Clearance Cairns and Hay Barns

After crossing the Gandadaura Canyon we find many clues as to the historical use of the area.  Low walls called clearance cairns made from scattered stones that were picked up and stacked mark once important property lines between the individual turfs above the permanently settled areas.  The area must have been utilised intensively if troublesome objects, in this case stones, were picked up and carried to the borders even if they were in awkward places.  The clearance cairns also document the rock slides and rock falls that occurred regularly below the Schassner Ridge.

A few partially or completely derelict hay barns accompany you on your way to the May field called Aussertafamunt.  The areas around the huts were originally bare of trees but now they are at the edge of the forest and some are even surrounded by trees.  The economic necessity to utilise large clearings and keep them free of saplings is no longer necessary due to the developments over the past hundred years in the Innerfratte.  Historically, though, making hay on the May field for the valley as well as on the Alpine meadows was a determining economic factor in the valley.  Many work sequences, and with those, living cycles in the agricultural work year were determined by the utilisation of the turfs below and above the permanently settled areas.  The functional connections between the valley area and the mountain turfs which made it possible to survive 60 years ago are mostly gone.  Many of the once grazed or mowed meadows have grown over now.  The share of protection forests in the valley, however, is bigger.