Combe de Serin, Serin and return to Anzere via the Bisses

Start: Park at the cable car station in Anzere.
Take the cable car to the top station; the walk starts here. (There are good views across to the Mont Blanc Massif and the Pennine Alps with an interpretation board to help you identify key mountains)

(S) From the cable car station take the wide track on the right which descends towards a tow lift and then passes beneath the cable for a chair lift. Keep following the obvious path until you can see a small rectangular lake on the right. Look out for a narrow path leading beside it.

(1) Turn right and take the narrow path. This leads to some benches and good views over to the Pennine Alps and back to La Motte.

(2) Return to the main track.

(1) Turn right and continue following the broad track downwards to a left hand bend and a small hut.

(3) From the bend / hut; stop following the main track and instead take a path which leads down through the pasture and back to join the main track again.

(4) At the crossroads, straight ahead is a track leading up to a chair lift station (Plan-des-Conches). You can go up this track and from the station up to point (7).
We turned right and followed a broad track down to another junction at Duez 2048m, where there is a signpost with marked trails.

(5) From Duez, turn left and follow another wide track. This will curve around to the left and just before passing beneath a line of chair lift wires look out for a track on the left.

(6) From here look up and right and you will see a path slanting rightwards up the hillside beneath a line of avalanche barriers made from logs. You are aiming for this path. Turn left and follow a track uphill. The track forks; take the right hand fork to a solitary stone built chalet with an electric fence around its garden.

(7) Walk to the left of the electric fence / chalet and take a feint path uphill to the first ski lift pylon behind the chalet, When you arrived the base is marked with a white-red-white paint flash, so you know you are on the path. (This does not seem obvious at first but I was given instructions on how to find the path from a local). You will be able to see the slanting path you are aiming for so walk from the pylon across the pasture and cross an electric fence. This will lead you to a better path which becomes the wider slanting path. Follow the slanting path uphill to where it flattens out at a piste sign.

(8) The Swiss 1:50 000 scale maps now shows the path as a series of dots. On the ground you are entering an alpine pasture and there is no path beneath your feet. Look up and around you and orientate yourself. On your right and above you is the peak of Le Bate and at the left hand end of this is a chair lift station. You are not aiming for the first pylon below the station but the second. However, you will not see it at first, just the cables leading down, this is a guide.

Walk into the combe keeping to the left hand side; ahead is a line of limestone blocks slanting leftwards up the hillside ahead of you and with the biggest block at the far left. If you look closely this block is marked with a white-red-white paint flash and you are aiming for it. (See photo) Beyond the block keep on uphill in the same direction and as you near the top, where it flattens out, you may come across a feint path. If not, it does not matter because ahead of you, you will see two pylons next to each other and the left hand pylon is marked with a white-red-white paint flash. Aim for the pylon. (That is the hardest bit of the navigation over but this combe is a fabulous place for marmots and alpine flowers so be quiet and take your time walking through it)

(9) At the pylon you will see a path ahead of you slanting upwards towards a col below and behind the chair lift station. There are some limestone boulders ahead of you with a couple of white-red-white paint flashes if you look closely. Follow these and at the top of the bouldery section aim for the path. Follow this upwards to the col.

(10) The col is a good place to stop and have a quick drink after the ascent. It is also a boundary between what could be two separate landscapes. You have just ascended through a beautiful alpine pasture but ahead the Combe de Serin looks like it could be an alien planet with the barren, scree covered slopes on the curving ridge leading East from Pointe d'Heremence. Cross the col and pick up a broad track which leads down into the combe and towards another chair lift station. Walk all the way to the bottom, passing a big boulder on the right.

(11) Just before the chair lift station the track turns to the right and passes beneath the cables. Take this track and follow it downhill, passing between lovely alpine pastures and pine trees. (You may find that the pastures have Herens cattle in them.) The track will lead to a junction with another track, a wooden cross, stone hut and yellow marker arrows.

(12) Turn left and follow the track which leads to Serin, some buildings and a post with many marker arrows. (13) The track on the left goes up to the Audannes Hut and the track you are on bends around and down to the right and leads to Les Rousses and then back to Anzere, marked 2 hours 20 min. You want to take the narrow path leading through an electric fence and into the woods on your right, it is marked with an arrow labelled Sex Rouge (Tour of Sex Rouge Trail) which leads to Anzere in 1 hour 50 mins. Go through the electric fence and into the wood. Follow the delightful path with an old weed filled bisse on the right to pass beside a stone chalet with four concrete drinking troughs beside it.

(14) Continue following the path, through pastures and pine trees to descend to a junction with another track and signpost at Ravouene 1750m.

(15) Turn right and follow the path towards Anzere, this leads into a ravine.

(16) Then onwards to some chalets and a road just after you pass beneath the chair lift for Les Grillesses.

(17) Take the track on the left which slants downwards and away from the road. It is marked occasionally with yellow arrows or 'home made; arrows marked Anzere. After passing a water works station you will come to another fork.

(18) The main track takes the left hand fork and you could follow this. However the path takes the right hand fork and after a short way a yellow arrow points to a path on the left. Walk down this path and rejoin the main track. After a bend turn off on the right on a path beside another water works building, follow this path which takes a turn to the left and traverses the hillside to join the main track again. Now follow the main track downhill to the junction with a track on the right next to a chalet. (Probon)

(19) Turn right and follow the track above the chalet, this contours around the hillside and passes over two streams which may be dry in summer. It arrives at some more chalets on either side and a bisse on the right. Keep following the path with the bisse on the right all the way back to Anzere just above the cable car station. Take a slanting path back to your car. (E)

Reach start: Park at the cable car station in Anzere. Take the cable car to the top station; the walk starts here.

Gears: As this walk deviates from the well maintained hiking routes I would recommend light boots as there is always a chance that you may turn an ankle and some of the paths through the woods may be slippery after rain.

Dress accordingly, it can be cold in the mountains particularly if cloud forms.

The wooded sections offer shelter from the wind and sun, as this is a South facing slope walking on the more open sections an be hot; take plenty of water.

Refrehsments : The chair lift station at (11) is a good place to sit and eat sandwiches if you brought them (It is not a restaurant and you cannot buy refreshments here)

Excellent views across to the Pennine Alps. The route passes through some lovely pastures and it is a great opportunity to spot and identify wild flowers.

The path described is varied and deviates from the hiking trails promoted by the Anzere tourist office, although it uses the best of hose trails on the return leg from Serin.