Haute Route Report
7 Day Ski Tour from Chamonix to Zermatt

Approximatively 1000m uphill, 2500m downhill

Cabane des Vignettes to Col de l'Evêque (about 150m downhill 350m uphill)

Come morning, very early morning, even for our new standards, the wind has not relented. Our last breakfast is taken on the run and we storm out the door, only to be slammed back into the hut by the wind. On second try we manage to really get out and rapidly make headway back down to the glacier d'Otemma and point the skis toward col de l'Evêque. It is a typical foehn day, one side is clear and sunny, the other cloudy and stormy, for a change, we are heading straingt into the howling wind into the stormy side of the alps.

The skin up is not too hard, there are many people underway, all seem to be in a rush, including ourselves, the weather is turning bad. The higher we get towards the col, the more the visibility diminishes, so much that at the top of the col, it is practically inexistant. The guide from another group comes to discuss with ours, they are wondering which direction to go, yes, the visibility is that bad.

Col de l'Evêque to Col du Mont Brulé (about 500m downhill 300m uphill)

We ski down glacier d'Arolla in a whiteout, as we descend, we see more and more and can appreciate the wiseness of skiing on the right side, as the left is riddled with wide open crevasses.

Once the slope flattens out, we continue right, and put on the skins, steering toward col du Mont Brulé, hard to distinguish in the clouds and with about 3 slopes being all similar looking. At the base of the col we decide that bootpacking up will be easier, though skinning is possible. Once again, the higher we get the thicker the clouds become, and at the top of the col, the wind is not as strong, but we can barely see anything. A few steps and we arrive on top of the col, the crowd has thinned a lot, Only one group on top with us, none of us seems to think it wise to stay and enjoy the non eixstant view

Col du Mont Brulé to Col de Valpelline (about 350m uphill)

The direction towards col de Valpelline is impossible to judge, good that our guide knows the route and has all the necessary equipment. The slope towards the col seems relatively gentle, but we are heading into the thickest clouds yet, visibility is really null, at most 3-4 meters and we cannot leave too much distance between ourselves as the wind rapidly covers the tracks in front of us, we need to remain grouped.

Needless to say that i cannot comment on what is supposed to be the best scenery of the trip, we should be seeing the Matterhorn somewhere, towering right next to us, i am just happy to see the person 3 m in front of me, i cannot see our leader about 15-20m in front. Not much to explain about the last uphill of the trip, beside bad weather and a whiteout, towards the end some cliffs on the side.

Col de Valpelline tot Zermatt (about 1950m downhill)

All of a suddent the group stops, our guide comes around smiling and we slide down a bit, visibility improves and we see that we have passed the col de Valpelline (which we cannot see) and are ready for the final descent, luckily, we are going in the right direction this time, towards the nice weather side of the foehn. We take the skins off, prepare ourselves for a long downhill into Zermatt. Though the weather conditions are better, we still have very flat light at the top, and the glacier is quite open.

The ski down is hard, the snow has been mushy spring snow a few days ago (yesterday???) but it has since frozen, hard, and we have to deal with frozen corn snow tracks and moguls, not the easiest to ski down on tired legs with our heavy backpacks, we have to be extra careful. The skies get clearer as we ski down and, coming down the Stockji glacier into Zmutt Glacier, the view easily rivals any on the Vallée Blanche or other great glacier ski runs: The end of the Stockji glacier falling off a cliff on the right side is quite impressive, but my camery lense froze up on the way up to col de Valpelline, so i cannot take pictures for a while, a good reason to come back and do this final leg of the tour one day, it can be done as a day tour from Zermatt

Despite the difficult snow, we magage to ski down and make it all in one piece to the edge of the Zermatt resort area, where we walk up a road to reach an onslope restaurant. Drink are very welcome and the group is all smiles.... we made it, time for a few beers.....in the sun.....The rest is realitvely simple walk up from the restaurant to a slope that will take us to Furi, where we ski down into zermatt along a corn snow piste. A quick walk through Zermatt and we meet up at the end of the village with our shuttle bus that will take us back to Chamonix.....End of the road...

A side comment, we learned from our guide talking to others guides that many parties that left after us on the last day had to turn back at the first col, visibility being that bad. It was worth getting up that much earlier, as we managed to ride the edge of the bad weather.

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