The Trient Valley is an unspoilt natural paradise with wild gorges, caves and one of the most beautiful Alpine glaciers. The first highlight waits at the valley entrance by Vernayaz; a 200 metre-deep gorge, gouged out of the rock by the mountain stream. A bridge built in 1934 crosses the gorge at a vertiginous height and down by the water, a footpath leads along a footbridge of wooden steps adjoined to the steep rock face.

The Trient Valley appears almost inaccessible from the Rhône Plain. A narrow road and the narrow-gauge cogwheel railway «Mont-Blanc Express» Martigny - Châtelard - Chamonix climb the narrow bends of the valley levels up to the small resorts of Salvan, Les Granges, Les Marécottes and Le Trétien. This is where the road ends – only the railway climbs further towards the French border and leaves the Trient Valley by abruptly turning 90 degrees to the south-west. Here, at an altitude of almost 1300 metres, is Trient, which lies at the foot of the impressive Trient Glacier, considered one of the most beautiful in the Alps.

SUMMER

There is an especially picturesque hike from the Col de la Forclaz to the mighty Trient Glacier. In the 19th century, huge ice blocks were blasted out of the glacier and transported to French cities by railway. The hike runs along the old, since repaired irrigation channels.The enchanting Nymphe grotto in the Tête-Noire gorge (Grotte aux Nymphes / Gorges mystérieuses de Tête-Noire) between Trient and Le Châtelard can be hiked along a theme path.A surprise awaits at le Châtelard: one of the world’s steepest funiculars with a gradient of over 87%, a narrow-gauge railway with a tiny panorama carriage and a short trip in an open-air vertical lift brings passengers in three stages to the Emosson reservoirs, where breathtaking panoramic views of the surrounding Alps can be enjoyed and dinosaur enthusiasts might discover traces of the extinct beasts at the upper reservoir.

WINTER

A large number of ski tours of various distances and degrees of difficulty lead through virgin snow. Experienced climbers will find waterfalls that are ideal for ice climbing. Winter hikers, snowshoe trekkers, cross-country skiers and sledgers are all catered for at Trient. Downhill skiers can take advantage of the facilities in neighbouring ski regions.