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While the term haute route has become somewhat genericized for any of the many multi-day, hut-to-hut alpine tours, the "Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route" remains the original. Besides the original Haute Route, there is nowadays also a "Walker's" Haute Route, which is an alpine hiking trail that follows a network of well-marked and signposted paths.
It is considered one of the classic long-distance hiking trails. The circular route is normally walked in a counter-clockwise direction in 9-14 days. [1] It is also the route of an annual ultramarathon, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, which covers the entire distance at once with a time limit of 46 hours and 30 minutes. [2]
There are two sections: from Chamonix to Plan de l'Aiguille at 2,317 m (7,602 ft) and then directly, without any support pillar, to the upper station at 3,777 m (the building contains an elevator to the summit). The span of the second section is 2,867 m (1.781 mi) measured directly, but only 2,500 m (1.6 mi) measured horizontally.
The Aiguille du Midi Cable Car in Chamonix attracts 500,000 people each year and gives views over much of the massif, and up towards Mont Blanc itself. From Chamonix it rises to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi at 3,842 metres (12,605 ft), and holds the world record for the highest vertical ascent of any cable car (2,807 m (9,209 ft)). [5]
The first long-distance hiking trail in Europe was the National Blue Trail of Hungary, established in 1938. The formation of the European Union made transnational hiking trails possible. Today, the network consists of 12 paths and covers more than 65,000 kilometres (40,000 mi), crisscrossing Europe.
Trail maps are produced in a variety of scales, sizes, formats, and media, depending on the audience and purpose of the map. Some trail maps have been extensively edited for content giving detail about nearby features, places of interest, or interesting facts, while some maps may only give minimal information of the trail. Hiking sometimes ...
Mer de Glace, Dent du Géant (4,013 m) and Grandes Jorasses (4,208 m) in Chamonix (c. 1890) Tramway du Mont-Blanc , at Bellevue Station (1,794 m) in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains Jacques Balmat at the side of Horace-Benedict de Saussure , "The Father of Alpinism", in a monument erected at Chamonix
Argentière is located near the head of the Valley of Chamonix approximately 7 km (4 mi) from Chamonix town. It is connected by road with Switzerland by the pass over the Col des Montets and the Col de la Forclaz to Martigny in the Rhône Valley.