A glacier valley named Val Fex

There is an ancient, remote valley in southeastern Switzerland called Val Fex. I believe it is one of the purest and most beautiful places on our planet. By pure, the emphasis is on strict organic. Motor vehicles are restricted from using the valley’s one single-lane road. To enter the two-mile-long valley, walk, and don’t think about littering.

Just eight or ten miles from St. Moritz, Val Fex is one of the quietest and most isolated places I know of. It’s an environment for those who enjoy relatively light hiking and isolation. There are certainly no conventional tourist attractions, just two old but very well-run inns and a few houses.

The most common word anyone needs to know is the Swiss greeting, gruezi, which is merely a friendly hello as people pass each other on narrow paths that criss cross the wooded sides of the valley.

This is what is left of the glacier, which has receded dramatically in recent years.