Cabane du Mont Fort is closed for summer 2023. Check out the different accommodation options available and the impact it will have on your Walker’s Haute Route itinerary.
Creating your own training plan for hiking in the Alps
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.
Best hikes in Engadin, Switzerland
Tour of Monte Rosa Accommodation: Booking Tips and Tricks
Booking your accommodation for the Tour of Monte Rosa is no easy feat. Finding 9+ different properties along the trail in a sequence of dates that has availability becomes harder and harder as we approach the hiking season. In this blog post, I share accommodation booking tips for the Tour of Monte Rosa and my top 5 booking tricks for finding accommodation that will keep your trip alive.
Prepare your body for hiking in the Alps
Stacey Hardin is a hiker, Doctor of Physical Therapy, and athletic trainer that grew up with the Pacific Crest Trail in her backyard. Stacey’s experience on the Tour du Mont Blanc confirmed that there are a huge number of preventable injuries that impact bucket list hiking trips each year.
In this guest blog post, Stacey breaks down the factors that cause injuries on the trail and introduces a few simple exercises that can address one of them to start preparing your body for hiking in the Alps.
How long does the Walker's Haute Route hike take?
Most people take between 8 and 15 days to hike the Walker’s Haute Route. Anything quicker requires Olympic speed walking or part trail running; anything longer would allow for frequent breaks and a relaxed trekking pace.
Since 2018, we’ve produced 100’s of personalised hiking itineraries that have helped 1000’s of hikers confidently plan their Walker’s Haute Route. It all starts with guiding hikers through the following 4 steps to determine how long it will take them to hike the Walker’s Haute Route.
How long does the Tour of Monte Rosa hike take?
Most people take between 7 and 13 days to hike the Tour of Monte Rosa. Anything quicker requires Olympic speed walking or part trail running; anything longer would allow for frequent breaks and a relaxed trekking pace.
Since 2018, we’ve produced 100’s of personalised hiking itineraries that have helped 1000’s of hikers confidently plan their adventures through the Alps. It all starts with guiding hikers through the following 4 steps to determine how long it will take them to hike the Tour of Monte Rosa.
How long does the Tour du Mont Blanc hike take?
Most people take between 6 and 12 days to hike the Tour du Mont Blanc. Anything quicker requires Olympic speed walking or part trail running; anything longer would allow for frequent breaks and a relaxed trekking pace.
Since 2018, we’ve produced 100’s of personalised hiking itineraries that have helped 1000’s of hikers confidently plan their Tour du Mont Blanc. It all starts with guiding hikers through the following 4 steps to determine how long it will take them to hike the Tour du Mont Blanc.
How we calculate hiking time estimates
Hiking time estimates are the backbone of any hiking plan and directly impact the overall experience.
Given that standard time estimates don’t work for over 80% of hikers, The Hiking Club has come up with a way for hikers to personalise time estimates so that anyone can create an achievable and enjoyable hiking plan.
From couch to chalet
2022 Recap: New tools, better support and a stronger community
Is it really 2023 already? 😲
2022 was a big year. We launched new trails, tested new products, grew the community to 10,000, and continued to support self-guided hikers to plan, prepare and complete their epic Alps adventures. Phew, time for a break 🎄🏝🥞
2022 KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Apr: Launched hiking time calculator for Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route and Tour of Monte Rosa to help you quickly estimate how many days it would take you to hike one of the legendary trails
May: Trail expert consultation via phone or email now available
May/Jun: Break The Trail - Live trail updates to open the 2022 hiking season including; snow conditions, trail conditions, and transport schedules.
Jun: 2022 Custom GPS map with everything you need to navigate your trail including extra details like the 2022 transport schedules for all the buses, gondolas, and trains along the way.
Jul: Launched a series of 3-day Chamonix base camp hikes.
Summer: Provided real-time trail updates, such as extreme weather, trail route changes, transport changes, and trail conditions.
Aug: 60+ people signed up to test our new accommodation planning tool checker
Oct: Released the 2023 accommodation booking status page to help people know when to start booking their accommodation.
Oct: Partnership with Organic Maps as our preferred map app
What is in store for 2023?
Here are a few hints - a new planning app, new trails, and recruitment of more trail experts! Sign up to our newsletter below to keep updated.
The Hiking Club partners with Organic Maps
Over the past 4 years, The Hiking Club has helped 2,000+ self-guided hikers plan, prepare and confidently navigate legendary trails in the Alps. During this time, we’ve received feedback from some hikers that they struggled to maintain enough mobile phone battery charge when navigating long days on the trail. We’ve experienced this challenge too, and have been searching for a GPS map app that had all the features you need for offline navigation in the Alps, without the heavy battery usage that comes with most apps.
We are happy to share we’ve found an app that ticks all the boxes in Organic Maps, and even happier to announce a new partnership with them to be our preferred navigation map app for 2023 hiking season!
App update: 5 features you'll love
The Bear Trek: Stages of the Via Alpina 1
The Bear Trek is located in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland and is part of the Via Alpina 1 hike that includes 20 stages from Lichtenstein and continues to Montreux, Switzerland. Read Cindy and Bob’s trip report documenting stages 10 - 15 from Meiringen to Lenk, Switzerland. Spoiler: No bears were seen on this hike!
Best Mountain Huts in the Alps
We’ve created a collection of the top mountain huts across Switzerland, France and Italy for hikers. None of these huts require technical gear to reach them - no glacier crossings, no via ferrata, no climbing equipment etc. Most are located in alpine areas and therefore all you need to reach them is good fitness.
App Update: Trailblazing
We are deep in development and excited to share an update on the current scope and approach to launching our new app.
For those who haven’t heard, our vision for the app is to enable any multi-day hiker to create a personalised itinerary in one session, that is inspiring, achievable, and available to book. The Hiking Club has always been focused on helping self-guided hikers easily plan personalised journeys in the Alps - with Nick coming on board, we finally have the skills to build a trailblazing app 🙌
The Montafon Hut Circuit
The Montafon Hüttenrunde (Hut Circuit) is a multi-day hiking trail located in western Austria. Read Julie’s trip report for their 11 day hike starting in Bartholomäberg and ending in Latschau, Austria, staying in mountain huts along the way. They hiked 141km, climbed 7,500m in elevation and reached Seelucke at 2,744m. The trail travelled through the heart of the three very different mountain ranges that frame the Montafon Valley - the moody highland heaths and silent peaks of the Verwall, the sharp dark teeth and looming glaciers of the Silvretta, and the sheer white cliffs of the Rätikon.
