CHAMONIX - ZERMATT: EN EL CORAZÓN DE LOS ALPES | Haute Route Ski Touring Alps
This is the heart of the Alps where France, Italy and Switzerland embrace each other in a setting of imposing peaks and ancient glaciers. From the iconic town of Chamonix, starts one of the most legendary ski touring routes in the world: the Haute Route, which culminates in Switzerland's Zermatt under the majestic shadow of the Matterhorn, the mountain that has inspired generations of mountaineers and adventurers. The Chamonix-Zermatt crossing, also known as the High Route, was carried out for the first time in the summer of 1861 by a group of British mountaineers, marking the beginning of a tradition that remains alive to this day. The alpine variant that we followed on this occasion takes this experience to the limit. Over six stages we will travel 100 km and overcome a cumulative difference in elevation of 7,300 m.
But this trip is much more than a physical challenge. At first you don't really know what you're looking for, but something tells me that as we cross these infinite landscapes we will find more than a destination, we will discover stories, emotions and, perhaps, something deep within ourselves. We are in Chamonix and we have just arrived to do the Chamoniz-Zermatt high route.
This is the second year that we have come to do it and this year we are going to do a new variant that is a six-day, six-stage tour but it is a different variant in which we do not use a taxi to move from one valley to another. , but we are going to link the entire route through the most alpine variant. We will start the first stage in Argentiere, there we will take the Plan-Joran cable car, which will leave us at about 2000 meters and there we will start the route already focusing, we will enter the Argentiere glacier and cross it to climb the Chardonnet pass, the first increase there are about 1,300 positives since we started. There we will do a small rappelling on the Col de Chardonnet, and then a small descent of about 500 meters to climb back to the Col de la Grande Lui and from there begin a descent of 1,800 meters of altitude to La Fouly. Well friends, here we are, when you come down from the Chardonnet hill, we have used a fixed rope that the guides leave of about 60 meters, we have taken the opportunity to repel it like this in a fast plan and here in this rimaya, which is a good place, we have already removed campes and seals , and we will have to make a descent along this entire glacier to go around down there to take the climb to Grande Lui, to see how it is. We will descend about 400 meters and still have another 500 meters or so of climbing left. I didn't remember before about this variant that you do, later, when you go to Vignettes to the Vignettes cabin, you can go through Otemma or through the Piña de Arola...
WELL YOU EAT MY TAIL! Above all, record, no! Record... Today, the second day of the journey, here we are at the Col de Fenetre, we have left La Fouly in an environment much more similar to what we have in the Pyrenees, we have not encountered a glacier. Some very beautiful valleys and here at the last minute we have caught two Pyrenean-type lakes, it was not like yesterday when it was all glacier with a change that is also good visually by combining different different things. And now we have to go down to the San Bernardo hospice and regain our strength there. Well, we're just weasels and we're going down the rabbit hole, Peter.
Well here we are at the Gran San Bernardo hospice. It is a mountain hospital that is located in a strategic enclave on the border between Switzerland and Italy, on the Great San Bernardo hill and has centuries of history, where for centuries it served as a hospital and helped mountaineers or travelers from avalanches and of dangers in the mountains. Juanillo! How do you see it today? Today is going to be a good one, but we will enjoy it anyway... Man Ivan! How are you? They are recording us, you. You want us to tell you
today's story about the route, and what have we done? I remember having been with some monks yesterday with Saint Bernard, this one of those 40's jokes. And that we had to change the you, we had to change the route but we had a great time because we walked along the road So I sing road and they were shouting at us, we have done a new modality, mountain skiing in a tunnel, we have gone through a tunnel, nothing 6 km to San Pierre, 6 km, 1 hour and a half, since we wore comfortable shoes... There was a bus but why if we are comfortable there, I sing along the lane, and we haven't gotten to San Pierre at all.
Today was babywearing day, they do a babywearing course and we could sign up as teachers. In the end we did a little bit of hiking but nothing too... another 6 km, nothing, 1000 meters of elevation gain, nothing. About 3 and a half hours after leaving we put on our skis to remember a little what cross-country skiing was and we passed rivers, a very cool ravine and then someone someone dropped a liner into the river , we are not going to say who. Úrbez has opened the backpack a few times, and we have only gone towards Valsorey, since we have met a group that is here with us who has made a very nice mark for us (tomorrow we will return it to them).
We have also said that we would give them a blister of ham but no, look these are the blister packs of ham that we were going to give them. And nothing, we have already showered... This is a typical pergañeta smell that I always tell you, it cannot be defined and well that is what we are now dealing with with the beers with the Feleschörhen. Well, guys, come on, we're here, we're looking! We are here in the Valsorey cabin in Switzerland, trying to do the Chamonix-Zermatt, the refuge is at 3,037 meters high and we are here waiting to see if the mteo improves a little, which doesn't look good and we will surely have to turn back and go down to the valley to join in another place, through the Arola valley. Today's idea was to climb the Plateau du Couloir, what happens is that it has been snowing since yesterday and it has a 50 degree inclination to get there and in these conditions it doesn't look like it will be practicable. So we will do a little thinking in this little while but we will surely get off. Well we have come to this town called Arola. We have arrived before, not Arola. And we have
come here, before we have stopped in a supermarket to buy beers and something to eat and we have put ourselves under a legal vacuum in this four star hotel, we have scattered everything that is food, ham, salads, Spanish potato omelette but bought here in Switzerland and all the beers, there where the billiards, where the entire playground. They have not been able to tell us anything because they have seen this here in our lives. Tomorrow we will resume the activity in the direction of Bartol. And here we are, we leave you in the warmth of home. This is where we are going to wrap up the skis for the night.
And where is the shelter? Because I don't see any refuge here. Well, the shelter is nothing, we just have to climb two flights of stairs, approximately 150 meters from where Mairal is. If it's a ferrata and we don't go with a heatsink, that is, please drop us. Those here, eh feeling a bit of mountaineering here eh, with their asses a little closed but having a lot of fun. Well, there you have a plan, kid.
Incredible day, today we have more than made up for the days of yesterday and the days before yesterday. We are in Bertol, the last refuge of the Chamonix-Zermatt and tomorrow we have, luckily, to follow all the footprints that we see there until we climb up to the Tête Blanche, which is that little peak, nothing is a hill that is there at 3,700 meters . And from there nothing , we will have to go down about 2,000 meters of altitude until we reach Zermatt. It is a very beautiful descent all along the glacier, and with the weather they give us tomorrow we are going to have a blast.
Good morning Dani! Good morning on this hot morning, in the Bertol cabin that we have here. There we come from and there we go: to Toblerone. The idea is to do the route quite gently, which is 600 meters of total ascent throughout the day, to see if we can do a little peak next door to see if we have time. We will have a descent of more than 2,000 meters to Zermatt and more than 20 km. With final paddle included. We started walking around 7 in the morning or something like that, but it was very good and the sunrise was spectacular. No wind at first, then on the hill it caught us a little more. Now we have the best part left, the descent to Zermatt. Now last stage and enjoy
see if we find good good snow. We will go down, encountering the Matterhorn, the Matterhorn, we will go through the slopes and burst the photo camera. More than 2,000 meters of elevation await us on these skis, for each one to enjoy it. in Dutch and Matterhorn in Italian. In Dutch? In Swiss kio! I believe that the group is people who are active together all year round and sharing these experiences...
I said I was going to sleep now, eh! Because I would go anywhere with them...
2024-12-28 00:02
