North Face trail 2

As we walked along, the trail went up into the high mountain meadows where the cows are taken in the Spring.  It is a tradition to have the cows wear bells so they are easier to find.  Every cow wears one and they are different sizes, shapes, colors.  During the ceremonial move up to the hills, the cows wear bells that can weigh ten pounds.  Here are some bells hanging under the eaves of a house in Gimmelvald.

The cows stay up in the high meadows all summer and graze.  The little alps are where the farmers live and the huts are where they make the cheese.  During the summer all milk is made into cheese as it is impractical to bring the milk down to the villages.  When the cows are brought back to the lower fields, the milk is used in the villages.  I would love to be a cow and live up there!

We really enjoyed walking with the cows and listening to their various bells.  Even when the cows were lying down chewing their cud, they would move their heads just enough to ring their bell,  Marc thought it was kind of annoying for those cows to have to hear that all the time, but I liked hearing them.  Here is one of our trail mates with her bell.

This is a video of what the cow bells sound like.

And for an idea of what it was like to hike there, here is a little video.