Alpage
A high mountain pasture grazed only in summer, often with a hut for making cheese.
Also: Alp, Alm, alpine pasture, estive
An alpage, Alp or Alm is a pasture high in the mountains, above the villages and often above the tree line, used for grazing only in the snow-free months, usually from June to September. Herds are driven up in early summer and looked after by herders who live in huts on the pasture, milking twice a day and often making cheese and butter on the spot. The rest of the year the alpage lies empty. Alpine grazing is an old system that keeps the open meadows of the Alps from turning to forest, and many alpages now hold young stock or suckler cows rather than milking herds. Estive is the Pyrenean word.