Trekking the Haute Route
Words by Noémi Shuey. Photos by Noémi and Dave Shuey.
We first got the idea at Dave’s aunt and uncle’s house in Wisconsin, when browsing a book on their coffee table. It showed the most amazing trips across the globe, sectioned into routes for people on foot, by car, by train, etc. We had begun planning our trip to France and had already decided on spending the summer in Chamonix. An established trail with 120 miles of hiking through the Swiss Alps, starting at Mont Blanc and ending at the Matterhorn sounded too good to be true. Even this early in our planning, we already imagined that Chamonix would be the highlight of our trip after spending winter and spring climbing in Spain and France. To end the season with this epic hike would make it not only the climax of our summer, but of our entire trip.
We decided to do the Haute Route with minimal use of the refuges, carrying almost all of our food and staying at campgrounds whenever possible. Luckily we passed a handful of boulangeries and small grocery stores to stock up on fresh bread and snacks, but we didn’t want to rely on finding these small town stores that we weren’t always sure even existed. Carrying all of our dinners, breakfasts and most of our snacks for twelve days on the trail, we certainly didn’t win any awards for ultra-lightweight backpacking. But we were happy to be almost entirely self-sufficient, and luckily the Swiss love fresh bread as much as the French do, so we were able to get crusty and delicious multi-céréale loaves most days on the trail.
Having completed the Tour du Mont Blanc just a couple of weeks earlier, I found the Haute Route to be different in many aspects. The TMB is a very definite route and often treated as a test piece. A loop around Mont Blanc, with thousands of people forming a trail, most hikers stick to all the traditional trails and attempt to finish the route in its entirety, as quickly as possible. The Haute Route is much less well known and defined, and the mindset of hikers is very different. While some people, like us, aim to do the established route and all the traditional “High Route” mountainous trails, many just want to end up in Zermatt. It is a more relaxed mindset, where often hikers will even take a chair lift to a summit or a bus through the valley to the next town. It is also a much less popular trail and we often found ourselves alone in the mountains for most of the day. We probably saw more cows and marmots than we did other through-hikers.
This route is also more technically difficult than the TMB. There are long stretches of scrambling rock passes, requiring skillful and precise footing. There are many portions of the trail that are very narrow and perched above steep, rocky drop-offs, where one simply cannot fall. With our rock climbing experience, Dave and I are at least pretty comfortable finding confident footing on rocky surfaces. However, hiking for miles across rock can be extremely exhausting, both physically and mentally. You must be constantly vigilant with your footing, never entirely sure if a rock is stable or if it might shift, and careful to not slip on loose rock and dirt. There are also several large rock fall zones on the trail, where one must be able to hike quickly and confidently to get out of the area as quickly as possible. It can be intimidating and exhausting to hike for hours on a trail that is littered everywhere with fallen rocks and boulders, knowing that at any moment one of the thousands of rocks above you could become loose and fall. I guess I try not to think about it.
That said, the views are well worth the effort and we didn’t have any traumatic experiences with rock fall or loose footing. I was certainly happy to have bought new hiking boots with great traction and support before the trip; Dave was not so lucky. He had decided to make his shoes last through the end of the hike, which, miraculously, they did. With two shoe lace loops broken and a huge hole on the side of one shoe, he ended up tying parachute cord around the outside of his right shoe to get a bit more support. Somehow, they managed to last the rest of the hike before he threw them away in Zermatt. I have a newfound appreciation for the strength of parachute cord, even rubbing against rocks and hiking many miles under the weight of an adult man with a heavy pack.
Since our first day of hiking followed many of the same trails we had already done on the TMB, the trip really got started on our second day, which showcased the Glacier du Trient. On the long climb up to the Fenêtre d’Arpette, you spend most of the day hiking alongside this massive glacier. It was an incredible introduction to the trail; I couldn’t keep my eyes off of it. It gets bigger and more impressive throughout the day, until you are parallel across the valley, and then even above it. At the top of the col, with near-freezing temperatures, the view quickly opens to the steep, rocky descent that would lead us through the clouds and into the next valley.
The name of the summit, “fenêtre,” translates to “window” in English. Between the TMB and Haute Route, I came to truly appreciate the magnificence of these mountain passes. You might spend three or four hours hiking up to a col, with amazing views that only get better the higher you climb. As hard as the hike is, every time you stop to catch your breath you are reminded of how awesome the surrounding environment is. And when you finally make it to the little yellow sign that says you’ve reached the top, a “window” is suddenly opened to a new splendor you could never have imagined. You forget about being tired and take in the remarkable spectacles on either side of you. If it’s not too windy and cold, you even get a well-earned snack out of the deal before embarking into the next unknown.
Each day you repeat this pattern of climbs and cols and descents, but the views never cease to impress. Our most scenic day was the hike from Mont Fort to the Lac des Dix, featuring no less than four cols. It was not an easy day, but with every pass we were able to see a completely different type of environment. We crossed grassy hillsides, rocky scrambles, alpine lakes, snow covered mountains and the “Great Desert.” At the highest elevation of our entire hike, 3060 meters, this alpine desert features rocks and boulders as far as the eye can see. Other hikers seemed to disappear into the silence, and we scrambled across the rocks in eery stillness, relying on the red and white painted trail markers to tell us where to go. After four sets of ups and downs, we watched the sun set over the Lac des Dix as we found a place to settle in for the night.
Between both the TMB and the Haute Route, we ended up only spending one night at a refuge. Like many other alpine refuges, Mont Fort is perched impressively on the edge of a mountainside. At 2450 meters elevation and with a dark cloud quickly taking over the skyline, we were happy to not be spending the night in a tent. We indulged in hot showers, cold beers and a warm, comfortable shelter. Looking out of the refuge windows, all we could see was the Swiss flag blowing in a thick mist of grey. It may have only been one night, but on freezing evenings for the rest of the trip we could relive this warm interior, bustling with happy hikers sipping wine and chatting with fellow travelers.
We were blessed with relatively good weather on this trip, although some nights were extremely cold. It rained only a couple of times, once on a rest day when we had a covered picnic area and a nearby café for shelter, and a couple of times in the evening as we were setting up camp. Unlike on the TMB, we never got stuck hiking in the rain; our cheap five euro ponchos stayed happily tucked away in our backpacks for the entire trip. However, I was very disappointed that I forgot my little keychain thermometer. A few mornings we woke up to ice and frost covering our tent and everything around us. Dave found that our trusty poop shovel also doubles as an ice scraper to clean off the outside of a tent. In these freezing temperatures, I also learned that my down sleeping bag is far from Alps-worthy. Dave’s insulated rain pants saved me; combined with my down jacket, thermals, sweat shirt, sweat pants, beanie and two pairs of socks, I was finally able to sleep comfortably.
We enjoyed our first views of the Matterhorn at the top of the Col de Riedmatten—the summit decorated with buddhist prayer flags. After spending the last few days at high elevation, we were happy to descend toward the next valley by following a forested path and the first trees we had seen in a while. We hiked to Molignon and experienced our first four-star campground! It was a little too cold to take advantage of the swimming pool, but the hot showers were amazing and we ended up taking a rest day by staying the following day too. Resting our sore feet and aching backs, we relaxed as we do best—playing cards and drinking wine.
Hiking through St. Niklaus, we crossed the Zermatt valley for the first time and made our way back up to elevation trekking for the final couple days of our hike. This last stretch is known for being very technical and often dangerous, only for well-seasoned hikers. With Dave’s roped-together shoes still holding up, we carefully navigated miles of rocky passes, crossed many rockfall zones, and traversed narrow trails with fixed ropes that looked like they had been chewed by disgruntled mountain goats. Thankfully, we had trekking poles for balance and didn’t have to rely on frayed ropes for safety.
After a long and exhausting day of rocky scrambles and sketchy passes, and with darkness falling and the Europa Hut still an hour away, we made for a quick bivy on the only flat portion of this steep mountainside. Perched on the edge of a mountain and completely secluded, we thanked the weather gods for our lack of wind and watched the fading light on the glacier across from us. It’s quite the magical experience, sleeping next to a glacier; we have been lucky enough to do it a few times now in the Alps, and it never seems to get old. With only one day of hiking between us and Zermatt, we dreamed of the Matterhorn.
After finishing the remainder of our chocolate-caramel oatmeal, we began our final day’s hike. The most exciting part of the day was definitely the long, sketchy suspension bridge we found ourselves faced with. (We really should have read the guidebook more thoroughly.) After watching two women cross it with wide eyes and bewildered grins on their faces, I set across the bridge slowly, with white knuckles gripping the railings. If I walked too fast the whole bridge would start swaying and totally freak me out. Staring at the thin, deteriorating wooden boards that separated me from an untimely death, I felt a little bit better when I realized that the metal cables ran underneath the bridge as well, and would most likely catch me if the boards broke through. I made many mental Indiana Jones references.
I felt even better about my safe crossing when we came to another suspension bridge that looked like it was about twice as long, and found out that the trail was temporarily closed because the bridge was broken. Dave was disappointed, I thought he was crazy. Unfortunately though, because of the closure we couldn’t cut across the mountain the way the route was intended. We we were instead supposed to hike down to the valley, only to hike all the way back up again for a short distance, and then hike back down to Zermatt. We had really been looking forward to the high route and were hoping to get some good views of the Matterhorn on the last stretch, but it seemed a bit redundant and we still needed to find a hotel in Zermatt. After twelve days of mountainous hiking, we took the flat dirt path along the valley floor and counted down the hours to our final destination.
Dave was hiking ahead of me; he climbed a short hill and stood with his hands thrown up in triumph. I was so excited, I ran up the hill as fast as my pack and exhaustion would allow, and threw up my arms victoriously beside him. We reveled in our first views of the city, sprawled out below us, with a cloudy Matterhorn hovering above. Welcome to Zermatt!
At the tourism office, I asked for the most inexpensive hotel in the city. The woman pointed out a couple of one-star hotels and youth hostels. After spending the entire summer camping in Chamonix, we realized that this would be only our fourth night spent under a roof in the last three months. We decided to skip hostel bunk beds and splurge on a one-star. Our massive victory lunch included the biggest Toblerone we could find, because as Dave put it, “What says 120-mile victory like a big ass Toblerone?!” We opened it immediately upon leaving the cash register. From our hotel balcony, we watched clouds dancing around the Matterhorn while sipping cold beers and reflecting on our travels.
After nearly two years of thinking about this trek, and challenging ourselves for twelve long days, it was pretty amazing to finally reach Zermatt. It is a strange feeling to walk from one city to another by foot. When I tell people we walked from Chamonix to Zermatt, I get confused looks; when I then tell them that it’s a 200 kilometer hike, I get wide eyes and gasps of appreciation. With our summer in Chamonix coming to a close, and thus our trip in France inevitably ending as well, to finish this hike—the culmination of everything we had done in the past year—was incredibly satisfying. We traveled 120 miles and 40,000 vertical feet of the Swiss Alps, hiking amongst massive glaciers, snowy peaks and runaway mountain goats. It is not something you get to do every day, and I am so glad we took advantage of the opportunity. The coffee table book got it right: this was truly the trip of a lifetime.
