In many environmental valuation applications standard sample sizes for choice modelling surveys are impractical to achieve. One option to improve data quality is to use more in-depth surveys conducted on fewer respondents. This is certainly the case for studies on mountain visitation. We report on a study using high quality rank-ordered data in which the ranking of alternatives is elicited by means of the best-worst approach to alternative selection. The resulting exploded choice model involved the collection of 64 responses per person which were used to study the willingness to pay for external benefits produced to visitors by policies keeping in place the artefacts of alpine transhumance. The context of study is Val di Genova, a valley with summer pastures located in the North Eastern Alps where we study visitors WTP for pasture landscape, biodiversity, historical heritage and the up-keep of in-situ milk transformation. We find good evidence in support of this approach and find reasonable estimates of mean WTP, which appear theoretically valid.