The Haute Route is an epic 200km adventure through the Swiss Alps from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn across 11 mountain passes.
It will be the best of times, it’ll be the worst of times. Jaw dropping scenery, creature comforts at the end of each day, even the odd gondola ride to save an hour or two of walking.
However, we’re fairly fit and found this was one our hardest hikes yet. Long days, steep & tiring ascents and knee buckling descents off mountain passes are all hallmarks of the classic Haute Route.
Our Haute Route adventure was something we’d been keen on since reading the Cicerone bible for this particular hike – Chamonix to Zermatt: The classic Walker’s Haute Route by Kev Reynolds.
Kev isn’t a fan of anything but nature (particularly ski lifts & gondolas) but he writes a great guide to this part of the world. We combined this book with some fantastic insight and online help from Brendan at Haute Route Hiking to plan an ambitious 10 day trip from Chamonix to Zermatt via Europaweg.
Before you plan this hike, you need to know that everyone else walking at the same time are likely on a very different itinerary. It’s not like Everest Base Camp or climbing Kilimanjaro in Tanzania where fellow hikers have the same goal.
There are different ways to walk the Haute Route. You can do the 187km route or parts of it or add the Europaweg. On many legs there are sometimes bus, train or gondolas which can reduce walk time or steer you in a different direction.
Therefore, if your time is tight, you’re on a budget or simply want to forward plan then consider online help or go with a guide. Many people join groups that walk the Haute Route – they have their luggage driven to the next destination and walk with a light day bag.
How long does it take to walk the Haute Route?
Consider how may km/miles you can knock off each day. Factor in daylight hours and how much you think you can physically push yourself to walk each day with some serious high mountain passes. It’s approximately 200km from Chamonix in France to Zermatt, Switzerland if you stay up at the Europa Hut on your final night.
We squeezed this hike in during the middle of a European trip to see family and could only afford 10 days. We met a couple of English guys doing it in nine days (they weren’t booked into the Europa Hut), but most people looked at us like we were nuts.
When we had to tackle four passes in one day and didn’t get to our hut until after 8pm at night, we started to seriously question our itinerary.
Most people we met doing the full Haute Route were taking 12-15 days and I would recommend you do the same to really enjoy it. Squeezing this trek into 10 days meant we had three long exhausting days in the middle of the hike with early starts and late finishes.
However, we did make time to suck up the postcard scenery. You are in the middle of some dramatic and beautiful landscapes so make sure you absorb it all. The soundtrack to a day’s walk is often the clanging of the cow bells. You’ll walk through pretty villages to refill your bottle at the local water fountain and be constantly reaching for your camera to capture it all.
We discovered a small library shelter on the track with books to swap and a place to sit and read overlooking the nearby mountains. In the middle of a boulder field someone has built a camouflaged rock that is actually a one person shelter that’s free to stay in – if you can find it!
The walk takes you through small chic towns like Verbier, up laddered walls, past grazing Ibex and over mountain passes that will take your breath away, once you get your breath back.
Navigating the Haute Route
Once you’ve sorted out how many walk days, you’ll need to figure out the best route from Chamonix to Zermatt . You can walk it the other way but this seems to be the most popular direction.
Basically, you follow the familiar white and red flag marker painted on rocks, signs or fences along the route. Sounds pretty easy right? Thing is, some parts of the Haute Route are very unSwiss!
Walking times on signs swing wildly from one place to the next. You may find you walk faster than some signs suggest but others you are out by 2 hours!
Brendan at Haute Route Hiking worked out our trekking days, which route we’d take then loaded this onto mobile maps. It was a god send – sometimes the hardest part each morning was just finding the starting point to get out of town.
Mobile maps was great to debunk confusing signs, finding faster alternative routes or just figuring out where we could fill up on water. Our 10-day Haute Route is listed below.
Accommodation options
This is a trek that caters for all budgets – in places like Verbier you can stay in a luxury hotel. It’s not encouraged by the Swiss, but some hikers carry a tent and freedom camp along the trail. There are plenty of accommodation options in between depending on where you stop each night and your budget.
We booked seven months out from our trek. The only reason we did this was that it was peak trekking season (August) and our days were long so we did not want to be stuck trying to find a place to stay.
Haute Route Hiking sent us a few budget options in each location as part of our chosen route. This formed part of our unique trek portal with a hiking itinerary, pack list suggestions and a mobile map. This map had coloured coded pins for all the things we might need from food options to toilet stops in all the locations we’d be walking through or to each day.
We smashed out our bookings in one day either by emailing hostels direct or through online accommodation sites. So mostly we got double rooms, shared bathrooms with dinner and breakfast included. Some of the great options were in St Niklaus; Les Hauderes and this great room for people watching overlooking Champex Lac.
In other locations, we had only one choice and independent travellers were put into dormitory accommodation, with preference for private rooms given to tour groups. We also spent one night in a mountain refuge which had rugs and pillows and cooking equipment. All we had to bring in was food for dinner/breakfast and a sleeping bag liner helped too.
Food for thought
Like accommodation, you food options are wide ranging. There’s cheapish ham & cheese rolls from a local supermarket through to fine dining in places like Chamonix, Zermatt & Verbier plus everything in between. If you stay in refuges, then you’ll need to come prepared and carry food for those nights, but everywhere else you’ll stay will have food options.
Full board is accommodation with dinner, breakfast and a packed lunch. Half board is bed with dinner and breakfast and then there are just bed and breakfast options. Check when you book your accommodation what the price includes and whether you’ll need a packed lunch for the following day walking.
In some hostels or auberges with half board, you will eat at a certain time with everyone else and it’s a set menu. This usually includes entree/soup/salad/meat dish/vegetarian option and a dessert. The good news is that in most places, after a day of hard hiking , you’ll be able to get a cold beer!
How much does it cost?
Walking with The Sound of Music as a backdrop doesn’t come cheap. You are in one of the most expensive countries in the world. On the plus side, there isn’t a fee or permit for walking the Haute Route.. However, food & accommodation can be expensive over your time on the track.
We averaged around 130CHF per person each day for food, drinks and accommodation. That doesn’t include things like snacks, emergency blister pads or the odd gondola ride. Our accommodation was mostly 3-star or below but we met an Australian couple who were camping and buying food in supermarkets. The downside to camping is that they had very heavy back packs going up over the passes.
The long & short of trekking the Haute Route
- Pack light. The passes are high, the days are long so do yourself a favour and take the bare minimum. We each carried 34 litre Osprey backpacks and had enough room for supermarket snacks each day.
- Take trekking poles. They are really good for the knees coming off the high passes.
- Gondolas, chairlifts, buses and trains are available to cut off time in a number of legs on the Haute Route. Nobody is judging if you need to shave off some time and save the legs.
- Unless you’re camping you won’t need a sleeping bag.
- Book the Europe Hut well in advance if you want to walk the Europaweg.
- It’s a tough hike, you’ll need a reasonable level of fitness to complete the 200km.