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Day 7: Less than 30mins after leaving the hut you stand on the modest summit of Mont Brulé from which the Mont Blanc massif is displayed in all its grandeur. That view remains as you wander along the ridge towards Six Blanc. Turning through a grassy col the Dents du Midi then take the place of Mont Blanc, before you descend through woodland and meadow to the Moay chalets where there’s a restaurant, and continue downhill to Le Châble to complete the Tour du Val de Bagnes, 4½–5hrs from Col de Mille.

Almost 700m above Le Châble, with which it is connected by 9km of steeply winding road, Verbier (1526m) is one of the country’s major ski resorts which grew from a tiny village in the 1950s to a sprawling complex of apartment blocks, hotels, shops and modern housing. The ski boom of the 1960s made Verbier fashionable as a place in which to spend the winter careering downhill, and today it attracts something like a million visitors a year. Short on charm, and with the slopes above it strung about with cableways, chairlifts and tows detracting from its aesthetic heritage, the lure of white gold has been used, no doubt, to justify the eyesores. It is said that rooms in apartments and private chalets outnumber hotel beds by a factor of ten to one. The tourist office on Place Centrale is worth a visit if you arrive on spec, but for more information go to www.verbier.ch.