The Haute Route is a series of backpacking trails that span from Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland. Depending on which paths you take, the trail is roughly 120 miles long. We decided to backpack the entire route over 13 days. We flew into Geneva, Switzerland...
With our trusty guidebook in hand, we boarded the bus in Chamonix, France for our first day of hiking. The doors of the bus opened in Argentière, we stepped off and our adventure began. To find the trail the guidebook gave directions from the center of town – we had...
The night before, we scouted the trail leading out of Trient to prevent another morning of getting lost. Up and away we ascended steeply. We had plenty of company with backpackers hiking the Tour de Mont Blanc. The TMB is a similar trail that circles Mount Blanc and...
Today’s hike was supposed to be easy. Only an estimated four hours and most of the terrain was downhill. This was a relief because our bodies were still getting used to walking so many miles a day. We needed the rest. As we left the hotel we descended a few steep...
Excited, we left the hotel room. Today’s hike contained a few milestones for us. This would be our first high mountain pass, and our first time to stay in a mountain hut. The wilderness was supposed to be more remote. Our first leg of the journey was a cable car ride...
Today would be one of our toughest days yet. There were two passes to cross over to make it to Cabane de Prafleuri. Col Louvie was the first pass to tackle at 9,583 feet. The morning’s hike was familiar because it was back out along the same path we came down to...
We scheduled an early morning breakfast, eager to get out on the trail. It was a cloudy morning, but today’s hike was supposed to be adventurous – walking over glaciers and climbing ladders over a mountain pass. The trail quickly lead us over the steep Col de Roux....
Due to all of the boulder hopping the day before, Nuthin and I both woke up with injuries. My knees were hurting and Nuthin had a bad knee and ankle. Today’s hike was an easy 3-hour walk, and mostly downhill to the small town of Les Haudères. We slept in and had a...
Today’s hike was supposed to be strenuous, roughly 7 to 8 hours long and extreme elevation changes. We were also in a time crunch, the bus we had to catch at the end of the day to Grimentz left at 3:30 pm. We woke up at 5:30 am to have breakfast. Breakfast was not...
Today’s hike was only an estimated 4 hours long but with heavy elevation changes. Getting lost and not hiking much the day before was nice for our injuries. We thought with an easy day today maybe we could get rid of them. We ate breakfast and caught a short bus ride...
The morning started off like any day on the Haute Route, straight on up. The trail steeply led through the woods for about 2 hours before it broke out to an open area. It was overcast, but we could see a beautiful view of snow-covered mountains and the valley below....
We started the morning off enjoying breakfast with our friends from last night. It was a nice way to start out what was supposed to be a beautiful day of hiking to St Niklaus. Gator and I put on our packs and headed out. The trail started out right next to the hotel...
Today was going to be the toughest day yet on the Haute Route and also the most dangerous. We were to start a portion of the trail called the Europaweg. The guidebook warned that if you were not completely surefooted that you should not attempt this part of the trail....
Only two more exciting days in Switzerland! Today would be the last day of hiking the Haute Route and tomorrow we would explore Zermatt. Zermatt is the largest town that we hiked to on the Haute Route, which is ironic because there aren’t any cars allowed in the city...
