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Morzine Activity Review: 26th September 2011

Hiking the Dents du Midi - 4 day hike with stopovers in mountain refuges

featured in Activity reviews Author Phil Smith, Updated

For something a little different from the usual two wheel adventures we recently completed a multi day hike around the distinctive Dents du Midi mountains in Switzerland (Toblerone-like spikes sitting above Champery). The big target apart from getting around the mountains was to bag the highest peak of the range, the Haute Cime, all 3257m of it!

The hike would require four days walking and three nights in the mountain refuges dotted conveniently along the route. We waited for a weather window and then went ahead and pre-booked the refuges. The route can be quite busy, as it's very well known, so it is advisable to pre-book.

You can start the hike in Morzine heading over the Col du Cou to Barme and onwards to the first nights stop at the refuge de Susanfe. Due to time constraints (and a little bit because my cycling specific legs and feet may not have been up to the job of intense multiday hiking) we started in Champery, or more specifically, drove to the end of the road by the Grand Paradis chair lift making the first and last days a little shorter.

At a leisurely pace we headed up through forested terrain giving way to an increasingly steep climb culminating in chained sections on the final steeper parts to the top of the Pas d'Encel. The path crosses the cascading river/waterfall tumbling out of the Glacier du Mont Ruan, the latter responsible for cutting the pass we hiked through. It was then a gentler gradient through grassy terrain to our first stop.

The refuge de Susanfe is a little on the basic side being accessible only on foot, some of the later refuges are a little more swanky as they are accessible by four wheel drive. I like the more basic approach and it adds to the adventure feeling, as does the view; peaks, glaciers, big country. Considering location the food is good, soup followed pasta followed by apple puree. Don't be expecting a choice from a menu or vast quantities but to compensate you can treat yourself to a beer or wine. Sleeping wise, we enjoyed a small dorm so you need to be considerate to others as an incumbent lady reminded us as we clambered into bed; she proceeded to snore prodigiously for the rest of the night.

A breakfast of muesli, bread, jam and coffee set us up for the main event, my main event anyway, an assault on the summit of the Haute Cime. Only hitch was the low thick cloud, we waited it out with another coffee and spying some breaks in the cloud set off for our attempt! Hiking to the Col de Susanfe gaining another 400m put us squarely into a moonscape of rock - barren and impressive.

At the Col we turned steeply upwards in the direction of the Col des Paresaux and above that the peak of the Haute Cime (viewed from the Morzine side of the World it is the very right hand peak). Initially traversing a huge scree slope , disappointingly without a view of a towering peak as a target (the cloud didn‘t help) and finally clambering over the bedrock to the iron cross at the summit. The route instantly gives way to a vertiginous drop of around 2000m to Champery. We gingerly peeked over the edge, lying down to admire the view, I was certainly not up for dangling my toes over the edge for a snap of the conquered summit.

We retraced our steps back to the Col slipping and sliding down the scree. More downhill followed as we headed for the impressive Lac de Salanfe and our nights stopover in the refuge of the same name. We toasted our summit success with a couple more beers admiring the stunning surrounds and the summit itself.

This and the next refuge (Chindonne) were a little more luxurious, showers and a bar for example, due in no small part to the access four wheel drive track. No snoring either which was good because the next days hike was a mighty 8 hours (with stops) and by now the previous day's summit was kicking in a little.

The high point for me of this day was the Village of Mex, picturesque narrow cobbled streets. We stopped off for coffee and finished off the refuge rations (pack lunch) of sandwich (two whole slices of bread), ham, cheese, miniature apple, a carrot (!?!) and half a bar of Swiss chocolate - tasted fantastic, including the carrot.

The last day we traversed under the peaks of the Dents du Midi which you would see looking from Morzine for another 8 hours of walking. The view was back to our play ground, Portes du Soleil and its wider reaches; Champery Val D'Illiez, Barme and Col du Cou. Looking up to our left we got an impressive sensation of the peaks of the Dents looming above us.

The main event was the climb to the Haute Cime, although it was an all round top experience (hard to do 4 days and 3 great nights justice in so few words - it was brilliant). An alternative to doing the lap around the Dents would be to walk from Morzine via the Col du Cou and Barme to Susanfe. Overnight in the refuge and then hit the summit early the next day and go for a marathon hike back to Morzine although realistically spreading the effort over three days would be better.

Bonne Route!