Dream of re-hiking the Walker’s Haute Route






In 2014, six of us did our 1st major thru-hike, the Walker’s Haute Route. The Walker’s Haute Route is the classic trek across the Swiss Alps starting in Chamonix at the base of Mont Blanc, Western Europe's Highest Peak, and concluding in Zermatt at the base of the Matterhorn, the world's most recognizable and stunningly beautiful peak. 

About a year ago, our hiking group started discussing hiking the Haute Route again - but doing it better based on everything we've learned about thru-hiking over the last eight years. 

So, as we began to imagine traveling again post-Covid, we selected some dates and began making plans to hike in the Alps in August 2022. 

Our "hike it better plan" includes packing much lighter, incorporating more specific training, and building our schedule with more "rest days" to allow for recovery. 

So the six of us, after one knee replacement, several cortisone shots in different body parts, and another hiker's recovery from a broken leg, have committed to months of training including hiking with weighted packs, hill training, and strength training. We are are a few days away from flying to Europe to start our hike. We are excited, but also know what we have ahead of us — a very challenging hike! 

Our hiking group - eight years older than the last time we hiked the Haute Route, but much wiser - includes:


Chanda (EB aka Energizer Bunny) & Tom (T3 aka Tom Lyons lll)



Kris (MG aka Mountain Goat) & Kevin (KWE aka Kiwi)


Betsy (TT aka Tenacious Turtle) & Greg (SS aka Speedy Slim)


It’s really hard to find much elevation for training in Minnesota, so we have to be creative! We have trained at Hyland Lake Park Reserve (hiking up and down the ski hills); Lake Minnewashta Regional Park, Carver County Regional Park, and Gale Woods Farm. Wherever we train, we find the hills and do “hill repeats” - basically going up and down the same hill over and over. We all are training with packs slightly over the weight we are aiming to carry. Now, we are wrapping our training while at the same time getting our final packing done. We are ready for the challenge!

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