Hike La Tzoumaz - Pierre Avoi - Verbier

Pierre Avoi is a formidable outlook mountain in lower Valais. The way to there is everything that hikers can hope for in this canton: alpine pastures full of blossoming flowers, old irrigation canals, artfully landscaped mountain trails, an impressive passover and a magnificent summit panorama.

Having left behind the monstrous building complex at the Postauto terminus station in La Tzoumaz, you will find yourself amid cable car, ski-lift and chair-lift lanes. While passing through fragrant meadows, with their colorful blossoms, the flowers will remind you of rich gardens. Shaded needlewood forests will give way to a long and sustained ascent.
In Savoleyres, the hike takes a pretty dramatic turn, reminiscent of a passover: on the green crest, the view opens onto Val de Bagnes valley, crowned by the Montfort peak (3,328 m). In the depths lying ahead, Verbier's large-scale settlement area expands. Actually, the place counts only slightly more than 3,000 inhabitants. But in the high winter season, ten times as many people live here.
The itinerary will then take you on a wonderful panoramic hike to Col de la Marlene. Here, the rocky cliff named Pierre Avoi, is perched high above the Rhône valley. While its northern side seems invincible, a well-developed mountain trail leads up to the summit on the southern slope. The last 30 altimeters are climbed with the help of steel chains, a wooden staircase and a ladder. The route, however, passes two very steep ridges, and is thus suitable only for dizzy-free climbers. If you cannot handle such a route, the alternative is to traverse the slope on the mountain trail below the summit. The view from there is equally superb: from Dents du Midi over the Mont Blanc and to the peaks of the Bernese Alps.
The descent begins on narrow footpaths over stony and meager hills to Comba Plâne and La Marlene. The trail is now getting wider and from Restaurant de la Marlenaz it is going downhill on a proper road. The route consists of rolled gravel, which is much more pleasant for hikers than the asphalted road. The municipality of Bagnes, to which Verbier belongs, is indeed the third-largest municipality in Switzerland - larger than the cantons of Zug, Schaffhausen and Geneva.
Just before the village of Les Luis, the gravel road turns to asphalt - on a 1.7 km long path one arrives via Les Creux and Brunet to the village center and to the Postauto bus station by the post office. On the way is the Catholic church of Verbier, visible from afar due to its tower that protrudes into the sky like a white arrow. The rounded church interior, where only a small amount of daylight comes in, conveys the warmth of a cave and is therefore one of the concert venues during Verbier festival, held every summer.