Altitude Magazine

english version 49 ALTITUDE A little bit of onomatopoeia, some meuh, but everything goes fairly easily, routine…if getting up before 04h00 can be called routine! Dawn is in progress; we begin to glimpse the landscape! Cows have things to do and are getting impatient again, thinking of all this grass still left to ruminate! We can say that grass, here, is in quantity! It is bio, embellished with a multitude of little flowers with all kinds of colors, it smells good…, it’s good stuff and it’s legal! Looking around, I realize being in an ocean of grass and the little paths, a few big rocks, and the building of the alpage are a little like tiny islands! The panorama is 360°! This is the meaning of the expression ’’breathtaking view ‘’. On my left, about 45 kilometers away, the Bortelhorn and the Monte Leone near the Simplon pass, a little further the Dom of Mischabel, the Bella-Tola… on my right the Grand Combin, the Mont Blanc across the border 75 kilometers away from here, and the Grand Chavalard still in Valais! In the middle, facing me, the ‘4000’ of the Val d’Anniviers of course and hundreds of other summits, as far as you can see! They’re all there, the Dent Blanche, the Pointe de Tsavolire, the Aiguilles Rouges d’Arolla, the Pierre-à-Voir…even the Catogne over there above Martigny! The Trubelstock? Yes, right there behind you! Looks fantastic, doesn’t it! Right under my feet is the Rhône Valley! Another hit of fresh air? It undoes your hair! To my back, the Petit Bonvin, the local sentinel. A little behind on the left, is the Vallon de la Tièche! Readers of Altitude Magazine already had opportunities to discover this gorgeous place and hear and see the admiration I have for it. I went back there before summer began; the pictures are in the central portfolio. It’s not the moment to lose sight of the milk bottles! No danger, Jean-Roger is on the way. Dorothée is waiting in the cheese factory, everything is ready! Since 05h30 the big copper tub has been warming up, last night’s milk kept in the cold went through lactic ferment to stabilize. Now the temperature goes up until it is 32 degrees! Jean-Roger arrives, the milk out of the cow’s udder a little earlier is still lukewarm! With the help of Jean-Marc, he pours it all in the tub, it’s 06h15! Vlad tumbles in extremis with a pot in his hand! Let’s not forget the milk for the coffee and the hot chocolate! It sounds like a paradox, but you’ll never find fresher milk than this…even though still tepid! Dorothée added a little rennet, an extract of calf stomach. The more or less 500 liters of milk will coagulate and become a quail! Thirty-five minutes of waiting, great, it’s breakfast time!