Maso Corto – Around dawn, shepherds gather near the Italian town of Maso Corto and prepare to take their sheep into Austria along an Alpine track centuries older than the border they are crossing. This year’s crossing passes without incident.
Over the next 10 hours, they climb 800m to the Hochjoch pass, corralling their animals over snowfields, along narrow, rocky paths and at one point, single file across a suspension bridge.
By the end of it, the 1 500 sheep reach their summer pastures in Oetztal – a 16km stretch that has survived wars, outlasted empires and dates back to 1360. –
Pictures: Reuters
Sheep from Maso Corto in Italy make their way in front of Hochjochferner glacier in Tyrol, Austria. 1
7 Stragglers make their way up to the mountain shelter at Schoene Aussicht.
Shepherds guide sheep across a snowfield to the Hochjoch pass, 2 856m above sea level. 2 A shepherd watches sheep and lambs make their way out of an enclosure.
Sheep make their way out of an enclosure in Kurzras, arguably the oldest village of the Val Senales. 3
5 Hugo Gurschler, 62, watches sheep at the summer pasture Rofenberg, 2 400m above sea level in Tyrol, Austria.
The flock take a break at the mountain shelter Schoene Aussicht, in South Tyrol. 4
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