Our first trek is the Via Alpina (formerley the Alpine Pass Route), which crosses Switzerland from East to West from Sargans to Montreux. The whole trek is well over 300km and takes between two and three weeks. We had walked this route previously in 2015 from West to East, reversing the traditional direction to suit flights into Geneva and out of Zurich. This time we’ll be walking the traditional direction from East to West after flying into Zurich. The most spectacular section of the Via Alpini that we’ll do is the central section from Altdorf to Kandersteg, a seven day through hike. The highest pass on the Via Alpina is the Hohturli (2,778m) between Griesalp and Kandersteg, which we hike on Friday September 6. Three other cols are above 2,500m while most cols are in the range 2,200m to 2,500m.
The Via Alpina travels past glaciated peaks such as the Wildstrubel (Kandersteg to Adelboden) and the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. The trail is at the upper end of the difficulty range needing confident foot placement and good balance - so the book tells us. A difficult route, but there’s no Via Ferrata like we experienced in the Dolomites in 2023.
The second trek will be the Via Alta Vallemaggia which offers a unique trekking experience for hikers seeking a ridgeway adventure in the Vallemaggia region of Ticino,the Italian part of southern Switzerland. The route traverses pre-Alpine landscapes with views across Lake Maggiore and Alpine landscapes including the Basodino glacier. It covers 200 km divided into 19 sections and alternates between red-and-white trails and blue-and-white Alpine tracks, including sections with difficulty ratings of up to T5–. We’ll be doing half of those sections. The route featuring grassy ridges, scree slopes, Alpine lakes, small snowfields, wildflower meadows, rocky ridges, larch woods and passages equipped with chains - but not quite Via Ferrata.
