Switzerland this summer

I'd love to hear from any of the VFTT group with experience hiking and backpacking in Switzerland. Some of you may recall my 7-week solo backpacking trip in Scotland last summer ( http://werdigo49.com/ ); in fact, advice from members of this group was very helpful. This is what's in the works (already paid for, etc.) this summer:

First, I'll be with an ADK tour: 4 days day-hiking out of a Saas-Fee hotel, then 4 days based in Zermatt. This is my first time with a group --- a little trepidation! I'm a pretty fair walker for my age, but I'm not a 40-year-old marathoner and mountain runner any more. We'll see.

But then I'll be on my own for another 3 weeks (June 28 to July 19). I'm planning to walk the Chamonix-Zermatt "Haute Route" (but from Zermatt, where the ADK tour ends, to Chamonix). From Chamonix I'll catch some ground transportation to Geneva for one night in a hotel there before my next-morning flight home.

I have the five 1:50K topo maps recommended in Kev Reynolds's guidebook to this route (also have his guide to hikes in the Valaisan Alps, which discusses some of the ADK tour's scheduled walks). I found a good map http://map.wanderland.ch that shows the Swiss Unit latitude/longitude (each 6 digits!) of the cursor, so I've been picking out the Haute Route, recording waypoint coordinates on a spreadsheet, then entering them in my Garmin 76CSx GPS receiver. (Somebody must have done this already, but I haven't found it.)

"Wild camping" with my silicone tarp and hiking pole is my preference, but it's not as easy in Switzerland --- from what I've read --- as it was in Scotland. I joined the Swiss Alpine Club and will probably stay in some of their many huts. ("Bring money," I know... as a SAC member, at least I get a discount.) The plan is to be equipped to camp out if it looks feasible, so I'll be carrying my ~40-lb. backpack.

That's the plan, guys... I have my tickets and that last night's hotel reservation (night of July 18) in Geneva. Suggestions or advice?

--Werdigo49

Kev Reynolds' book is the official bible of English speaking Haute Routers, but I have my reservations. His basic aim is to get you from Chamonix to Zermatt during a two week vacation, and to do so he has no choice but to cut corners. Let me suggest that you look at my web site: Walkers Haute Route, Chamonix to Zermatt and, more specifically, Choosing a Route.

I have not checked the status of the Europaweg this year, but here is a long thread from last year: Europaweg re-routing.

I will obviously be happy to answer any questions, either on this thread or by PM.

More to the point, have a great trip!

Mohamed Ellozy said:

Kev Reynolds' book is the official bible of English speaking Haute Routers, but I have my reservations. His basic aim is to get you from Chamonix to Zermatt during a two week vacation, and to do so he has no choice but to cut corners. Let me suggest that you look at my web site: Walkers Haute Route, Chamonix to Zermatt and, more specifically, Choosing a Route.

I have not checked the status of the Europaweg this year, but here is a long thread from last year: Europaweg re-routing.

I will obviously be happy to answer any questions, either on this thread or by PM.

More to the point, have a great trip!

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks, Mohamed! I'll spend some time this evening with this excellent resource.

werdigo49 said:

I found a good map http://map.wanderland.ch that shows the Swiss Unit latitude/longitude (each 6 digits!) of the cursor, so I've been picking out the Haute Route, recording waypoint coordinates on a spreadsheet, then entering them in my Garmin 76CSx GPS receiver. (Somebody must have done this already, but I haven't found it.)

Click to expand...

Before you spend too much time recording waypoints have a look at a free OSM-based Garmin-compatible hiking map of Switzerland. Download the switzerland_mapsource file, double click on it, and it will be installed in MapSource or Basecamp.

It is a crowdsourced map, but almost all the segments of the Haute Route are on it.

Mohamed, you've walked this route...is my hope of "wild camping" feasible, or should I just plan to use the huts and hotels? I've seen various opinions about Swiss wild-camping, from "illegal" to "officially discouraged" to "OK." (I think it's actually illegal in France, but I won't be there long.)

The maps show some areas as woodland; I was thinking they might provide a way to get off the trail, and out of sight, to set up one of my leave-no-trace one-night camps.

Sorry to be of no help ... I had no interest in camping so did no research. Note that in several years of hiking in Switzerland I have never seen a tent outside a village campground.

You might check this long thread ... I have not looked at it carefully since the matter does not really interest me: Wild camping allowed?

We didn't do the Haute Route, but did do the Tour Mont Blanc. We rarely saw tents and when we did, they were often pitched near huts (I think near the huts are the only official places to camp - so it kind of defeats the purpose).

pudgy_groundhog said:

... (I think near the huts are the only official places to camp - so it kind of defeats the purpose).

Click to expand...

Not if the purpose is to save money

Yes, if you want to save money, then camping will help with that. But what you decrease in cost, you increase in pack weight. I find the cost wasn't bad for making the hiking easier, as well as a hot meal, shower, and bed at the end of the day.

If you are camping for a more "wilderness" experience, then that is more difficult if you are camping by the huts.

It is very possible that you may run into some snow/snowstorms during this timeframe, so keep that in mind (we got slammed by a 2 foot snowstorm on the Tour du Mont Blanc on July 4th/July 5th a few years ago).

The huts in the alps are the finest in the world in my opinion, and are worth every single dime. Unless you absolutely love camping and desire a somewhat wilderness-y experience (FYI there isn't much of a "wilderness" feeling in the alps these days), I would strongly encourage you to embrace these amazing huts.

Woah... less than a week to my departure for Switzerland, and you guys have me rethinking my whole strategy. But the tarp, Z-rest, and sleeping bag weigh only a few pounds. Maybe I can get along without the stove and fuel canister... how about the water filter?

EDIT: If anyone is wondering why I didn't think of this before, of course it's getting to be crunch time, and until now choosing the mode of my trip could be put off. I'm starting to think that my hope of wild-camping did not properly consider the differences between Switzerland and, say, the Adirondacks, or even Scotland. Roadtripper's note that "there isn't much of a 'wilderness' feeling in the alps these days," and others' notes about the absence of visible tents, is finally bringing this home. Well, still a few days to weigh things, literally and figuratively.

--W49