No but have skied both places separately...On my bucket list is the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. I'm targeting next year (Spring 2025). Have you done it? I'm open to hearing trip reports and insights. Thanks!
Wow Sallydog, I am stoked for you! This is a mega tour. Will you book a guide? With a group?On my bucket list is the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. I'm targeting next year (Spring 2025). Have you done it? I'm open to hearing trip reports and insights. Thanks!
Hi Sally,
I am doing the Haute route Chamonix-Zermatt this March!
One thing that I can already recommend is to book your huts EARLY (if you're not going with a guide). Start in December or even November.
We missed that and thought we couldn't reserve before March...and now we have only 3 out of 5 huts on route reserved. This means that our days are getting significant bigger (about 5000 ft of elevation gain and a couple miles more..). It seems that especially Cabane de Prafleuri and Vignette get booked out quickly. Without a guide you also have to organize your own shuttles (verbier, day 2) and a gear shuttle Chamonix - Zermatt.
You should feel good about glacial travel and navigation (white outs are possible).
I am very excited for the European style traverse and only having to carry my personal equipment and a sleeping bag liner aka DAY TOUR pack! I am very excited! Happy to report more in April :-)!!
Hi Sally,
I am doing the Haute route Chamonix-Zermatt this March!
One thing that I can already recommend is to book your huts EARLY (if you're not going with a guide). Start in December or even November.
We missed that and thought we couldn't reserve before March...and now we have only 3 out of 5 huts on route reserved. This means that our days are getting significant bigger (about 5000 ft of elevation gain and a couple miles more..). It seems that especially Cabane de Prafleuri and Vignette get booked out quickly. Without a guide you also have to organize your own shuttles (verbier, day 2) and a gear shuttle Chamonix - Zermatt.
You should feel good about glacial travel and navigation (white outs are possible).
I am very excited for the European style traverse and only having to carry my personal equipment and a sleeping bag liner aka DAY TOUR pack! I am very excited! Happy to report more in April :-)!!
How exciting !!! Please report backHi Sally,
I am doing the Haute route Chamonix-Zermatt this March!
One thing that I can already recommend is to book your huts EARLY (if you're not going with a guide). Start in December or even November.
We missed that and thought we couldn't reserve before March...and now we have only 3 out of 5 huts on route reserved. This means that our days are getting significant bigger (about 5000 ft of elevation gain and a couple miles more..). It seems that especially Cabane de Prafleuri and Vignette get booked out quickly. Without a guide you also have to organize your own shuttles (verbier, day 2) and a gear shuttle Chamonix - Zermatt.
You should feel good about glacial travel and navigation (white outs are possible).
I am very excited for the European style traverse and only having to carry my personal equipment and a sleeping bag liner aka DAY TOUR pack! I am very excited! Happy to report more in April :-)!!
Hi Sally,Thx for posting, I can't wait to hear about your trip I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on pros/cons of booking a guide. Bon voyage!
Not to say this is exactly what I needed to hear to share with my husband, but this is exactly what I needed to hear to share with my husband. LOL. As former outdoors guides, he always starts our trip planning certain we can *figure it out on our own.* Too many experiences are over-programmed now, so he's always circumspect about which should be and for whom. Your details are super helpful. Enjoy your aprés and dîner! Wishing you clear skies tomorrow.Hi Sally,
It’s me again. My question to you is if you’re into ski mountaineering or basic backcountry skiing.
Based on your skill level, more accurate information may be offered.
Haute Route is definitely ski mountaineering and requires mountaineering skills. If you don’t have advanced mountaineering skills then it’s best to hire a local guide service. A group rate is of excellent value with all Hut & shuttle services included. The local guide companies over book the huts and have close relationships with the Hut Managers. Then they have more flexibility in case of bad or dangerous weather conditions. Although you will have to show up with your own ice pick, book crampons, harness and a few carabiners, the guide will carry the rope. He will also carry a substantial medical kit and backup battery bank for his navigation. Mostly they carry all the burdens for your safety. They have their thumb on the weather reports, avalanche dangers, changes in the glaciers, ice falls and snow bridges, and of course the ski and snow conditions. I just completed the first 3 guided ski tours here in the Dolomites with a small group from our Swiss Backcountry Ski Club. The visibility has been terrible. While our group has had their heads tucked under their hoods against the blowing snow we merely had to follow our guide who knew exactly where we were and had an acute awareness of leading us up the safest route. Same skiing down in the fog. Today was level 4 avalanche danger. We heard avi breaks all day and witnessed a fantastic billowing slide.
Right now I am enjoying a delightful aprés while our guide is diligently working the plans for tomorrow’s tour. For me a guide makes trips like this completely stress free.
Montana Snowflake sounds like she’s an amazingly well experienced mountaineer and nearly 30 years younger than us. All of the above mentioned extra equipment is not routinely added to my ski tour daypack.
I have 11 years experience using the Hut system here. I could write a book on what to expect and how to pack your personal items. Let me know if you want advice in that department.
I’m really excited for you!
Beckster
Hi Sally, just got home from the Dolomites and then a week in the Engadin/St. Moritz. Both Winter Olympic regions. We had only one day of good visibility in Torino but the avalanche risks were so high that it shut down huge portions of resorts. We ended up buying lift tickets and skied the entire Sellaronde instead of fighting deep snow on a low profile ski tour. But wow was that a fun and impressively stunning last day!!I Our guide knew the resort so well that we quickly skied over 40km and over 24,000 vertical feet that day. I’d recommend that experience to every skier!Not to say this is exactly what I needed to hear to share with my husband, but this is exactly what I needed to hear to share with my husband. LOL. As former outdoors guides, he always starts our trip planning certain we can *figure it out on our own.* Too many experiences are over-programmed now, so he's always circumspect about which should be and for whom. Your details are super helpful. Enjoy your aprés and dîner! Wishing you clear skies tomorrow.
Wow, what an awful story! So many red flags and lessons learned in there.. just so terrible to think how it in no way had to happen that way. But hindsight is a very tricky thing as I imagine it was very different being in the group that day.Yeah, like most mountain sports, risk assessment is probably the biggest factor. Last Saturday morning was really beautiful and the now parished group probably underestimated the time it would take to beat the forecasted incoming weather. My guess is that they were breaking trail that morning which of course significantly hinders ones tempo. A similar situation happened in 2018 when a highly capable and experienced group with a hired guide decided to take a more technical route to save 2.5 hours of time to beat the forecasted weather. But then the weather blew in earlier than expected along with a serious of technical problems. A few films have documented that tragedy which is worth a study for any mountaineer. https://www.outsideonline.com/outdo...s/chamonix-zermatt-alps-haute-route-disaster/
Here’s my trip report (it’s on the guide’s blog but the information is helpful if you don’t go with a guide) Blog PostSounds like an incredible voyage, @Montanasnowflake , I hope you do a trip report on this site afterward.