count them as you fly along. The highest, the Haute Cime, closes the row to the south-west; at the other end stands the Cime de l’Est. Between the two come names that sound like a fairy tale: the Doigts, the Dent Jaune, the Éperon, the Cathédrale and the Forteresse. On the south side they overlook a reservoir lake, Lake Salanfe, set in a hollow of mountain pasture.

For the people of the valley, these teeth are a true emblem. They can be seen from Champéry and from the whole valley, and since 1975 a trail has let walkers circle them. Their first name, in 1342, was “alpe de Chalen”; in the local patois they were called the “dents de Tsallen”, from a word for a bare high pasture.

Cross to the other side of the ridge and you will see the Rhône valley opening towards Lake Geneva. Let the wind slide you from one tooth to the next, like the keys of a keyboard.

Did you know?

In the last century, people in the valley read the hour from these summits, as from a sundial. On maps from 1928, the Dent de Bonavau was even called the “Dent-d’une-heure”.

Sources: Wikipedia, “Dents du Midi”.

All around

• Lake Geneva, 25 km to the north
• Glacier 3000, 29 km to the north-east
• Montreux, 30 km to the north