Visperterminen

Visperterminen is the village where wine and snow meet. From Ried-Brig it's a short half hour's drive via Visp up the switchbacks, climbing around nine hundred metres, passing terraces of vines along the way that stretch from 650 to 1,150 metres. That's Europe's highest continuous vineyard, and the village wears its nickname Heidadorf with pride.

The Giw ski area has just over twenty kilometres of piste between 1,340 and 2,309 metres, served by five lifts including a chairlift, with a season running from mid-December to late March. It's compact and sunny, with plenty of red runs. The toboggan run stretches seven kilometres from Giw, at 1,976 metres, back down to the village, and every Friday evening there's a fondue followed by a night descent. Four winter walking routes climb above two thousand metres, the best being the Panoramaweg: from there you see the Dom, Matterhorn, Weisshorn and Bietschhorn in a single view.

The Heida grape, known elsewhere as Savagnin Blanc, is the village's signature. The St. Jodernkellerei is a cooperative with more than five hundred members that produces upwards of four hundred thousand bottles a year, including the Heida Veritas from vines that survived the phylloxera plague. Tastings are available all year round.

In summer the Reblehrpfad vineyard trail is the classic: 7.8 kilometres and 771 metres of ascent from Visp up to Visperterminen, straight through the vineyard, taking about two and a half hours. From the Giw mountain station, a seven-kilometre scooter descent whizzes down for CHF 12, running in 2026 from mid-June to mid-October. Mountain bikers have the Heida Loop and the Giw Enduro, with twelve hundred metres of descent. And in the village, the Waldkapelle houses a water-powered organ from 1619 that still plays today.