Hans Rey, Holger Meyer, photographer Scott Markewitz and I (Daniel Caruso) have completed the first half of the classic Alpine tour from Chamonix to Zermatt. The Haute Route is actually designed for hikers and ski tourers. The English Alpine Club opened this most famous of all high mountain tours in the middle of the 19th century. Since then, countless variations of this route have been created. Travelling one of them on a mountain bike is incredibly strenuous, but well worth it: on the way from the foot of Mont Blanc (4,810 m) to the Matterhorn (4,478 m), we encounter dozens of four-thousand-metre peaks. We ride on flowing single trails through mountain forests, across flower-dotted alpine pastures and stop off in picturesque villages that squeeze into narrow high valleys. We have to cover at least 6,000 metres in altitude in five to six long days on our bikes and in very different terrain: from cruelly rocky hiking trails to steep mule tracks and fantastic single trails, the route offers all kinds of variations.
The entire article about the Haute Route is available as a PDF download.
