Champex, Valais, Switzerland
My Circerone guide lists two options for the third day of
the Haute Route. One of those is over the Fenetre de Arpet, the official Haute
Route way to Champex. The other is the Col de Bovine, the lower, less demanding
route that’s officially part of the Tour de Mont Blanc. I may be crazy, but I
decided to go for the harder one with the alleged better scenery. The route
through the Fenetre de Arpet involves an almost 5,000 foot altitude gain and
near 4,000 foot descent, both sides of which are steep and involve some
scrambling, much like hiking a Colorado fourteener but not at as high an
altitude. The guidebook says it’s seven hours from Trient to Champex. Ha! I
knew I’d be lucky to make it in ten.
I got a quite early 7:45 start from Trient. The first part
of the trail was mostly through the woods and sloped up for a while until
reaching a Bisse, an irrigation watercourse used in the dry Rhone Valley
similar to the Lavadas on Madeira. On a low grade ascent I’m pretty fast – kind
of like walking uphill on a treadmill. I was proud of myself when I made it to
the first landmark, a snack stand called the Chalet du Glacier, in the hour and
twenty minutes the guidebook said it would take.
That’s when things started getting really slow. The trail quickly
got quite steep as it climbed first through forest and then through rocky barren
country above timberline, much of the distance with stunning views over the
Glacier du Trient, still considered part of the Mont Blanc Massif. Like most glaciers
in the Alps, though, it’s sadly receding.
The grueling climb to Fenetre de Arpet (window of Arpet) gap
in the mountain ridge was every bit as strenuous as climbing a Colorado
fourteener with a steep rocky steep trail almost all the way and lots of
scrambling. It felt like it would never end, but I finally made it in just
under six hours. The view down in the other direction from the top was just as
intimidating but without the beauty of the glacier, just lots of barren rock. I kept my lunch stop short and started the
fearful descent.
From the top the first part of the way down looked almost
vertical and was very slow going. This was followed some distance farther by a
boulder field that was a struggle to cross. Bouldering can actually be quite
fun, but I was tired enough at this point and with by significant backpack that
I wasn’t getting much joy out of it.
About an hour down from the pass I took a longer break, lizarding myself
in the sun on a large flat rock for a while once I was confident the most
treacherous parts of the descent were behind me.
The rest of the way down was not necessarily easy, though,
being very rocky almost all the way to Arpet rather than a pleasant trail. I
had also made the mistake of not having enough water for the full day with me. The
author of the Cicerone Guide writes that he drinks out of safe-seeming water
sources in the Alps. I filled up my water bottles twice from steep streams
flowing down the mountain side, since I felt quite confident there were neither
humans camping nor cows grazing above these near vertical slopes.
I decided to stop at the first hotel with dormitory beds at
Arpet rather than walking all the way to Champex. The Relais d’Arpet was
delightful and for 67 Swiss francs I had a dorm bed for the night, three course
dinner of soup, salad, venison stew over mashed potatoes, and dessert, and breakfast
in the morning.
The Swiss Franc is currently valued at about $1.
03 which
makes conversions pretty simple. That’s a far cry from when I was in Switzerland
in 1991 and got about 2.5 Francs to the dollar. That said, though, while things
are more expensive in Switzerland than other countries, prices are not
completely outrageous. That would be Norway!
I also figured out why the Tour de Mont Blanc is so much
more popular than the Haute Route. Besides being shorter, it’s also possible to
stay in places each night that are accessible by road. Most of these people on
the trail walking with tiny little light packs, including some staying in the
dorm rooms, are getting their luggage delivered to their hotel each night. Hey,
that’s cheating! It’s all part of
organized touring. I guess I’m a purist. I don’t even have reservations along the
route.
2025-05-22