Trail Update

The season is off to a wonderful start with many hikers enjoying the stable warm weather as they complete their Legendary trails in the Alps.

This blog post has the latest updates from the 3 trails we support. In summary, only the Walker’s Haute Route has changes to report - the Tour du Mont Blanc and Tour of Monte Rosa updates remain the same from June (click here to read the detailed early season trail report)

I’ve also shared some news about summit route closures for anyone interested in staying informed about what’s happening higher up with our mountaineer friends too.

Walker’s Haute Route

Reopening of the Sentier des Chamois trail

During our 2022 break the trail hike at the beginning of June, we found major trail damage at the Cabane du Mont Fort end of the Sentier des Chamois trail. The trail was marked as closed by the local trail authorities while they planned to repair the damage and all the GPS maps for customers of The Hiking Club had a detour route highlighted to get past this spot.

The trail has recently been reopened with the status updated on the Swiss National trail database. Good news for hikers that are still to hike the Haute Route this summer as the narrow balcony trail is breathtaking and views across the Combins massif a favourite highlight for most.

Rapid Melt of the Cheilon Glacier Impacting the crossing

In previous years, the staff at Cabane Des Dix have put out mobile trail markers to direct hikers along a safe route over the Cheilon Glacier. The route led you higher up the glacier and required a short jump across the run-off channel early in the season and quite a leap by September.

With the small winter, warm spring, and now heatwaves rolling through the Alps this summer, the glacier conditions have already deteriorated to a point where the Cabane Des Dix staff have not been able to highlight a safe route and therefore not installed mobile trail markers.

The painted rocks mark the original route which takes a more direct path to Pas de Chevres. The Heikins crew recently crossed on this route and provided the images you’ll see above. They described crossing the run-off channel as pretty sketchy and used rope to safely cross.

If you’re planning to hike across the Cheilon glacier during the rest of this season, please be aware of the increased difficulty and risk of this section. All the GPS maps for customers of The Hiking Club already have a detour route highlighted that skips lunch at Cabane Des Dix and the glacier crossing, however, in doing so you’ll miss out on one of the best Rosti’s on the trail according to the Heikins Crew.

If you go for lunch at Cabane Des Dix, is there still time to detour around the glacier?

Yes! It adds around an hour of hiking depending on your speed. Here are the difference in trail stats between Cabane Des Dix and Arolla;

Crossing the glacier

Back tracking to Pas du Chat and detouring around the glacier

Tour du Mont Blanc

No issues reported that require major route detours.

Courmayeur ski area detour still in effect

The main detour still in effect between Rifugio Maison Ville and Dolonne. The GPS maps for customers of The Hiking Club already have a detour route highlighted, however, it is well signed on the trail too.

Also a reminder that the Autannes Chairlift and Le Tour Gondola are closed for the season due to replacement of the latter - just in case anyone was planning easy access to/from the valley from/to Col de Balme.

Tour of Monte Rosa

No issues reported that require major route detours.

Glacier Trail remains open

Britanniahutte is still reporting the glacier trail as open although it too has had significant melting - check out this Instagram post they did of a glacier comparison between 2017 (which was also an early/warm summer) and 2022.

Mont Blanc & MatterHORN SUmmit Route Closures

You may have heard about guides for Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn suspending summit operations for some routes. The warm weather has caused an increase in rockfall/rockslide activity which puts some climbing routes in danger. Here is a rather scary video of a recent rockfall near the Mont Blanc summit route in question (definitely not on/near the Tour du Mont Blanc trail!).

Is there an impact on hikers?

No. The Chamoniarde (Chamonix Mountain Prevention and Rescue) have said the rock falls or other hanging glaciers do not "threaten" the Tour du Mont Blanc and the Walker’s Haute Route and Tour of Monte Rosa do not go near the base of the Matterhorn.

Why should you care?

Changes in the high alpine layer has a habit of impacting those below. Being aware of conditions on top can give clues to what hikers may also face.

2 years ago on the Tour du Mont Blanc, an unstable glacier in Val Ferret closed the road below in September, preventing access up the valley for the remainder of the hiking season. While it doesn’t impact the Tour du Mont Blanc hiking route, it did impact anyone planning to catch the bus to skip hiking this section (for example, those that couldn’t get a booking at Bonatti). I’m monitoring to see whether this issue arises again.

On the Walker’s Haute Route and Tour of Mont Rosa there are a few sections that go through or under rockfall areas. With increased rockfall warnings on top of the mountains, extra vigilance in these areas is recommended. One small thing you can do is not to wear headphones in these areas so you potentially have a few seconds to react if you hear something coming down above.

Brendan is a pizza-making, craft beer-loving, peanut butter connoisseur that has been exploring the great outdoors since completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award in high school. He started The Hiking Club to democratise hiking and the benefits that come from spending time in nature.

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