I'm starting to feel sick when I drive, even though I drive myself... Somehow we are really unlucky today. From Sierre behind Val Anniviers, we have to keep taking detours and can't follow the main road to Lac de Moiry - although a detour is more in the category of "better dirt road". Bend left, bend right and then up the steep mountain road to the parking lot at the dam wall of Lac de Moiry at an altitude of 2,250 m - I'm quite happy when we get out into the fresh mountain air and the bends finally come to an end.
Our ascent to the Corne de Sorebois won't be long today, with only around 650 meters of ascent on the agenda. But that's not bad at all, because a bad weather front is forecast for the afternoon, which, together with the collapsing foehn weather situation and Sahara dust, should make itself felt. So there's plenty of variety and it's certainly not a bad idea to be back in the valley by midday.
As we follow the well-marked, white-red-white hiking trail to the Corne de Sorebois, I think about the phenomenon of Saharan dust. It's impressive that this sand moves thousands of kilometers to the north and causes lousy visibility in the Alps and brownish-white snow fields in winter. The Saharan dust is also deposited on the glaciers, setting off a chain reaction that is actually undesirable. The brownish deposits increase the effect of the sun's rays, which in turn intensifies the melting of the glaciers. However, they already have enough to do as a result of global warming and now have to put up with even more melting of the ice layers.
My thoughts continue to wander, the easy hiking trail allows for this without any problems. With the turquoise-green Lac de Moiry behind us, we climb meter by meter, with a weather station at Corne de Sorebois already in sight further up on the ridge.
After all, the winter of 2023/2024 was a very snowy one, at least at high altitudes in the glaciated mountains. Of course, this one winter cannot stop the glacier melt that has been going on for years and has recently been accelerating. But at least I hope that the increase in snow in the nutrient zone of the glaciers will balance out the negative effect of Saharan dust - probably an amateurish idea, but at least theoretically possible.
Speaking of Sahara dust: after we still had relatively good visibility at the start, the clouding of the air around us can no longer be ignored. With a slight yellow tinge, the more distant mountains disappear more and more behind a diffuse haze, only their outlines are dimly recognizable. White glaciers and black rocks blur into an unsightly sludge, while the gathering clouds of the bad weather front do the rest to make the atmosphere uncomfortable.
We have now overcome the last slope before the ridge and are now standing in the increasing foehn wind, but fortunately only a few minutes away from the actual summit. We quickly tackle the last few meters and hide under windproof jackets at the summit - it's too uncomfortable up here.
From the 2,895 m high summit of the Corne de Sorebois, we would actually have a great view of various 4000 m peaks in the Valais, but with today's visibility, we can only make out shadowy backdrops. We don't stay at the summit for too long and quickly make our way back.
Turn left, turn right, a foretaste of the return journey below through the Val d'Anniviers back towards Sierre. But we can still enjoy the dusty but still fresh mountain air and the views of the Lac de Moiry reservoir, at the southern end of which the hut trail to the Cabane de Moiry starts. Together with the meadows full of mountain flowers, this is a wonderful sight that is over far too quickly. The hike to the Corne de Sorebois ends just as quickly - but we can still say that it is a wonderful, shorter hike to a fantastic panoramic mountain in the middle of the Valais Alps.
