Bad weather forces closure of many Swiss hiking trails

Some 620 hiking trails are still closed due to bad weather this summer, with the canton of Valais particularly hard hit, Swiss public radio, RTS, reports. According to the umbrella organisation Suisse Rando, quoted by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper, the closed routes represent around 1,300 kilometres of trails. Valais, which boasts some 8,800 kilometres of hiking paths, was particularly hard hit. “A good proportion in certain regions are inaccessible or badly damaged,” said Sébastien Rappaz, head of the Valrando trail association in the French-speaking part of Valais. “It’s difficult to give a figure for the number of kilometres affected, because there are still all the paths that are not accessible due to snow,” Rappaz told Swiss public radio, RTS. For the time being, “what we can do is inform people so that they don’t end up in situations where there are no paths where they were expected”. Rappaz said he was counting on local municipalities, which are responsible for ...