Alpabzug: Bringing The Cows Home in Urnaesh

Urnaesch Alpabzug 2009

We made a special trip to the small town of Urnaesh to see the cows come down from the mountains. The yearly event marks the procession of the cows from the high alpine pastures back to the farms in the valley for the winter season.

Each farm has a procession of animals through the center of town. Each farm's convoy is arranged in the same order. I will provide more on the procession in an upcoming post.

As far as the event itself, the Alpabzug was one of the most interesting local traditions I have yet to experience in Switzerland. The traditional dress, jodeling, and festive atmosphere were really something special. While such an occasion could easily be turned into an elaborate tourist weekend, I felt festival still maintained a sense of authenticity.

Even with the farmers dressed in their traditional clothes, red vests, white shirts, yellow leather pants, and black hats rimmed with flowers they were there to get a job done. It was all about getting the cows and goats back to safer ground for the winter.

Purely by accident we ended up following one local farmer all the way back to his farm. The little unexpected side trip led to some amazing photographs and some experiences that were really and truly something special. I've got over 5 gigs of photos to go through from the day and plenty more stories to tell.