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INTRODUCTION

The breathtaking sight of Mont Blanc on the final stage of the Gran Paradiso Alta Via (photo: Gillian Price)

Trekking in the Alps is immensely satisfying. The physical challenge is part of it, but so too is the sense of achievement on gaining a lofty pass that may have taken several hours to reach. Then there are the views, the ever-changing panoramas, the distant horizon of peaks and ridges that lure you on day after day. Not just mountains, but all the essential features that build a mountain landscape – individual rocks, boulders and screes, the glaciers and snowfields and torrents of snowmelt. There are lakes and waterfalls, meadows full of flowers; marmots that fill the silences with their shrill calls, chamois roaming the high places, ibex too, and the noisy choughs that haunt passes and summits alike.

They may be the world’s best-known, most comprehensively mapped, catalogued and photographed mountains of all, but the Alps still have the power to excite and surprise with every visit.

Although trekking may seem a fairly modern concept, in truth it’s centuries old, for in 1767 the Genevese scientist Horace Bénédict de Saussure made the first of three circular tours of Mont Blanc; in 1837 James David Forbes from Edinburgh wandered across the Dolomites, and two years later made a complete circuit of Monte Viso and followed in Saussure’s footsteps around Mont Blanc. Both were men of science, but a good part of the inspiration for their travels was not just scientific enquiry, but a love of mountains and the joy of wandering among them. ‘The scenery is stupendous,’ wrote Forbes in his account of the mountains of Dauphiné.

When our Victorian forefathers were laying the foundations of mountaineering, they were divided into two types: ‘centrists’, who based themselves in Chamonix, Zermatt or Grindelwald, for example, and set out to climb neighbouring peaks, returning after each ascent to the comfort of their valley hotel; and ‘ex-centrists’ – men like Edward Whymper (who made the first ascent of the Matterhorn), AW Moore, John Ball and Francis Fox Tuckett – who strode across the Alps from region to region, crossing peaks, passes and glaciers with astonishing vigour. Whymper’s restless energy is seldom mentioned, but his classic Scrambles Amongst the Alps is far more than an account of winning summits, for it describes the travails and triumphs of finding a way from one district to the next, from which we discover that in order to get from Briançon to Grenoble in 1860 it was necessary to ‘set out at 2pm … for a seventy-five mile walk’, which he achieved in a day and a half. As for Tuckett, between 1856 and 1874 he crossed no less than 376 passes and climbed 165 peaks. And all this before a chain of mountain huts provided accommodation, and the few hotels or inns that did exist outside the main centres offered little comfort.

Sometimes these Alpine pioneers sought refuge in the home of a local priest, but the accommodation on offer was not always what they might have hoped for, as Alfred Wills discovered when he arrived in Valtournanche in the summer of 1852. ‘In each of the side rooms,’ he explained, ‘were a bed, a chair, a table made of an unshaped block of wood on three legs, and a pie dish. The floors were so thick with dirt, that your boots left foot-marks as you walked across the room; and everything you touched soiled your hands. We could get scarcely anything to eat – a serious evil after eleven hours’ walk … and we went to bed hungry and tired.’

Simple alp chalets provided an alternative. Used by dairymen during the summer months, an overnight could sometimes be found in remote locations. On their way to attempt a crossing of the Moming Pass in 1864, Whymper and Moore took advantage of a cheesemaker’s hut in the magnificent Ar Pitetta cirque above Zinal. ‘It was a hovel,’ wrote Whymper in Scrambles, ‘growing, as it were, out of the hillside; roofed with rough slabs of slaty stone; without a door or window; surrounded by quagmires of ordure, and dirt of every description.’

The Nürnberger Hut – a substantial building (Stubai High-Level Route) (photo: Allan Hartley)

It is no surprise then, that early Baedeker guides warned against sleeping in chalets unless absolutely necessary: ‘Whatever poetry there may be theoretically in a “fragrant bed of hay”, the cold night air piercing abundant apertures, the ringing of the cow bells, the grunting of the pigs, and the undiscarded garments, hardly conduce to refreshing slumber.’

Being eminently ‘clubbable’ men, the Victorians got together to found the Alpine Club in 1857. Following their lead, the Austrian Alpine Club was formed in 1862, and a year later the Swiss, whose members built their first mountain hut on the Tödi in order to shorten the time needed to make an ascent of the peak. In 1868 another was erected on the Matterhorn, partly financed by Alexander Seiler of Zermatt. In its first 25 years the Swiss Alpine Club built almost 40 such huts, and by 1890 the French Alpine Club had 33 of their own. Meanwhile, the Austrian, German and Italian clubs were also busy providing overnight shelters for the growing number of visitors to their mountains.

The majority of these huts were small and spartan and, in some instances consisted of little more than a cave with a door. Others could be described as wooden sheds whose roofs were held in place with rocks, although some were soundly constructed of timber and stone and contained a stove, an axe and a supply of firewood. A few blankets or sheepskins might be provided, plus a saucepan or two, but little more.

But in the century or so since then, there has been a marked improvement in standards of accommodation throughout the Alpine chain. In Austria and the Italian Dolomites many of these huts are now inn-like buildings capable of sleeping a hundred visitors each night. Most have large communal dormitories, although it’s not unusual to find smaller two- or four-bedded rooms available. The majority are staffed in summer, meals and drinks are available, hot showers and drying rooms are not uncommon, and fresh provisions are often helicoptered in several times during the season.

Large-flowered leopardsbane grows among rocks and meadows (photo: Kev Reynolds)

Young ibex shedding its coat (photo: Hilary Sharp)

Houseleeks spread their rosettes among the rocks (photo: Hilary Sharp)

The willow gentian is a showy flower, often found in great clumps (photo: Kev Reynolds)

In summer the marmot is seen in almost every district of the Alps (photo: Hilary Sharp)

While huts have been built in just about every Alpine district, there are also gîtes d’étape, gasthofs and rustic mountain inns scattered among the valleys and hillsides, often in the most idyllic of locations. Austria, for one, has numerous charming gasthofs in its valleys, but boasts more than 1000 actual hütten, about half of which have been built by members of the Austrian or German Alpine Clubs; the rest are privately owned but open to all. The Swiss have in excess of 300, while the French, Italian and Slovenian Alpine Clubs have plenty more. Given sufficient time, energy and money, it would be possible to trek virtually from one end of the Alps to the other staying in a different mountain hut each night, unencumbered by a heavy pack and carrying just the basic essentials.

But since few of us are able to commit ourselves to such an epic dream journey, numerous hut-to-hut tours of varying length have been developed that are immensely satisfying to contemplate and complete. Enticing the trekker along trails and crossing passes they reveal the Alps’ rich diversity, providing challenge and reward in equal measure, and as the huts themselves are invariably built in spectacular locations, nighttimes can be as memorable as the days.

So whether you have a week to spare, a two-week holiday to fill, or a whole summer free to wander, this book describes some of the very best treks in Europe’s premier mountain range. But newcomers beware: trekking is addictive.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The 20 treks described are listed in a clockwise arc, starting at the southwestern end of the Alpine chain where the GTA (Grande Traversata delle Alpi) begins in the Ligurian Alps just 40km from the Mediterranean, and working north and northeast to end with a traverse of the beautiful Julian Alps of Slovenia.

Rifugio Cinque Torri dwarfed by a rock tower (Dolomites Alta Via 1) (photo: Gillian Price)

Cabane d’Ar Pitetta, not far from the ‘hovel’ in which Whymper spent a night in 1864 (photo: Kev Reynolds)

All the well-known classics are included, such as the Tour of Mont Blanc, the Walker’s Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt, and the terrific Stubai High-Level Route in Austria. But you will find a number of little-known treks too; treks like the Tour of Mont Ruan, Tour of the Queyras and Tour of the Vanoise. Apart from the GTA already mentioned, Italy is well represented, with routes in the Gran Paradiso and two in the bewitching Dolomites, and Gillian Price also offers a description of the 495km European route, the E5 across the Eastern Alps from Lake Constance on the German–Austrian–Swiss border to Verona in Italy. If it’s ultra-long treks that appeal, Paddy Dillon entices with the GR5 from Lac Léman to Nice (725km), while at the other end of the scale we have a six-day tour of the Rätikon mountains, straying from Switzerland into Austria and back again.

The Tours of the Matterhorn and of Monte Rosa are also cross-border treks that give cultural as well as scenic variety, while Allan Hartley concentrates on Austrian treks, including the Zillertal circuit. Switzerland is crossed from east to west by the Alpine Pass Route, the famous Bernese Oberland is explored on the Tour of the Jungfrau Region, and in addition to several other great treks, France rewards in the Écrins with the challenging Tour of the Oisans.

While this book is intended to be an introduction to some of the most exciting and rewarding of multi-day treks, it would be impractical to include precise route descriptions for each one. Details of available guidebooks, along with a summary of basic route information, map and profile, are given alongside a broad overview of the trek intended to whet your appetite. These guidebooks provide travel details, map information, the location of huts and their facilities and, of course, all the in-depth route descriptions necessary to make your trek a success.

HUT CONVENTIONS

 To book a place in a mountain hut, telephone in advance. Numbers are usually listed in the individual guidebooks; otherwise check with the nearest tourist office. Hut wardens will often telephone ahead for you.

 On arrival leave your boots and trekking poles in the boot room or porch, and select a pair of hut shoes or clogs usually provided for indoor wear.

 Locate the warden to announce your arrival, and book whatever meals are required.

 Once a room has been allocated, make your bed using a sheet sleeping bag (sleeping bag liner) carried for the occasion. Have a torch handy, as the room may not be lit when you need to go there after dark.

 Snacks and drinks are usually available during the day, but meals are served at set times. Food for lunch is often available to carry away.

 It is customary to pay for all services (in cash only) the night before departure. Note that reductions (up to 50%) on overnight fees are given to members of other European Alpine Clubs, and to BMC members who have purchased a reciprocal rights card (www.thebmc.co.uk). Consider joining the UK branch of the Austrian Alpine Club (www.aacuk.org.uk) before making a hut-to-hut tour; as well as discounted overnight fees, membership benefits include free mountain rescue insurance.

ADVICE FOR TREKKERS

As this book clearly illustrates, the European Alps are not the sole preserve of the experienced mountain climber. Those who regularly walk the trails and sometimes pathless terrain of the English Lake District or Scottish Highlands should find that trekking in the Alps is well within their capabilities. But should you be nervous about making your first trek, consider booking with an adventure travel company, a number of whom advertise group holidays along some of the routes described here. Several of the authors who have contributed chapters to this book have guided treks in the past, and one of them, Hilary Sharp, has her own company with the same name as this book, based in Provence (www.trekkinginthealps.com).

Old-style hut accommodation

Dormitory in a traditional mountain hut, where duvets have replaced heavy blankets

Hut shoes – photos don’t impart the odour!

Breakfast in a remote gasthof (Photos 1 and 3: Hilary Sharp; photos 2 and 4: Kev Reynolds)

Gran Paradiso Alta Via 2 has clear, distinct waymarking (photo: Gillian Price)

Encouraging signs at a trail junction near Obersteinberg (Trek 11) (photo: Kev Reynolds)

Waymarks painted on rocks, trees and the sides of buildings ensure you stay on route (photo: Kev Reynolds)

Trekking implies walking day after day, so you need to be fit from the outset. Don’t wait until you arrive in the Alps before you think about it – take regular exercise to prepare for those times when the trail climbs remorselessly for hundreds of metres to gain a distant pass. Although technical mountaineering skills are not required to achieve any of these routes (apart from glacier crossing on two of the treks), almost all routes will have stages where the trail is narrow or exposed, or perhaps safeguarded with a length of cable or chain; in some places a section of steel ladder or a few metal rungs may have been bolted to a rockface as an aid. Great care should be exercised when using these – it certainly helps if you have a ‘head for heights’.

The vast majority of trails are clearly defined, well maintained and signed at major junctions. Waymarks are usually adequate on most routes, with lines of cairns directing the way where the terrain is such that no footpath could be made. But you should always remain alert, for even the most undemanding of paths can become hazardous when transformed by rain, snowmelt or a glaze of ice, and every trek will at some time cross rough and remote country where even a minor accident could have serious consequences.

Before setting out each morning, study the guidebook’s description of that day’s trek and make a mental note of any potential hazards, changes of direction or landmarks that need to be watched for. Keep the map handy and make sure you can identify your correct position at any time; should visibility become impaired by mist, your chance of becoming lost is greatly reduced. Unless the weather is threatening, or you’re running short of time, allow yourself a few minutes every hour or so to sit on a rock and contemplate the peace and natural beauty that are among the souvenirs you will take home with you. You’ll not regret it.

The frequency of accommodation and provision of meals makes backpacking unnecessary. A light daypack is all that’s required to contain the essentials for a two-week walking tour, but ensure it has a waterproof cover, and take a large polythene bag in which to pack your gear.

 Comfortable, lightweight boots are of prime importance.

 Make sure the socks you choose meet your needs, and change them daily to avoid discomfort or blisters.

 Waterproofs are essential; not only for rain protection, but also to double as windproofs. Lightweight jacket and overtrousers made from ‘breathable’ fabric are recommended, as is a small collapsible umbrella (indispensable for those who wear glasses).

 A fleece or pile jacket ought to be included, plus a warm hat and gloves – for even in midsummer wintry conditions may be experienced.

 Sunglasses, a brimmed hat and high-factor suncream should be carried – the intensity of UV rays increases by ten per cent with every 1000m of altitude gained.

 Carry a first aid kit, water bottle (1 litre minimum capacity), map, guidebook, whistle, compass (or GPS) and a headtorch with a spare bulb. Also a small penknife and emergency food.

 Take a lightweight towel and basic personal toiletries (plus toilet paper and a lighter to burn it in case of being caught short during the day), and a sheet sleeping bag for use in huts and gîtes.

 Telescopic trekking poles give assistance when crossing streams, help maintain balance over rough ground, and ease the strain on legs during steep descents.

Other items you may consider taking include a camera (essential to some), an altimeter and a mobile phone and charger – but note that it may not always be possible to get a signal, and you may have difficulty recharging it.

WHEN TO GO

As a general rule the midsummer months of late June to mid-September offer the best and safest opportunities for trekking in the Alps, although in some years snow remains on the highest passes well into July. Of course, there are occasions when snow falls even in July or August, so be prepared for the worst but hope for the best. Typical summer conditions enable you to walk in T-shirt, shorts and sunhat, but long periods of mist, rain or storm should never be discounted. At altitude even a mild breeze can lower the temperature by several degrees. The moral is clear – keep warm, weather-proof clothing handy.

Depending on altitude, wild flowers are at their best from June until late July, and huts are usually staffed from mid-June until late September, with the busiest period running from mid-July until late August.

SAFETY IN THE MOUNTAINS

Trekking should be a safe and healthy pursuit, but all mountain regions contain a variety of objective dangers for the unwary. Without overstating the risk factor, it should be borne in mind that with narrow and exposed paths, stream crossings, high passes, and steep ascents and descents to negotiate, a high degree of concentration will be called for, even under good conditions. A moment’s carelessness could have serious repercussions.

SAFETY DOS AND DON’TS

 Ensure you are both physically and mentally prepared for the challenge of your chosen route.

 Plan each stage carefully; study the route outline, the amount of height gain and loss, and the estimated time it will take to reach your destination.

 Phone ahead to book your next night’s accommodation.

 Check the weather forecast before setting out.

 Carry liquid refreshment, a few emergency rations and a first aid kit.

 Watch for signs of deteriorating weather, and never be too proud to turn back should it be safer to do so than continue in the face of an oncoming storm, or on a trail that has become unjustifiably dangerous.

 If your plans change and you decide against continuing to the hut where you’ve booked accommodation, telephone at the earliest opportunity to inform them.

 Do not venture onto exposed ridges if a storm is imminent. In the event of being caught by one, avoid isolated trees, prominent rocks or metallic objects (temporarily discard trekking poles), and refrain from taking shelter in caves, beneath overhanging rocks or in gullies. Instead, kneel or squat on your rucksack with head down and hands on knees.

 In the unhappy event of an accident, stay calm. Move yourself and, if possible, the injured person (taking care not to aggravate the injury) away from any imminent danger and apply first aid. Keep the victim warm, using any spare clothing available. Make a written note of the precise location where the victim can be found, and either telephone for assistance using a mobile phone (emergency numbers are given in the individual guidebooks), or if you cannot get a signal, send for help. If a mountain hut is nearby seek assistance there. Failing this, give the international mountain distress signal: six blasts on a whistle (and flashes with a torch after dark) spaced evenly for one minute, followed by a minute’s pause. Repeat for as long as is necessary. The response is three signals per minute followed by a minute’s pause.

Remember: although mountain rescue in the Alps is highly efficient, it is not a free service. The cost of rescue and subsequent hospital treatment can be extremely high; it is therefore essential to be adequately insured. Specialist companies offering insurance for trekking in the Alps include the BMC (www.thebmc.co.uk) – members only – and Snowcard Insurance Services (www.snowcard.co.uk). As mentioned earlier, membership of the Austrian Alpine Club (UK branch) gives automatic mountain rescue cover.

WORDS OF GREETING

Trekking in the Alps is a sociable activity. Whether you trek alone, with friends or with a group, you’ll find that meeting or passing others on the trail will inevitably inspire a word or two of greeting – a recognition of shared experience. So, what do you say in response? It depends where you are:

France	bonjour
Italy	buon giorno
Switzerland	grüetzi
Austria & Germany	grüss Gott
Slovenia	dober dan

The unmistakable Matterhorn (Tour of the Matterhorn) (photo: Hilary Sharp)