If you need a little something to get you through the summer, here's a video my buddy put together of our trip this Spring through the Alps. We started outside Chamonix and ended up at the base of the Matterhorn in Zermatt. There were seven of us along with two Swiss guides. If you're interested in skiing the Haute Route, this will give you a taste of what it's like. Skiers are my wife and I, my buddy and his daughter, two friends from Holland, and another friend who lives in the Alps (totally cheating- he's done this six times before). Hope you enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQdMYFyFxiY&t=371s

Wow!  Thanks.  

Wow - very cool.  I enjoyed the blog link on the you tube video.

Here is is for others to read.

http://hauteroute2017.weebly.com/

Blue Don 1982 wrote:

Wow - very cool.  I enjoyed the blog link on the you tube video.

Here is is for others to read.

http://hauteroute2017.weebly.com/

 

ridenski, bravo to one and all.  tremendous accomplishment.  So much climbing.  Are you careful to train and prepare beforehand?  hope you don't mind if I repost a few photos from link provided by bluedon.

I have many questions that can best be answered by asking the outfit that arranged this for your group.  Could you post a link.  Thanks.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Great read. Thanks for sharing.

I love, love Les Grand Montets ski area. Spent many a Saturday there back in the mid-to-late 90s. We would occasionally talk about hiring a guide and doing the Vallee Blanche but never did:

https://www.chamonix.net/english/winter-activities/off-piste-skiing/vallee-blanche

Our reasoning for never doing this was that the Vallee Blanche skiing for the most part was intermediate level and we did not want to miss a day at Les Grand Montets. Looking back on that decision now it seems like a missed opportunity. Wish I could talk some sense into younger me...

Thanks guys for posting some of the pics and the blog link! I forgot about all the pics included with the blog posts. I think you can get the impression- this was the trip of a lifetime. As far as training for it and the degree of difficulty, I would say it's the hardest trip I've done. Much more difficult for me than marathons, backpacking trips or hilly 100-mile bike rides. We did many uphill laps at Timberline with beacon/probe/shovel/full packs for training, which definitely helped. Our chief problem was leaving the DC area Thursday night and starting the trip Saturday morning. Those who spent a week or more at altitude beforehand had an easier time. I knew that would be a problem in advance but underestimated how much. With our work/vacation schedules there was no other way for us to get there for the Saturday start. Even with Diamox in advance we struggled for the first several days. By Wednesday things were much better. Won't do this again without acclimatizing.

Our guides were arranged through Michael Kimmig guide service (www.michaelkimmig.ch) and were excellent. Martin Kimmig, Michael's son, was our lead guide. He did a great job and we would definitely use him again. He was recommended to us through some Swiss ski pros my buddy taught with back in his glory days. Martin and his assistant guide were awesome. There are a lot of Haute Route guides online. We shared huts with several other guided groups most nights, and everyone seemed to be pretty happy with their groups for what that's worth. With groups of six or fewer they will do the trip with one guide, but we were very happy to have an assistant guide in training along with us.

Feel free to PM me if you want more details. Every time I watch the vid I want to go back and do the trip again.