So you’re interested in hiking the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt but want to camp, instead of staying huts, hotels or B&Bs each night? Great choice! Although the idea of spending each night under the stars is an idyllic option, you need to be aware of where you can actually camp along the Haute Route, as there are very strict rules put in place by the National Parks and local governments.
Over the past few years, we’ve gathered the latest information on where you can wild camp, campgrounds with facilities and mountain huts that allow you to camp nearby. About 20% of our customers use our platform to plan and navigate their camping adventure along the Haute Route. Read on to learn about the various camping options, the cost estimates for camping and other useful tips to help you prepare for camping the Walker’s Haute Route.
How much it costs to hike the Walker’s Haute Route is one of the most common questions I’m asked. Armed with my accounting background and mission to make every hikers self-guided dreams come true, I’ve dug deep into the numbers across all the different accommodation types, food and services available to provide firm guidance on what it costs to hike the Walker’s Haute Route.
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!
It costs €826 to plan your own 10-day hike of the Tour du Mont Blanc. This amount comes from our new cost calculator for the Tour du Mont Blanc, which uses over 300 actual customer itineraries and 2023 costs from nearly 100 accommodation and service providers along the trail.
the calculator is for self-guided hikers to estimate how much it will cost them to organise their own hike of the Tour du Mont Blanc based on their preferences. Give it a try!
While many of the wonderful Tour du Mont Blanc refuges will feature on your ideal self-guided hiking itinerary, what do you do if they have no availability when you go to book your own trip? In this blog post, I’m going to share accommodation booking tips and my top 4 booking tricks for finding accommodation that will keep your trip alive.
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.
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 🎄🏝🥞
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
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.
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!
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.
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 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.
September is a month of mixed emotions in the Alps. On one hand, hikers setting out can enjoy the fall colours and quieter trails. On the other, it means the hiking season is coming to an end 😢
Rather than share a typical trail update that would benefit very few people at this stage of the year, I’ve pulled together a collection of interesting data points on who is hiking the legendary trails in the Alps and how they customise their trips.
July 2022 trail updates from the 3 trails we support. In summary, only the Walker’s Haute Route has changes to report - the Tour du Mont Blanc and Tour of Monte Rosa updates remain the same from June. I’ve also shared some news about summit route closures for anyone interested in staying informed about what’s happening higher up with our mountaineer friends too.
I’m en route to the Alps and have revised my Break the Trail hiking plan. The 10 day journey through the Pennine Alps has been designed to spend time on the Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route, Tour of Monte Rosa, and Tour des Combins.
My revised route still comes in at just over 270 km / 169 mi with an intimidating 19,900 m / 62,000 ft of elevation gain. In this blog, I will share details about the current conditions and my revised route.
As the days get longer and the weather starts to warm up in the Alps, I’m excited to share the draft plan I’ve come up with for my first adventure this hiking season. The 10 day journey through the Pennine Alps has been designed to spend time on the Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route, Tour of Monte Rosa, Hidden Paradise Tour, and Tour des Combins.
My proposed route comes in at just over 270 km / 169 mi with an intimidating 20,400 m / 67,000 ft of elevation gain. In this blog, I will share details about my proposed route, preparation, and goal for the hike.
Are you thinking of hiking in the Alps with kids? Read Sara’s story of taking her son to the Alps to complete the Tour du Mont Blanc at the age of 8 and the Walker’s Haute Route at the age of 11. Was it easy going? Not all the time. But the encouragement from others on the trail kept him going, as well as their promise to take him to Disneyland Paris when he was finished. Yes, sometimes a bit of bribery is needed!
Kayla Costigan is an American travel nurse I met while I was trekking solo in New Zealand. We connected over a shared passion for travel, nature, movement, and helping others. We have since hiked together throughout the United States, as well as in Morocco, Portugal, and Prague. I asked Kayla some questions about what hiking means to her. This is her story…
As a kid, my parents would have to drag me to go hiking. We would go to New Hampshire from our small Boston suburb and hike for one to two hours. I remember trying to beat my sister to the top, eating Clif Bars, and only pausing for one minute before running back down.
I then hiked a few times as a young adult. Once, when planning a trip in Colorado with my sister, I remember thinking, ‘these reviews on AllTrails are not right. I could push myself to more advanced hikes and higher peaks’. As sports slowly exited my life and physical feats were harder to come by, I began turning to other things to feel accomplished and focus on, and hiking filled that void.
In early 2020, I was planning a solo trip to New Zealand and Australia for two months. The perk of traveling solo was that I could plan the trip that I wanted. I searched online for the best hikes in New Zealand and learned about the Great Walks. I was hooked. My first choice was the popular Milford Sound Track, but it was sold out for my dates. The second was the Kepler Track. The hike was for four days and three nights. Woah, overnight hiking? I hadn’t done anything like that before. I wondered what it would entail? Would I sleep in a tent? What gear would I need to bring?
I signed up for the trek on Christmas eve, as my family watched Harry Potter next to me, complaining about the light from my laptop. I smiled to myself as I closed my computer after reading the confirmation email. I was ready to take my hiking to the next level. I would be doing the Kepler Track.
Kepler Track, New Zealand. Jan/Feb 2020. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
I learned that I was not sleeping in a tent but in hiker huts tucked into the mountains. I had never done anything like this. I made it to the start of the trek after countless Google searches for flights, buses, and hostels in these ‘Southern Alps’.
The day was finally here. With my bag packed, I stood at the permit office in New Zealand. “You should not do the trek!” the woman at the desk said as she judged the abnormally small size of my pack. “The forecast is for inclement weather, the most rain New Zealand has seen in 100 years. There is a risk of mud-slides”. I had traveled so far to do this hike and had my heart set on it. I had been running every day to train for it. I needed it.
I thought to myself, ‘okay, I will go to the first hut, if I feel unsafe, then I just turn around and hike out, as simple as that.’ I felt prepared with enough food and water to last me a few days and I had plenty of layers to keep warm.
First hut on the Kepler Track, New Zealand. Jan/Feb 2020. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Kepler Track, New Zealand. Jan/Feb 2020. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
I followed my gut, the same one I have learned to listen to and trust. I entered the trail alone with hours and miles of hiking ahead of me. I can do this, I know I can. I watched my cell phone service bars dwindle with the sunlight. The clouds were upon me but I kept moving forward. I realized that I had never been alone in the mountains before, let alone mountains on the southern island of New Zealand. It was gorgeous.
I started seeing glimpses of giant fjords through the clouds, proof of my elevation gain and an inspiration to fuel those endorphins and tolerate the raindrops beginning to fall from the sky.
For one of the first times in my life I felt peace and was comforted by the silence and solitude. I was no longer afraid but energized, walking step by step toward my goal, and knowing that I had got myself to this moment. I felt a sense of calm that would help shape many future decisions. Instead of only chasing the highs, the excitement, and the peaks, I started seeking out quiet sacred moments with my best friend: myself.
Kepler Track, New Zealand. Jan/Feb 2020. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Throughout the trek, I was sometimes alone, but at other times I connected with hikers on similar, parallel journeys who, like me, appreciate the power of nature and the peace it provides. Yes, I did make it to the first hut that day! After four 4 days of walking, I completed the Kepler Track; hiking through record rainfall, finding direction through nature, both presently and for my future, and connecting with new friends along the way.
At that first hut, I met Sam, a hiker from Seattle who was also trekking and traveling solo, seeking peace and connection with nature to help her along her personal journey. People you meet on the trail are special and they stick with you. You create a bond that is unique to the disconnection from the rest of the world, something that is hard to come by in our connected world. The trail provides this space.
Since meeting in that hut in New Zealand, Sam and I have hiked in 4 additional countries, completing a road trip through the National Parks of Utah, USA, on a guided trek through the Atlas Mountains in Morocco to the second highest peak in Africa, up the coast of Portugal on The Fisherman’s Trail, and on a day hike outside of Prague.
Sam Goldklang and Kayla Costigan on the Kepler Track, New Zealand. Jan/Feb 2020. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Any conversation on a trail is pure, whether it is with other hikers or with yourself. It is my favorite place to get quiet and tune into my gut. Hiking is where I am the most present and able to fully listen with the intent to learn and share my own wisdom and experience in return. The presence that I found on the trail is something I now try to bring into the rest of my life.
I now seek out other ways to shut down my mind without needing a flight across the world or an epic adventure. These are things I can bring into my everyday life. I fell in love with meditation and recently became a certified meditation teacher. I find quiet moments in my days to be still, feel present, and take it all in. I practice yoga, find nature wherever I can, go for walks or runs wherever I am, and drag friends and family to appreciate the power that the quiet of nature provides.
The Kepler Track changed what it is I seek out in life. It made me crave peace, a type of peace that is easily found in nature, and it brought amazing people into my life. It helped me begin to explore the body mind connection and the power that exists between the two.
Hiking is a form of moving meditation to me, and whether alone or with others, it is the time I use to check in with myself and where I am in life and on my journey. It is a time where I find a sense of stillness in motion and that in turn brings me peace.
Hut on the Kepler Track, New Zealand. Jan/Feb 2020. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Kepler Track, New Zealand. Jan/Feb 2020. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Kepler Track, New Zealand. Jan/Feb 2020. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Kayla Costigan on the Kepler Track, New Zealand. Jan/Feb 2020. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Sam and Kayla on the Fisherman’s Trail, Portugal. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Fisherman’s Trail, Portugal.
Kayla and Sam on the high Atlas mountains, Morocco.
Sam and Kayla trekking in the Altas Mountains of Morocco. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Kayla in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
The start of the Fisherman’s Trail, Portugal. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Sam and Kayla on the summit of Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco. 13,665 feet / 4,165 metres. Photo: Sam Goldklang.
Author: Sam Goldklang, USA
Sam is an everyday adventurer who resides in Washington State, USA. She has completed the Wonderland trail and summited the 5 tallest peaks in the lower 48 states, including Mt Rainier. Sam has hiked around the world with some of her notable trails being: the Tour Du Mont Blanc in the Alps, The Kepler and Routeburn tracks in New Zealand, the Salkantay Trek in Peru, the Mt Toubkal trek through the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, The Fisherman's trail in Portugal, and Trolltunga in Norway. Sam spends her days working as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and on the weekends she'll be hiking, camping, trail running, backpacking, or skiing around the Pacific Northwest.
Follow her adventures on instagram: @sgoldk
The Hiking Club empowers anyone to walk the way they want in the wild with personalised self-guided hiking experiences that are easy to find, quick to plan and simple to navigate.
We believe hiking experiences have the power to transform lives. With a growing range of personalised hikes that take into account your preferences, fitness and interests, we give you everything you need to explore the legendary trails of the world!
Community Leader Spotlight: Di, Liz and The Adventure Angels hiking group
on the Sunshine Coast, Australia.
In 2015, while in recovery from breast cancer, Di Olson pledged to walk 5 days along The Great Wall of China to raise funds for cancer research. “I’ll do it with you!” was the instant commitment from her best friend Liz Ward. Little did they know, this hike would spark a love of hiking for more than just the two of them.
Di and Liz and The Adventure Angels on a sunrise training hike on the Sunshine Coast, Australia.
New to hiking, Di and Liz were aware of the challenges of the 5 day hike they had planned nearly 12 months away. With difficult access to parts of the trail, some less well-maintained sections, and heights up to 3250 m (10,662 ft), both knew they would be disappointed if their physical fitness let them down. So they began scheduling regular training hikes in their local areas on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. Before long, a group of friends and acquaintances were joining them on sunrise hikes up Mt Ninderry, Ngungun and Mt Coolum.
After months of religiously meeting at 5am for a hike, several times a week, a core group of women had become close friends. “Acceptance, tolerance and camaraderie became what our group was about,” Di recalls the atmosphere of those training hikes in the early days of The Adventure Angels.
The group is made up of women between the ages of 47 and 67 who are also business owners, parents and professionals from a variety of backgrounds. Like Di, some of the women are also cancer survivors.
Di Olson climbing the Great Wall of China.
In the lead up to The Great Wall of China hike, not only did they become fitter and stronger, but almost everything in their lives soon revolved around hiking and hiking equipment. They laugh about becoming complete gear nerds and their long conversations about the virtues of walker’s wool for blister protection.
The Adventure Angels on The Great Wall of China.
After successfully completing their very first multi-day and international hike along The Great Wall of China, Liz and Di were exhilarated. However, on returning to Australia, they realised they had accomplished more than just a hike, they had created something so valuable in the hiking group, that they just couldn’t stop.
“The momentum snowballed from there”, Liz says, “and in the months afterwards we were training and completing Coastrek 30- and 60-kilometre charity day-hikes all over Australia, from the Fleurieu Peninsula in Adelaide, the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, to Bondi and Palm Beach in Sydney”. Together the group hiked the 125km multi-day Cape to Cape Walk in southern Western Australia - the highlight being able to combine hiking with incredible beaches, wine and food!
In late 2019, Liz, Di and I (Meg), walked the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail in Japan. Together they hiked the 4 day Nakahechi route from West to East across the Kii peninsula, with the highlight being the Kumano Hongu Taisha temple, deep in the middle of the peninsula. After so many hikes together, Liz and Di developed a post-hike recovery tradition of icy cold beer and hot chips.
Highlight of the Kumano Kodo: The Kumano Nachi Shrine and Nachi Falls.
Liz and Di’s families and children are incredibly supportive of their new found love of adventure, and can see how hiking has changed their lives. Di recalls, “I’d never been exposed to much sport growing up, so I’m proud of myself at my age for doing what I’ve done physically and mentally, and on the back of that, also forging friendships I’ll have for life. Now, nothing is a barrier for me.”
The Adventure Angels group travelled to Western Australia to hike the Cape to Cape Track, a 123 kilometre trail along the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge, between the lighthouses of Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin in the Margaret River region in the far south west of Western Australia.
From two friends to a group of at least 6 women, The Adventure Angels have found support, fitness and friendship in their regular sunrise hikes. While the COVID pandemic and long lockdowns in Australia have made it difficult for the hiking group to get together in the last 18 months, Liz and Di are determined to keep the group hiking together as often as they can.
With their sights set on Machu Picchu and the Via Alpina in Switzerland, The Adventure Angels are only just getting started. Together they are committed to hiking for as long as they can, both questioning: “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”
Author: Meg Appleby, Die Basler Wanderdamen hiking group
Meg always enjoyed being outside but an unexpected relocation from Australia to Switzerland plonked her in the outdoors equivalent of Mecca. Inspired by the über-fit Swiss she met on her day-hikes, Meg co-founded a hiking group and walked The Haute Route with the help of The Hiking Club. She lives to hike/snowshoe most weeks all over Switzerland and can’t think of a better pastime as she negotiates major mid-life changes.
The Hiking Club empowers anyone to walk the way they want in the wild with personalised self-guided hiking experiences that are easy to find, quick to plan and simple to navigate.
We believe hiking experiences have the power to transform lives. With a growing range of personalised hikes that take into account your preferences, fitness and interests, we give you everything you need to explore the legendary trails of the world!
Yoga is an ancient practice dating back some 5,000 years or more, but it’s not as old as the act of walking.
Studies have shown that hiking offers some parallel benefits to yoga bringing you not only physical but also mental well-being benefits.
The great thing about yoga is it offers total body conditioning, incorporating strength work, aerobic exercise, flexibility training and stretching. Like hiking, yoga brings you into the present moment and can be part of a soul-full practice.
The importance of maintaining a strong and flexible body for improved physical fitness while hiking in the mountains goes without saying. But many of us take it for granted that we need to keep our bodies in good condition to help us enjoy the sports we do and love.
After a day of hiking, you might develop some soreness and niggles in your body. More specifically in the back, shoulders, legs, hips, knees, ankles and feet.
Hiking in the mountains for several days or weeks at a time, carrying a heavy pack, camping or sleeping in unfamiliar beds, can take its toll on your body. Completing a fitness regime and training for your trip will ensure you are physically ready. But maintaining your body while you are hiking is just as important.
So why include yoga as part of your training regime for a hiking trip?
(and continue your practice on the trail)
Yoga helps to improve your balance, which reduces your chance of getting injured while hiking over varied terrain
Doing yoga strengthens your core muscles, which are important for your hiking endurance
Yoga promotes strength and mobility and will enable you to move more efficiently through the mountains and expend less energy
Yoga will reduce tightness in the key areas affected by hiking, that being the hips, hamstrings and lower back
Regular yoga practice will maintain loose muscles, and allow you a full range of motion
Yoga helps you feel more mentally balanced and helps you to relax, and that in turn brings physical health benefits
The beauty of yoga is that you can do it almost anywhere. To learn proper technique, like any new exercise you should seek out a qualified yoga instructor. Yoga is something you can do at the start of your day to warm up or at the end of the day as a reset. Yoga will maintain your body so you can continue to hike for longer with less risk of injury and reducing fatigue.
So how does yoga help you in other ways with your hiking experience?
Breathing is the most important thing you do; aside from keeping us alive, it is a way we connect to one another and all living creatures on the planet. It goes without saying that breathing techniques in yoga – pranayama (prana – vital life force; yama – to control), bring concentration to your practice and allow you to tune into your body.
These same techniques can be used during your hiking adventures, to center yourself and bring you into the moment, but also to help you get up those steep alpine climbs.
A slow and steady breath should be practiced while doing yoga and whilst hiking, and by learning to control your breath you will in turn keep your hiking at a steady manageable pace and bring yourself into the present moment.
A regular yoga practice will bring you a greater awareness of your bodily proprioception and control. Yoga builds your form, developing your strength, flexibility and balance. It can help reduce bodily pain and can calm the mind and reduce stress. By practicing a regular yoga routine, you will see the benefits throughout your life including when you hike the mountain trails.
Yoga teaches you to listen to your breath and to your body
You will be able to tune into the small signs that something may need attention when you are out hiking, and you will be able to rest up before you potentially do damage that could take some time to heal.
By practicing yoga, you will more easily be able to bring yourself into the moment.
As a result, when you are hiking you become more present in the experience of nature, and you will be aware of your surroundings and appreciate the very moment you are in.
What are you waiting for? Invest some time today in a new yoga practice, a mental and physical practice that will bring benefits to your hiking form and to the rest of your life.
Author: Alistair Crompton, France
Alistair is a hiking and running guide, and a yoga teacher based in the Chamonix Valley in the French Alps. After using yoga to help train for the Sydney marathon in 2014 he decided to qualify as a yoga teacher and since moving to the Alps, his love for trail running in Chamonix has led him to train as an international mountain leader, where he now combines his love of hiking, running and yoga. He is now trying to figure out how to combine his passion for paragliding!
All photography by Alistair Crompton.
The Hiking Club empowers anyone to walk the way they want in the wild with personalised self-guided hiking experiences that are easy to find, quick to plan and simple to navigate.
We believe hiking experiences have the power to transform lives. With a growing range of personalised hikes that take into account your preferences, fitness and interests, we give you everything you need to explore the legendary trails of the world!
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