Mountain Adventure Holidays
Stephen descending the glacier to Zermatt
I joined a friendly group in Saas Grund for the start of the Tour de Monte Rosa. After a cloudy morning on the first day, we were hugely lucky to have almost perfect weather for the next eight days.
Our route went clockwise around the Mote Rosa massif, so from Saas Grund we crossed over the Monte Moro pass and into Italy, then steeply down to Macugnaga for the first night. We then had three excellent days walking up from an overnight stop in one valley head, over a high ridge and down to the next stop in the neighbouring valley head. There were comfy huts/hotels with good Italian food and drink at each location. A strenuous day then took us up to an uncomfortable sleep-deprived night in a hut perched above the Theodule pass on the Italian/Swiss border.
The next day we tip-toed down a slippery glacier for a bit before descending to busy, expensive Zermatt for the night. In the morning we took the underground train up to Sunnegga and followed the Europaweg path contouring above the Mattertal valley. This now includes an impressive 0.5k long suspension bridge built last year to overcome the risk of serious stone-fall on this very loose section.
The following day, we couldn't use the next section of the Europaweg because of stone-fall, so we descended from the Europahutte to Randa on the valley floor, walked for half a day to St Nicholas and then climbed back up to meet the end of the Europaweg at Grachen. The last day was along the Hohenweg which was another, even more spectacular, balcony path linking the Mattertal and Saastal valleys high above Visp, and then all the way back to Sass Grund.
I would recommended this route highly. The scenery was simply wonderful for the entire trip and the paths were very quiet. Some days we hardly saw other walkers. Quite different from the Tour de Mont Blanc or the Haute Route nowadays.
Our Tour du Monte Rosa dates are available HERE.
