Riederalp

From Ried-Brig it's a short quarter of an hour's drive to Mörel, where the cable car climbs to Riederalp in thirteen minutes. Up top it's car-free, and the temperature difference from the valley can reach around ten degrees, a difference that feels like a breath of fresh air in summer. Riederalp is the quietest of the Aletsch Arena's three gateway villages, and the greenest.

One ski pass opens up the whole Arena: 104 kilometres of piste plus fifteen kilometres of ski routes, served by thirty-five lifts, between 1,845 and 2,869 metres. From Riederalp, the Gletscherbahn, built in 2015, takes you up to the Moosfluh at 2,333 metres, with wide red runs leading back down to the village below. Those who'd rather not ski will find 72 kilometres of winter walking trails and fourteen kilometres of snowshoe routes here, two toboggan runs from the Moosfluh and the Gopplerlücke, and a free cross-country trail at Bux with both a classic and a skating track.

What makes Riederalp special is Villa Cassel. This early-twentieth-century mansion stands at 2,000 metres on the Riederfurka and now houses the Pro Natura nature centre, open in 2026 from 13 June to 18 October. Next to it begins the Aletsch Forest, a reserve of centuries-old Swiss stone pines, and from the Moosfluh runs the Geologiesteg, a trail with seven stations on climate and glacial history.

Summer here revolves around the Aletsch Glacier. At more than 22 kilometres long and almost 79 square kilometres in area, it's the largest ice stream in the Alps, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. The region has 317 kilometres of walking trails and a hundred kilometres of bike routes. The suspension bridge over the Massa Gorge, 124 metres long, eighty metres above the drop, links Riederalp with Belalp. And then there's the Blausee to dip your feet in, and a nine-hole golf course at two thousand metres.