Like all the wooden inns in the high Alps at the foot of glaciers in wild rocky gorges between snowy peaks, which afford shelter to travellers crossing high passes, the Schwarenbach Inn serves those traversing the Gemmi Pass.

It remains open for six months, managed by Jean Hauser's family; then, as soon as the snow begins to pile up, blocking the valley and making the descent to the Leuk impossible, the women, the father and the three sons go away, leaving as caretakers the old guide, Gaspard Hari, with the young guide, Ulrich Kunzi, and Sam, the big Saint-Bernard.

The two men and their dog live in their snowy prison till the spring, with nothing to look at but the great slopes of the Balmhorn with its ring of pale gleaming peaks.; they are shut in, completely beneath the snow, which rises round them, and enveloping and crushing the tiny house in its embrace, piles up on the roof, reaches up to the windows and blocks the door.

It was the day when the Hauser family were to return to Leuk, as winter was approaching and the assent was becoming dangerous.

Three mules went on ahead, laden with their personal effects and belongings and led by the three sons. The mother, Jeanne Hauser, and her daughter, Louise, mounted a fourth mule and set out after them. The father followed, accompanied by the two guardians, who were to escort the family as far as the top pass.

First they went round the small lake, already frozen, at the bottom of the rocky depression in front of the inn; then they went on down the valley which was as white as a clean sheet, dominated on both sides by snow-covered mountains.

The sun was pouring down on the dazzling white carpet of frozen snow, from which was refracted a blinding cold glare; there was no sign of life in this sea of mountains, no movement in the vast solitude, and not a sound broke the dead silence.

Gradually, the young guide, Ulrich Hari, a tall, long-legged Swiss, left old Hauser and old Gaspard Hari behind in order to catch up with the mule on which the two women were riding.The younger one watched him coming. Her sad eyes seeming to invite him. She was a short, fair peasant girl, whose milk-white complexion and tow hair appeared to have been bleached by her long soujourns amid the snow and ice.

When he caught up with the animal on which she was riding, he put his hand on its hid-quarters and slowed up. Mother Hauser began to talk to him, repeating in great detail all her advice for their wintering. This was the first time he was to stay up there, while old Hari had already spent fourteen winters under the snow in the Schwarenbach Inn.

Ulrich Kunzi listened uncomprehendingly and kept his eyes on the girl. From time to time he would say: 'Yes, Madame Hauser!' but his thoughts seemed far away and his calm expression remained unchanged.

They reached the Lake of Daube, whose long level surface, now frozen, filled the valley bottom. On the right the dark rocks of the Daubenhorn rose steeply above the immense moraines of the Loemmern glacier, dominated by the Wildstrubel.

As they neared the top of the Gemmi Pass, where the descent to the Leuk begins, suddenly the boundless horizon of the Valais Alps opened out before their eyes on the other side of the deep Rhone valley. In the distance rose a host of white peaks of different shapes, flat-topped or pointed, gleaming in the sun, the two horns of the Mischabel, the mighty mass of the Weisshorn, the clumsy Brunegghorn, the formidable towering triangle of the Matterhorn, killer of men, and that monstrous flirt, the Dent-Blanche.

Below them in a deep depression at the bottom of a terrifying precipice, they caught sight of Leuk, whose houses looked like grains of sand dropped in this great cleft, one end of which is blocked by the Gemmi, while the other gives access to the Rhone.

The mule stopped on the edge of the path, which leads in zigzags, winding to and fro in surprising curves along the right flank of the mountain down to the tiny village, almost invisible below, and the women dismounted in the snow. The two elder men had joined them.
‘Come along!’ said old Hauser; ‘good-bye! Keep your spirits up! Cheerio till next year!’
Old Hari repeated: ‘Till next year!’
They embraced and Mme Hauser held out her cheek to be kissed and so did the girl.
When it was Ulrich Kuzi’s turn, he whispered in Louise’s ear: ‘Don’t forget us up here!’
She replied ‘No’ in such a low voice that he guessed rather than heard her answer.
'Come along!' repeated Jean Hauser, 'good-bye and keep well!'
And taking the lead he began the descent. All three soon passed out of sight at the first bend. The two men returned in the direction of the Schwarenbach Inn. They walked slowly side by side in silence. That was that! Now they would be alone with each other for four or five months.