What is the Walkers Haute Route

The Walker's Haute Route is a walking route mainly in the Swiss Alps that enables walkers to pursue a high level walk that is just that: a walk. There is no need for any special mountaineering skills, just a reasonable level of competancy at reading a map, a head for heights and the desire to get out there.

The original Haute Route (and one that can still be followed today by ski mountaineers) links a number of glacial passes at high level. The Walker's version as documented by Kev Reynolds only brings you into close contact with one glacier (and that is best walked around since it has shrunk too much to allow a safe passage across it) and for most of the way follows high mountain paths to take you from pass to pass, valley to valley, pretty alpine village to pretty alpine village.

The walk itself can comfortably be achieved within a two week holiday and for the full story and all the information that you could possibly need there is only one book that you need; this is "Chamonix to Zermatt: 'The Walker's Haute Route'" written by Kev Reynolds and published by Cicerone, (Cicerone Press, Milnthorpe, Cumbria, UK.)
During our two week holiday on the route Kev became the source of information to the extent that we began to revere him. Having met the great man on a couple of occasions when he has spoken to my walking club I was able to envisage him speaking the words of the book as I read them.

Day 1: Chamonix - Argentiere

After an early morning Swissair flight from Heathrow we arrived in Chamonix at about 4pm. The sky was filled with broken cloud which enshrouded Mont Blanc but did not cloud our holiday spirit or enthusiasm. We stopped in the main square for a cappucino and a Diet Coke and started the walk to Argentiere at 4:30pm. We followed the road out of Chamonix for 2km then we branched off onto a footpath that led us through some woods alongside the river L'Arreyon, which is fed by the Mer de Glace glacier which tumbles down from Mont Blanc. Several steep uphill sections through the woods (steep is a relative word compared with the steepness we were to see later in the trip) and a little uncertainty about the route brought us to the village of Le Lavancher. At this point the rain started falling, a little at first but gradually it became heavy. We walked through fields and saw, and heard, the first cows with cow bells of the trip and the rest of the walk to Argentiere was mainly downhill. We reached Argentiere 2.5 hours after leaving Chamonix and we wandered towards the main road via various cable cars and chair lifts that were standing idle for the summer. Argentiere is very spread out and was deserted on this wet Saturday night but we were lucky to spot our accommodation - Le Belvedere - immediately after crossing the river. We checked in and found that Le Belvedere is a spartan dortoir but we hung up our wet clothes and went in search of food. We found an Italian restaurant (Luigi's) just up the road and ate from the 88ff menu and drank a bottle of Cote du Rhone. As we were only going to be in France for a day and a bit we did not have many French Francs with us and so wanted to pay by credit card. Between us we had three credit cards and the restaurants card reading machine would not accept any of them. We gave the owner all of the French Francs we had and he accepted these even though we were one franc short of the total. It was only later that we remembered our Eurocheques. After that we tried to pay all bills by Eurocheque which the majority of people were happy to accept.

Day 2: Argentiere - Trient

Day 3: Trient - Champex

Relais du Mont Blanc provided adequate facilities (122 sfr. inc. a packed lunch) and we met another four people doing the HR. They had done Chamonix to Trient in one day, one of them carrying an enormous rucksack which contained the luxuries that his wife insisted he carry before she agreed to do the route with him. Henceeforth, ths I shall refer to this group as 'the geologists' as the three men were all oil geologists. The morning dawned cloudy and during breakfast it started raining...heavily. Suitably fortified we sallied forth and headed for the Glacier de Trient and the Fenetre d'Arpette - a gap in the rock leading to the Val d'Arpette. The rain stayed with us on and off all of the 1386m to the window although when we got there the weather had cleared and it was dry and quite warm in the watery sunshine. On the way up the side of the glacier we first heard a marmot whistling then we looked around and about 10m away it was standing on its hind legs on a rock. We continued to hear the marmots throughout the day but didn't see any more.
Another group of four people doing the HR (referred to by us during the rest of the trip as 'the posh lot' arrived at the Fenetre and they started descending a few minues before us. While we were waiting for them to got a little way ahead two of the Geologists arrived and we took each other's photographs. We started down and relatively soon overtook the Posh Lot. As we walked down there were a number of creaking glaciers on the other side of the valley. Eventually we heard cow bells which heralded the closeness of civilisation and made a detour from the path as one cow was particularly belligerant. We then found the farm at Arpette and walked down the river to Champex and stopped at the first hotel we came to. We were just in time for a shower and dinner.

Day 4: Champex - Le Chable

Champex turned out to be a lovely village with a medium sized lake in the centre. The Chalet du Plein Air was comfortable and after a leisurely breakfast we left and walked through the village via the small supermarket. During breakfast it had been raining but by the time we left it had stopped and was starting to warm up. We stopped at the water fountain by the lake to fill water bottles and then proceeded out of Champex. We had to lose height by walking down the side of a valley which gave supurb views over the town of Orsieres and along the valley in both directions. We passed by a couple of small hamlets and stopped briefly in the village of Sous-la-lex. From here the views of Sembrancher and Verbier began to reveal themseles. We stopped in the town of Sembrancher for our lunch then walked along the valley bottom through alpine meadows to Le Chable which lies at the bottom of the road up to Verbier. Le Chable is a pleasant old town to the south of the river but newer buildings prevail to the north of the river. Presumably, it serves as a suburb of Verbier during the winter. After the rain in the morning the sky slowly cleared and it was hot and sunny. The landscape was green and fertile with fields full of flowers. This was untouristy, working Switzerland. At the Garni Escale we did a few pieces of washing which we dried on the flat roof outside our room (which we accessed by climbing out of the window).

Day 5: Le Chable - Caban de Mont Fort

We woke in the Garni Escale and the sky was clear although the sun had not yet risen above the mountains. We left the hotel with 1600m of climb to the Cabane du Mont Fort ahead of us. The route took us up the side of the valley above Le Chable. We walked through a very pretty village calld Cotterg and continued through pastures and orchards with damsons the size of plums all the while climbing uphill. The path continued to climb through a forest on the side of the valley and reached a cafe at Clambin at lunchtime. This overlooked Verbier and we had a Coke and cappucino, we then had lunch on a rock nearby. The number and quantity of specis of grasshopperabove 1500m was tremendous and the noise they made was very loud in places. We continued through the forest and had views of the Grand Combin and the Mont Blanc massif. We reached a chairlift and then walked alongside a bisse until the final pull up to the hut which sits on a rocky bluff with tremendous views, although this includes a multitude of chairlifts etc. The HR trekkers (all twelve of us) are all staying the hut and the dinner cooked by the guardian was good. Despite the height we had to gain we felt that this was not too hard a day testamount to our increased fitness.

Day 6: Caban de Mont Fort - Caban du Prafleuri

We slept badly at Cabane de Mont Fort - hard mattresses, mice etc. - and the weather in the morning was cloudy but with the prospect of better to come. We left the hut at ten to nine to walk along a narrow path along the valley side with a 1600m drop below us. We saw a herd of chamois who seemed unworried at our presence. We were walking slowly - the altitude and the concentration needed for the path saw to that. We reached Col. Termin and had supurb views of Lac de Louvie, a fishing lake that had clear water even from 500m above it. The path continued high alongside the valley and we eventually reached Col de Louvie. We then had to cross the Grand Desert glacier. A ten minute walk across the book said - don't believe it as it took us about 45 minutes and was purgatory. Instead walk down below the snout of the glacier. Time was pressing and we put on some extra speed to get to the Col de Prafleuri but this was difficult as the ground was glacial morraine with lots of big boulders to negotiate. We wanted to get to the hut for dinner which we assumed would be at 6pm. The walk down to the hut from the col at 2995m was longer than we thought but we got there at 5:50pm and dinner was at 6:30pm. Neither of us want to go across a glacier again - at least not without the proper equipment.

Day 7: Caban du Prafleuri - Arolla

It did snow just above the hut during the night. At the hut it was raining heavily as we set out on the short 180m haul up to Col des Roux. On the way up the rain turned to sleet and snow and at the top we had a view of a man-made resevoir - Lac des Dix - and we then walked down to the track along the lakeside. We walked to the head of the lake where two workmen were rebuilding a bridge over a stream coming from a glacier and to avoid putting our feet in their wet cement and to get us across the stream they laid some boards across the half built bridge. The main in-flow to the lake was further on and comes from Glacier de Cheilon which we crossed by means of a suspension bridge. We then slogged up to Col de Riedmatten mainly in the rain with views of Mont Blanc de Cheilon. When at the col we had good views of the descent to Arolla and of the Pigne d'Arolla and its glacier. We got to Hotel du Glacier in Arolla with some relief but this had been another high level day which was not easy but the next day was meant to be easier. Arolla seems a small village and the cloud rolled in during the evening, just to add to the rain we had endured during the day.

Day 8: Arolla - Grimentz

Day 9/10: Grimentz - Zermatt

We had decided to stay in Grimentz for two nights so that we could relax on Sunday and restart walking on Monday. Without success we tried to get the tourist office to book us into the Hotel Weisshorn and to confirm our booking at the hotel in Gruben. Grimentz has a very pretty and very old part to the village with newer chalets built further up the hillside. In the morning and in the afternoon we went for walk around the village and on both occasions it snowed. It started snowing heavily in the evening and this time the snow started to settle in the village. By the time we had eaten dinner, served by the most uncommunicative waiter, over an inch had fallen. Our plans for the next few days now hang in the balance because the high passes that we have to use on Tuesday and Wednesday will have had more snow that here and unless it melts will make the going difficult, if not impossible.

We awoke in Grimentz to lying snow and soon decided that the amount of snow that had fallen would make the going difficult over the last two passes. We decided to cut our losses and go to Zermatt by bus and train. The train from Visp to Zermatt was very busy with a lot of Japenese and Americans. We arrived in Zermatt at about 3pm and quickly found a reasonably priced hotel by the river with a view of the Matterhorn from the window (although it was covered in cloud). We went for a walk around Zermat, it was quite busy, unlike any of the other places we had visited since Chamonix. No cars are allowed in the townso all the hotels and tradesmen have little electric vehicles like small milk floars or golf carts.

Day 11: Zermatt - Grachen

Day 12: Grachen - Saas Fee

No spoons except long handled ice cream spoons to eat our cereal with so last nights trick with the Ovaltine was obviously a ruse to draw attention away from the fact that this is a hotel without spoons. Anyway, after breakfast we started walking at 8:50am up towards Hannigalp - the top of the cable car run. The weather was cool and somewhat cloudy but promising. We got to Hannigalp in about an hour and had good views back towards the Matterhorn and Weisshorn and over towards the Bernese Alps. This must be one of the best panorama views of the walk so far. We proceeded to turn southwards and towards Saas Fee. We entered cloud which gave a eerie feeling to the woods as we walked through them. After an hour or so the clouds started to clear and we began to see views into the valley below and over onto the opposite valley side. At the high point of Stock it was quite warm and sunny and from here we contoured along the valleyside with a 1000m frop to the valley floor only a footstep away. The footpath went on and on along the valley side lined virtually all the way by juniper bushes. However, the views were spectacular. When we eventually reached the final section it was only to find that the path we intended to use had been shut where it passed below the Bieder glacier due to "the latent danger of ice falls". So a detour took us on a lower path and it was with some relief that we eventually reached the tourist office in Saas Fee at 17:40. After a first, abortive attempt at finding a hotel (beds too soft), we got a room in Hotel Domino at 44sfr pppn.

Day 13-16: Saas Fee

After breakfast we walked to the tourist office and got the appropriate bus and train timetables that we needed to get bck to Geneva Airport. We walked around Saas Fee for a while and had a drink looking up towards the mountains. The cable cars were not running due to the wind. Although it was sunny most of the time the gusty wind brough a chill to the air and the temperature was only 8 Celsius. We then walked round the nursery slopes and sat on a seat until lunchtime reading. We had lunch at an old cafe looking towards the mountains. We then found a reletively sheltered spot and continued reading The Times and a book respectively. Later in the afternoon we had another look round the shops and stocked up on chocolate and some drinks for the room. We saw some bandsmen and women in traditional costume heading for the town centre, and as we were having dinnerwe saw lots of people walking towards the town square. After dinner we walked to the square to find that the town band had played some musi - which we missed, and there was a group of traditionally dressed people doing some folk dancing on a temporary stage erected in the square.

The day was sunny without a cloud in sight and there was no wind so we decided to go to Mittelallalin. This took two cable cars and a train which travels up inside the mountain to take us to the top station at 3500m. From here there is access to all year round ski-ing and plenty of peaple were taking advantage of this. There was a tremendous view of the closer mountains, the Dom etc., and of the Bernese Alps and also way into Italy. We watched the skiers and snowboarders for quite a while and had a drink. We then walked through the snow to a rocky outcrop a little way from the restaurant for another view. Two mountaineers were descending from the Allalin and we watched their descent. We visited the 'Eis Pavillon' - the ice museum. This is carved into the ice of the glacier and was quite clastrophobic but it was amazing to be inside the ice. A large amount of work is being carried out on the morraine below the glacier, lots of diggers and large lorries are involved. This work is to install snow making machines.

Another perfect day in Saas Fee, it's not known as 'The Pearl of the Alps' for nothing. We bought some rolls for lunch and ate them on our balcony then we set off to walk to Hannig. We could have taken the cable car up but considered this cheating. We were a bit dubious about wearing shorts and T-shirts but it did turn out to be hot and, as it happens, the 400m climb up felt very easy and we achieved it in little more than an hour. After refreshments at the cable car station and looking at the tame marmots we walked round the hillside underneath a glacier and then on until we were overlooking the lake at the back of the bowl that Saas Fee sits in. As we got back to the hotel we found that at another hotel just up the street a wedding reception was taking place and we had a good view from our balcony. Not long after we got back a funky, gaudily dressed band formed up and proceeded to lead a procession consisting of bride and groom, little boy dressed as a chimmney sweep, women dressed in national costume holding large arrangements of flowers and the guests through the streets stopping every few metres to march back on themselves or to dance around. Everyone was genuienly enjoying themselves. In the evening we went for a meal at the restaurant attached to the Hotel Beau Site where Jackie worked for a winter season, and she met the owners again.

Yet another perfect day in Saas Fee, and our last in Switzerland this year. Little did we know that we would be back here in 1999, on our honeymoon!