The Cliff Channel
A bisse is a wooden irrigation channel that the people of the dry Valais built centuries ago to carry glacier water across the mountainside to their fields. The Bisse du Ro is the most dramatic of them, its maintenance path pinned to a sheer cliff face above Crans-Montana on wooden walkways and through galleries cut in the rock. The water still runs beside you the whole way, and the drop is straight down.
Duration
~3 hours
Distance
9 km
Elevation gain
300 m
Difficulty
T3 — demanding
High path
1550 m
The trail starts on the wooded plateau above Crans-Montana and is well signed as a bisse path. It runs in summer once the channel is in use.
The cliff section is on narrow wooden boards with a handrail and a long drop below. It is secure but not for those uneasy with exposure.
