Gouffre des Busserailles

Where the Marmore leaves the high valley above Valtournenche, it drops into a narrow rocky cleft more than a hundred metres long before vanishing into the mountain. Gouffre des Busserailles is a swallow-hole gorge carved by glacial waters and the stream.

Why it matters

The LoveVdA regional portal describes a rocky chasm about 104 metres long, carved by the Marmore stream and shaped by glaciers that once flowed down from the Matterhorn into this valley. Its history also belongs to alpine exploration: guides of the generation that made the Matterhorn's first ascents descended the chasm in November 1865 and left inscriptions on the rock. The gorge exposes the interaction of water and serpentinite.

What to notice

The gorge's walls rise tens of metres above the Marmore, which plunges through the cleft. Serpentinite of the Zermatt-Saas geological unit, between the Monte Rosa and Grandes Murailles massifs, is polished by the water. Cylindrical potholes formed by spinning pebbles and natural bridges left by erosion mark the stream's work. Inscriptions from the 1865 exploration survive on the rock walls.

Context and history

The gorge is a relic of the ice ages, cut where meltwater and the torrent Marmore scoured a pre-existing fracture in the serpentinite as glaciers streamed down from the Matterhorn region toward the valley of the Dora Baltea. Its modern story begins on 19 November 1865, when guides Jean-Antoine Carrel, Victor-Joconde Maquignaz and Alexandre Pellissier made the first documented descent, followed days later by Jean-Joseph Maquignaz — the same Maquignaz and Carrel names that recur throughout the golden age of Matterhorn climbing. Carrel's role in the Matterhorn's first ascent makes the inscription here a small but genuine monument of alpine history. Metal walkways and lighting installed during the twentieth century became part of the gorge's built interior.