Should I get an Alpine Club membership for the Walker's Haute Route

The official Walker’s Haute Route travels through France and Switzerland.

If you are a member of one of the respective alpine clubs, you get discount on accommodation at their mountain huts. Here are the details on each alpine club membership:

FRENCH ALPINE CLUB MEMBERSHIP

The French Alpine Club has a membership program that provides discounts to their mountain huts. Membership is about 100 - 120€ and is open to non-French citizens. For full details click here. The huts along the Walker’s Haute Route that are owned by the French Alpine Club include: Albert 1er (Premier).

Refuge Albert Premier

SWISS ALPINE CLUB MEMBERSHIP

The Swiss Alpine Club has a membership program that provides discounts to their mountain huts. Membership is from 80 CHF and is open to non-Swiss citizens. For full details click here. The huts along the Walker’s Haute Route that are owned by the Swiss Alpine Club include: Cabane du Mont Fort, Cabane des Dix, Cabane de Moiry, Turtmannhutte.

View from Cabane de Moiry

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plan and navigate your ultimate WALKER’S HAUTE ROUTE adventure

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:

Chamonix > Verbier

Mont Fort Area Recce

Grande Dixence > Cabane de Prafleuri

Cabane de Prafleuri > Col des Roux

Arolla > Pas de Chevres

Col de Torrent + Col du Tsate

Moiry Glacier + Sorebois

Zinal > St Luc

“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 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:

• Break The Trail updates via social, website and email

• Live Webcast from Chamonix and Zermatt

• 2023 Trail Ambassadors

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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

• Tour du Mont Blanc: Instagram / Facebook

• Walker’s Haute Route: Instagram / Facebook

• Tour of Monte Rosa: Instagram / Facebook

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:

• Tour du Mont Blanc (Instagram)

• Walker’s Haute Route (Instagram)

• Tour of Monte Rosa (Instagram)

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!

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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.

Read the full 2021 trip report for TMB and WHR.

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.