Details about the section of Europaweg trail closed for the 2024 hiking season
The Hiking Club partners with ExoLabs to provide snow data from space
How AI, satellites, and Swiss innovation will keep thousands of self-guided hikers safe in the Alps this summer.
How much snow is still on the trail, and where exactly is it? The answers to these important questions are required for early-season hikers to assess the risk of their planned route and determine if any changes are necessary. Uncertainty around snow conditions can be costly, leading to both re-planning and risk-taking, negatively impacting what should otherwise be the incredible experience of hiking in the Alps.
For the past 5 years, The Hiking Club has been undertaking the task of providing the latest trail conditions through a human-led approach, a “Break The Trail” update from The Hiking Club team, and then ongoing daily trail reports from trail ambassadors from The Hiking Club community. Despite these programs giving self-guided hikers a comprehensive view of where the snow is on the trail at a point in time, these updates can quickly become obsolete. The Hiking Club team has been searching for a way to provide more regular snow updates in a format that is targeted and actionable.
Thanks to The Hiking Club’s new partnership with ExoLabs, we’ve found it. The Hiking Club has integrated ExoLabs’ estimated current snow depth and 48-hour new snow forecast layers into the map in their trip planning app. Snow uncertainty will be a thing of the past on famous multi-day trails in the Alps, like the Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route, and Alta Via 1 Dolomites.
The estimated current snow depth will be critical for hikers in June and July, to ensure they have the most up-to-date information on where the snow is located and its expected depth along the trails. The 48-hour new snow forecast will be valuable for hikers throughout the season as it will indicate where and how much snow is expected to fall along the trails for informed decisions.
Estimated current snow depth and 48-hour new snow forecast layers now available in The Hiking Club trip planning app.
These legendary trails attract self-guided adventurers from around the world who are often experienced in mountain hiking but have little or no experience in the Alps. Without having local knowledge over multiple seasons, applying general snow reports of an area to a hiking route is hard. Tour companies often use local guides to check trails and translate these reports for their clientele, but self-guided hikers who have planned their own trips don’t have access to this resource.
““It has never been easier for self-guided hikers to plan their own trips in the Alps, and by adding ExoLabs snow layers to our app, we will also help make the early season hiking experience safer than it has ever been before.””
ExoLabs has developed an innovative solution to show the expected current snow cover and snow depth on a map. Their truly novel approach feeds daily satellite imagery and weather station data, (including field readings and snow analysis), through complex models driven by modern machine-learning techniques to produce a snow distribution over the topography of the Alps and other mountain ranges worldwide. This snow projection has a 20-meter resolution and is updated daily.
The snow depth layer was validated with over 2 million data points from the Swiss Alps and achieved an average error of just 0.36 meters of snow depth. Given the high variability of snow depth distributions and the spatial resolution of 20 meters, this is considered a very accurate result. It will be a marked improvement on the single high-level snow report for a region that has previously been available to the hiking community.
Make informed route decisions based on estimated current snow depth data in The Hiking Club’s trip planning app.
The new snow layers are now available in The Hiking Club planning app, part of release V1.11, and will be the basis for our 2024 trail updates program during the early hiking season.
About ExoLabs: Linked to the University of Zurich, Exolabs specializes in environmental monitoring. Using satellite data as well as weather and climate models, and modern machine learning techniques, ExoLabs is able to gain a comprehensive insight into the condition of our environment. This valuable information is then presented in a user-friendly format in order to facilitate informed and sustainable decision-making.
About The Hiking Club: The Hiking Club allows adventures to easily plan and safely navigate legendary trails in the Alps. With a trip planning app, GPS mobile maps, and up-to-date trail information, The Hiking Club has everything a self-guided hiker and trail runner needs for their inspiring and challenging journey.
Europaweg Trail: Complete guide
The Europaweg Trail between Grächen and Zermatt is one of the most famous two-day hikes in the Alps, as well as forming part of the Walker’s Haute Route and Tour of Monte Rosa. In the past few years, there has been some confusion about where exactly the Europaweg trail goes, due to the original route still appearing on some outdated maps, apps and guidebooks. In this updated post, I share details about the Europaweg trail, clarify where the route goes and share a brief history of trail changes in recent years.
2024 Training Diary: Preparing to hike 8 legendary hikes of Europe
This summer, Brendan and I will be completing over 1,200km / 750mi to hike the top 8 multi-day hikes in Europe. We’ll be doing this as part of our 2024 Trail Updates program, as well as launching new hikes onto The Hiking Club platform. Sounds exciting, right? But, if I’m honest, also a little daunting. When it’s not hiking season in the Alps, I live at sea level and don’t have mountains on my doorstep. Not the best environment to get my body mountain fit!
Luckily, we have Stacey Hardin in our corner. Stacey is the Founder of Pique to Peak, Doctor of Physical Therapy, and Athletic Trainer. We worked with Stacey to develop our 3-month training plan. A training plan that helps people like us, build the endurance and strength to complete a multi-day hike in the Alps.
The aim of this training diary is to keep us accountable, share our progress and hopefully motivate you to start or continue training for your next epic hiking journey. We’ll be using the 3-month training template to develop our own training plan based on improving our performance through a combination of step endurance, cardio, and strength activities. Enjoy!
Oh, and if you’re interested in which 8 legendary hikes we’ll be doing (while keeping The Hiking Club propelling forward), here they are: Tour du Mont Blanc, Alta Via 1 Dolomites, Walker’s Haute Route, Bernese Oberland Traverse, Tour of Monte Rosa, and a few we’ll keep on the downlow :P
susan’s WEEK 1: creating my training plan
(Sunday 18 February > Saturday 24 February)
The first hike that I’ll be tackling is the Alta Via 1 in the Dolomites. The trail is 120km / 75mi, 7,400m / 24,00ft in elevation gain, and I’m hoping to complete it in 5 days.
One of the first pieces of information the training template needs to calculate how long it will take me to prepare for this trail distance is my current weekly step count. Luckily, I wear my Apple Watch everyday so I can easily check last week’s count - 85,000 steps.
Based on the above information, it shows it will take me 12 weeks to work my step count to the hike distance of 120km / 75 mi. (See how the right column turns green at week 12 when my step gap to readiness goal is met).
Based on last week’s step count and the trail stats for Alta Via 1 Dolomites, the training plan shows it will take me 12 weeks to build up the endurance to complete the trail in 5 days.
The next step is creating my week 1 training plan. This week is a little bit different from normal as I have an aquathon race on Friday so I’ll plan my week around that. I’ve decided to start the week strong with a rest day (the key to every good training plan!) and then attempt 3x runs, 2x swims, yoga and a strength session. A good mix of strength, cardio and step endurance.
Here’s what my week 1 plan looks like:
My week 1 training plan using the training template from the 3 Month Training Program.
I’ll report back on progress over the next few months. Wish me luck!
2023 Walker's Haute Route Trail Updates
2023 WALKER’s haute route TRAIL UPDATES
Updated: June 22nd 2023
Knowing what the early season trail conditions are like is a really important part of a self guided hikers preparation. It helps with;
Awareness of the challenges
Appropriate gear choices
Review of alternative routes/options
Revision of plan (if necessary)
Our updates are kept up-to-date during the 2023 hiking season by The Hiking Club team and our 6 Trail Ambassadors.
Key trail updates include:
Our Break The Trail hike
Latest trail updates
Gear recommendations
⛏ BRENDAN’S BREAK THE TRAIL HIKE
From May 30th to June 21st 2023, Brendan Jones, Founder of The Hiking Club, completed the Tour du Mont Blanc and key sections of the Walker’s Haute Route. He documented his trip extensively on social media, providing live accounts of snow conditions across the mountain passes, route detours, and challenging sections of trails.
Click on below image to see a summary of each daily trail update:
“LIVE FROM THE ALPS” WEBCAST
On June 23rd, 2023, Brendan presented a one-hour “Live from the Alps” webcast to share an update of the current trail conditions, including snow conditions, route detours and gear recommendations. It also included a live Q&A session that covers everything from using microspikes, best local weather sources and alternate route choices.
Follow our dedicated WHR Instagram page to get latest updates
🥾 GEAR RECOMMENDATIONS
As of June 22nd, 2023: Microspikes and poles are recommended for anyone hiking in June and early July to support snow crossings. This gear can help with confidence when crossing steeper snowy slopes, even when the snow is not icy. Also, although the freezing level has been up over 3,000m for a few weeks now and is forecast to stay there for the next week if it does drop to the level where snow is still lying on the trail, then microspikes and poles will be essential - especially if staying at a place high on the mountain like Cabane de Prafleuri, Cabane Des Dix, or, Cabane de Moiry.
2023 Tour du Mont Blanc Trail Updates
2023 TOUR DU MONT BLANC TRAIL UPDATES
Updated: June 13th 2023
Knowing what the early season trail conditions are like is a really important part of a self guided hikers preparation. It helps with;
Awareness of the challenges
Appropriate gear choices
Review of alternative routes/options
Revision of plan (if necessary)
Our updates are kept up-to-date during the 2023 hiking season by The Hiking Club team and our 20+ Trail Ambassadors.
Key trail updates include:
Our Break The Trail hike
Latest trail updates
Gear recommendations
⛏ BRENDAN’S BREAK THE TRAIL HIKE
From May 30th to June 2nd 2023, Brendan Jones, Founder of The Hiking Club, completed the Tour du Mont Blanc in 5 days. He documented his trip extensively on social media, providing live accounts of snow conditions across the key mountain passes and difficult sections of trails.
Click on below image to see each of the detailed daily trail updates:
On June 4th, 2023, Brendan presented a one hour “Live from the Alps” webcast to share an update of the current trail conditions including snow conditions, route detours and gear recommendation. It also includes a live Q&A session that covers everything from using microspikes, best local weather sources and alternate route choices. Watch the recording below.
Follow our dedicated TMB Instagram page to get latest updates
📸 LATEST IMAGES FROM THE TRAIL
We’ve created a highlights reel on Instagram where you can see the most current live updates from our 20+ trail ambassadors that complete the TMB between June > September.
SPECIFIC TRAIL UPDATES
3rd June, 2023: Bissonnay bridge now installed. 📸 Eliza, THC Trail Ambassador.
6th June, 2023: Bridge between Le Chapieux and Refuge Mottets not yet installed. 📸 Dean, THC Trail Ambassador
10th June, 2023: Tractor has cleared the road from Lex Blanche (below Rifugio Elisabetta). 📸 Raimond, THC Trail Ambassador
8th June, 2023: Mont Farve Spur still lots of snow that requires careful navigation. 📸 Marshall.
11th June, 2023: Col di Tricot now snow free! 📸 Aakash, THC Trail Ambassador.
12th June, 2023: Grand Col Ferret basically snow free on Italian side. Still lots of snow on Swiss side. 📸 Raimonds.
🥾 GEAR RECOMMENDATIONS
As of June 13th, 2023: Microspikes and poles are recommended for anyone hiking in June to support snow crossings. This gear can help with confidence when crossing steeper snowy slopes, even when the snow is soft. Also, although the freezing level has been up over 3,000m for a couple of weeks now and is forecast to stay there for the next week, if it does drop to the level where snow is still lying on the trail then microspikes and poles will be essential.
Cabane du Mont Fort is closed for summer 2023
2023 Trail Updates
We complete a “Break The Trail” journey to provide the first trail report for the key legendary trails in the Alps - Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route and Tour of Monte Rosa. We share these updates with thousands of hikers that travel to the Alps each year for their epic bucket list hikes. This information is particularly valuable for early-season hikers to understand the latest snow conditions, route detours, and gear recommendations. This year, our program is bigger and better, giving you updates across multiple channels throughout June. Check it out!
Our 2023 TRAIL UPDATE PROGRAM
This year our program will consist of 3 key elements:
2023 Break the trail
Early season conditions can vary dramatically from year to year. June 2019 was a particularly çhallenging season with significant snow on high mountain passes throughout June
~ Col de la Seigne, Italy (Tour du Mont Blanc)
We will kick off our 2023 trail updates from Chamonix, starting at the end of May. Each day we will share updates including snow conditions, route detours, transport updates and gear recommendations. Our focus is on the conditions on the mountain passes, peaks and difficult trail sections, as this is where the most uncertainty exists.
Usually, we would do a continuous journey covering big daily distances and elevations. But this year, we’ve come up with a different format that still takes us to all the necessary places whilst keeping life fun and manageable with our 1 and 3 year old daughters! Therefore, we’ll be taking 3 weeks to complete all 3 trails. Tag teaming, taking transport, and trail running where needed to check out all the passes and key routes. No doubt it will be a comedy :)
Follow us on social to get real-time trail updates
live webcast: chamonix & zermatt
From the start of the Tour du Mont Blanc, to the end of the Walker’s Haute Route and the mid-point of the Tour of Monte Rosa. Join us for live trail updates!
This year, in addition to our daily trail updates on social media, we will be hosting free webcasts live from the Alps throughout June. Join us to learn about the latest trail updates, snow conditions, route detours (if any) and gear recommendations. We will share latest photos and descriptions of key mountain passes and difficult trail sections, for our 3 legendary trails - Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route and Tour of Monte Rosa.
WATCH Session 1: Sunday June 4th from Chamonix, France
WATCH Session 2: Friday June 23rd from Zermatt, Switzerland
trail ambassadors
Hiking in June or July? Keen to share updates from your epic journey with your fellow hikers? Come on board!
📷: Shout out to Sanna, one of our 2021 trail ambassadors.
UPDATE: APPLICATIONS CLOSED FOR 2023
35 ambassadors took part in our 2023 program.
What will you do?
As a trail ambassador, you will provide “live from the trail” content about trail conditions, route updates, and memorable experiences. This content will be shared with The Hiking Club community to keep fellow hikers up-to-date, including:
In return, you’ll receive exclusive swag to rock on all your hiking (and non-hiking!) adventures!
Who are we looking for?
Hikers who are completing one of the below trails during June and July 2023;
Tour du Mont Blanc
Walker’s Haute Route
Tour of Monte Rosa
Alta Via 1 (Dolomites)
What is the time commitment?
Kick off session: To ensure we set you up for success, there will be a 30 min briefing session in May/June (depending on your start date)
During your hike: Share your trail updates and photos via Whatsapp or email (max 15 mins per day)
Does this sound like you? Get it touch to find out more. We’re excited to bring you on board!
Did you know that we’ve been doing Break The Trail since 2019? Read about how our project has evolved over this time.
2019 Early Season Conditions
In 2019, we completed 486 km / 302 mi, with over 30,000m of elevation gain and loss, over 18 hiking days.
There was significant snow on high mountain passes that resulted in detours, additional gear and the help of transport to complete the journey!
Read the full 2019 trip report
2020 EARLY SEASON CONDITIONS
June was a quiet month due to COVID-19 uncertainty and travel restrictions preventing many early season hikers from reaching the trail. This led to less information being shared online about the trail making it hard to get a sense for how rapidly the snow was melting and conditions improving.
We were able to enter France on 1st July (the day the borders opened!) and quickly got on the trails to check them out.
In general, the conditions were excellent but there was still a few sections with challenging snow cover and accommodation options that were closed for the season.
Read the full 2020 TMB trip report.
2021 EARLY SEASON CONDITIONS
Unfortunately COVID travel restrictions prevented us from travelling to the Alps this year 😭 With the help of our trail ambassadors (Sanna, Alia, Bruno, Alistair and Tui) we were still able to share trail updates to the community.
A cold and snowy May made for some difficult early-season hiking conditions. While a spell of warm weather in early June is causing the snow to rapidly melt, it will still take a few weeks before the trail is completely snow-free. The late snow and warm weather are also causing wet slide avalanches to come down throughout the Alps.
2022 EARLY SEASON CONDITIONS
In general, the conditions for this time of year were exceptional. The amount and depth of snow were much less than in typical years. Most people were saying 4-6 weeks ahead of a typical season. Microspikes and poles are recommended for anyone hiking in June to support snow crossings. There were a number of disruptions to transport this season that may affect hikers, including: Le Tour gondola closed, Le Chable closed in June, and Grimentz cable car closed.
Read the full 2022 trip report.
Trail update for September 2022
September is a month of mixed emotions in the Alps. On one hand, hikers setting out can enjoy the fall colours and quieter trails. On the other, it means the hiking season is coming to an end 😢
Rather than share a typical trail update that would benefit very few people at this stage of the year, I’ve pulled together a collection of interesting data points on who is hiking the legendary trails in the Alps and how they customise their trips.
Trail update for August 2022
Trail update for July 2022
July 2022 trail 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. 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.
Break the trail 2022 update
I’m en route to the Alps and have revised my Break the Trail hiking plan. The 10 day journey through the Pennine Alps has been designed to spend time on the Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route, Tour of Monte Rosa, and Tour des Combins.
My revised route still comes in at just over 270 km / 169 mi with an intimidating 19,900 m / 62,000 ft of elevation gain. In this blog, I will share details about the current conditions and my revised route.
Hiking in the Alps - 2022 Update
As we turn into the new year, there are a few updates to share about the Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route, and Tour of Monte Rosa.
Hiking in the Alps: 2021 Season Report
For those who could reach the Alps, COVID-19 restrictions impacted the hiking season for a second year running. At the start of the season, there was much excitement and anticipation about a COVID-19 EU Travel Certificate finally allowing tourism to resume in Europe. The silver lining of a delayed reopening for international hikers was that the conditions were not favorable for early-season hiking. There were new accumulations of snow on the high mountain trails until about the 20th of May…
