Update December 2023: Cabane du Mont Fort is re-opening this month for the winter season and will therefore be open for the 2024 hiking season.
Background
Learn about Cabane du Mont Fort and their closure for 2023
Where is Cabane du Mont Fort?
Cabane du Mont Fort is a Swiss Alpine Club-owned mountain hut in the Verbier ski area below its namesake mountain peak. It is open during the ski and hiking season and sits on a perch where you can look out across the Bagnes Valley and see the entire East facing side of the Mont Blanc massif on a clear day.
Cabane du Mont Fort: Photo taken in mid June
Why is it an important location on the Walker’s Haute Route?
It is one of two locations (the other being Cabane de Louvie) that nearly every hiker completing the Walker’s Haute Route stays at. This is because the next hiking stage enters the most remote part of the journey as it crosses the Grand Desert, a baron, high alpine plateau that offers no other accommodation until Cabane de Pralfeuri. It takes most people about 7 hours of hiking (~9 hours with breaks) to reach Cabane de Prafleuri, with most of the day spent above 2,500m / 8,200ft, which is where altitude can impair performance.
Why is Cabane du Mont Fort closing for summer 2023?
With a change in the guardian, there has become a need to complete compliance and renovation works during the summer 2023. These works required the mountain hut to be closed for the duration of the summer.
What is the new guardian’s advice?
Two options are being proposed;
Stay in Le Châble
For anyone with an existing booking at Cabane du Mont Fort, they have offered to rebook them at “Auberge de Bagnes - le backpacker” with the half board being provided by Koti Restaurant nearby.
Stay at Chanrion hut
This is referred to in their customer notification as an option for those doing the ‘Haute Route’. To clarify, they mean Haute Route ski tour, not Walker’s Haute Route. Cabane de Chanrion is not a suitable location for staying overnight if you are doing the Walker’s Haute Route, unless you want to add a ~2 day detour.
Who is impacted?
Obviously, those with existing bookings or planning to stay at Cabane du Mont Fort in 2023 are impacted.
However, early-season hikers will also be impacted as the hut provided a stop-in-point to discuss the conditions in the Grand Desert. Like all accommodation points along the trail, they provide a valuable repository of information on conditions from going themselves and talking with hikers traveling both ways. Without this focal point, I would suggest asking at the Le Châble and/or Verbier tourism offices for latest updates. I also recommend following our Instagram handle: @hauteroutehiking, and signing up for our newsletter (in the footer at the bottom of this page), as we’ll be providing 2023 trail updates for the Walker’s Haute Route from mid-June.
Options: How to adjust your hiking plan
I’ve come up with a 4 step process to figure out what the best alternative accommodation is for you.
Step 1: Familiarise yourself with the area
I’ve created the following two maps to highlight where all the accommodation locations, transport, and main routes are around Cabane du Mont Fort. I decided to make the maps illustrative so I could put fun transport icons on them 🤓
Map 1: Focused on the trail leading up to Cabane du Mont Fort (click to enlarge)
Map 1: Illustrative view of the trail leading up to Cabane du Mont Fort. Please do not print and use for navigation 🙃 We can make you a personalised GPS map for that 📱Best viewed on desktop - click image to enlarge.
Map 2: Focused on the trail beyond Cabane du Mont Fort (click to enlarge)
Map 2: Illustrative view of the trail beyond Cabane du Mont Fort. Please do not print and use for navigation 🙃 We can make you a personalised GPS map for that 📱Best viewed on desktop - click image to enlarge.
Step 2: Identity your preferred alternative accommodation location
There are 4 alternative locations with accommodation that will suit different hikers.
1. Cabane de Louvie
A remote hut located next to Lac de Louvie in the Haut Val de Bagnes Nature Reserve. The guardian Claudia and her team are well known for their hospitality and cooking - it will be one of your best half-board dinners on the trail! You can check availability and book online.
Why choose this option?
It is the only feasible mountain hut alternative in the area to Cabane du Mont Fort
The hiking time to reach Cabane de Prafleuri and Grande Dixence Hotel on the following day is very similar to what you would have done from Cabane du Mont Fort
You can start hiking across the Grand Desert early in the morning (ie: not wait for gondolas to start which is necessary for some hikers staying at Le Châble or Verbier)
Considerations
Depending on your hiking speed and where you are coming from, you may need to take some transport in order to reach Cabane de Louvie for the night.
They are a popular hut and may be fully booked!
2. Le Châble
The gateway to the Bagnes Valley, Le Châble is a stop for most people doing a 13 or 14 day Walker’s Haute Route itinerary.
Why choose this option?
The gondolas operating in the Verbier ski area during summer will allow you to preserve your original itinerary. You can still hike to/near Cabane du Mont Fort as planned, and then take the gondolas from La Chaux back down to Le Châble. On the following day, return to your last hiking point via the gondolas and continue hiking.
You can stay two nights in the same accommodation and therefore only take a day pack on the grind from Le Châble to Les Ruinettes/La Chaux in the Verbier ski area
Accommodation in Le Châble is usually cheaper than Verbier, which is an alternative with the same pros/cons.
Considerations
Starting at 9am from the trail near Cabane du Mont Fort. While the gondola from Le Châble to Verbier starts operating at 5am, the gondola from Verbier to Les Ruinettes doesn’t start until 8am. Therefore, the earliest you can start hiking from Les Ruinettes is about 8.15am. If you take the La Chaux gondola to get closer to Cabane du Mont Fort, you won’t be any faster as you’ll still need to wait until 8.30am for its first run.
3. Verbier
A famous ski resort village in Switzerland that is a popular destination for mountain bikers in the summertime. There are lots of accommodation options available, however, many of them are high-end hotels.
Why choose this option?
Better views across the Bagnes Valley and more of an adventure vibe with the mountain biking crowd in town. They have a wider range of cafes and restaurants compared to Le Châble.
The gondolas operating in the Verbier ski area during summer will allow you to preserve your original itinerary. You can still hike to/near Cabane du Mont Fort as planned, and then take the gondolas from La Chaux back down to Verbier. On the following day, return to this point via the gondolas and continue hiking.
Considerations
Starting at 9am from the trail near Cabane du Mont Fort. The gondola from Verbier to Les Ruinettes doesn’t start until 8am. Therefore, the earliest you can start hiking from Les Ruinettes is about 8.15am. If you take the La Chaux gondola to get closer to Cabane du Mont Fort, you won’t be any faster as you’ll still need to wait until 8.30am for its first run.
Accommodation in Verbier can be quite expensive so check what’s available and consider Le Châble as the best alternative
4. Fionnay
Fionnay is a small village with one basic accommodation option: Dortoir de Fionnay
Why choose this option?
Cabane de Louvie was your first choice but is fully booked
You want to start hiking early on the following morning (ie: not wait for gondolas to start hiking like is necessary for some hikers staying at Le Châble or Verbier)
You want to stay in a small alpine village rather than Le Châble or Verbier
Considerations
For the average hiker, it adds about 2 hours to reach Cabane de Louvie, therefore it will require about ~9 hours of hiking to reach Cabane de Prafleuri, and Hotel Grande Dixence will be too far for most people
These are the 4 different locations you could stay instead of Cabane du Mont Fort. Below you will find a table of trail stats and hiking time estimates based on where you have planned to stay the night before.
Step 3: Check if the stats and estimated hiking time is feasible
Given it’s expected that hikers have booking for the night before and night after Cabane du Mont Fort, I created two tables.
Trail stats table 1: This chart shows the hiking stats to the 4 alternate accommodation (rather than Cabane du Mont Fort) from six different departure locations. For each departure location, I’ve listed options that include transport, given we know that about 50% of people take transport at some point during the Walker’s Haute Route, and this is an easy/popular area of the trail to skip ahead. (click on the chart to enlarge)
Table 1: Check out the trail stats to reach the 4 alternative destinations using various transport from locations where hikers are expected to have a bookings the day before their planned arrival at Cabane du Mont Fort. Check out how we calculate hiking time estimates here. Best viewed on desktop - click image to enlarge.
This is an exhaustive list of departure locations pulled from our list of The Hiking Club customers using our itinerary builder. Please note that the ‘La Chaux (Verbier or Le Châble)’ option means hiking to La Chaux, which is just below Cabane du Mont Fort, and then taking return gondolas back down to either Verbier or Le Châble.
Trail stats table 2: This chart shows the hiking stats from the 4 alternate accommodation (rather than Cabane du Mont Fort) to Cabane de Prafleuri and Hotel Grand Dixence. ‘La Chaux’ is also included as an option for those people staying at Le Châble or Verbier who will travel via gondola to have the most similar hiking day to what they had originally planned from Cabane du Mont Fort. (click to enlarge)
Table 2: Check out the trail stats to reach Cabane de Prafleuri or Hotel Grande Dixence from the four alternative accommodation locations + La Chaux. Check out how we calculate hiking time estimates here. Best viewed on desktop - click image to enlarge.
Please note that the trail stats are for the classic route only. Taking the Col de la Chaux route only makes minor difference to total hiking time (15-30mins) and in my humble opinion, the Sentier des Chamois balcony trail is not to be missed!
Step 4: Repeat step 2 & 3 if required
If the trail stats are feasible with your existing bookings and the alternative accommodation option you prefer isn’t available, choose another option from step 2 and try again.
If you can’t figure out a viable alternative, it is possible to use public transport to detour around to Dixence le Chargeur (the destination to type into the Swiss public transport website) from Sembrancher/Le Châble, and hike up to Cabane de Prafleuri (if staying there). You can check the journey here on the sbb website.
How to get free lift access 🎉
Given it’s likely you’ll need to catch some transport, how about getting it for free!?!
VIP Pass - your ticket to free lifts
By staying at least one night in Verbier or Val de Bagnes (Le Châble, Fionnay, Cabane de Louvie), you are entitled to a free VIP Pass. This is a local tourism initiative that includes a range of discounts and offers. The main benefit of the VIP Pass to hikers completing the Walker’s Haute Route is free bus travel and lift access for pedestrians (not mountain bikers). You can learn more about the VIP pass here.
Where to get your VIP pass
Your accommodation in Verbier or Val de Bagnes (Le Châble, Fionnay, Cabane de Louvie) will provide you with a VIP pass. If you would like free lift access before checking into your accommodation, you can take your accommodation booking details to the Tourism office in Le Châble or Verbier.
Le Châble: They have a booth near the Le Châble <> Verbier gondola ticket office.
Search in Google maps: Office du Tourisme du Val de Bagnes
Verbier: Located in the village about 7mins from Le Châble/Ruinettes gondola station
Seach in Google maps: Office de Tourisme de Verbier
How to get a GPS map to navigate the Walker’s Haute Route?
Provide us with your (updated!) itinerary and we’ll create you a GPS map file of your custom route for you to confidently navigate the trail.
I hope you found the trail update valuable. All the best with choosing an alternative option :)
Brendan