The road & path diasappear behind the hill, right. You can stay at St Luc or the Bella Tola Hut. I've done both.

The destroyed bridge below Ayer. I shinned up that bottom railway line. Don't even think about it!

Looking towards Zinal. See the Zinal pages for an alternative route.

Ayer is nice but the road out & upwards is not well described on the wretched map & seemed to go on forever before a double back towards Gilou brings relief & soon, a thrutchy path steeply upwards through the trees. I elected to go to Gilou & then followed the path to St Luc (there was a lower alternative), as I had walked from there to Zermatt, going from St. Luc over Bella Tola in 1982 & from Chandolin via the Bella Tola Hut in 2002. Obviously, you will want to walk up to the Cabane de Bella Tola, either directly from a path above Gilou or, going further up, calling at the Hotel Weisshorn first. This is quite a short day. If you go to the hut, there is plenty of space outside to hang out your washing, if you have got behind with it.

For me however, there was still much to do today, so it would be a waste of time to go up to the Bella Tola Hut. Arolla to Zermatt was now complete. I was just in time for the bus to Sierre at 1233 (sfr12.40) & train to Sion (about sfr5.80), talking to an English family on their first Swiss trip on the bus. I was too late for lunch in Sion (!) & walked in the intense heat across the motorway junction to the turn-off to the Val d'Herens. Here, my luck changed & after a few minutes, a guide from Arolla on her way back gave me a lift all the way to Le Chargeur, where (as she has an English neighbour in Arolla who serves tea) I bought her English tea (sfr7). Le Chargeur is where the Hotel de la Grande Dixence is, right under the huge dam. I cleaned up & visited the Grand Dixence exhibition centre by the cable car station. This was very good, as it explained all the schemes & how they worked. Then, I returned to the hotel bar, where a group of 4 Irish girls were drinking. They were part of an Old Catholic (pre-Vatican II) group, who had deserted but their priest & some boys had gone on. I was worried that the party seemed ill-lead & had been out for a long time. When they eventually returned, the priest was dressed for priest with his cassock hitched up but with proper boots. They had been over the Col de Roux to the Prafleuri Hut &, while nowhere near the Col de Prafleuri, had had a hard time with the conditions. I forbore to tick him off, as they seemed to have been sensible, although so were the girls in deserting, as they only had basketball boots on. I ate in the hotel (where else?) & the whole bill, coffee, beer, dinner & board was only sfr 91.70.

An Alternative to going up to the Bella Tola Hut, is to go from Grimentz to Zinal along the road (2.5 hours max) to pick up Kev Reynolds C-Z walk route & staying a few days to recuperate! Then, go on to Grüben by the Forcletta Pass route, as I did on 30/6/2007.