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TR: Urner Haute Route 2019
Two years ago I first heard about "haute routes" in Europe. Immediately hooked I started the long plan. At that time I'd spent maybe a dozen days in the backcountry, including my first "hut trip" during my level 1.
This March it all came together in a big way. Not only did we get an incredible weather window, but the real cherry on top was the BBI-Euro get together at Mt. Lodge Sedrun (@vendul's place) ahead of time.
I owe Buster Highman a huge debt for all his Euro-beta, and particularly his guide recommendation. This trip was with Dan -- the owner of Andermatt Guides (http://andermatt-guides.ch). An American who sailed to Europe about two decades ago, fell in love with the skiing of the Gemstock and never left.
A shout out to Martin @ Bild Sektor: https://www.bildsektor.ch/ . Martin is a photographer and film maker who works with Dan a good bit and supplied some of the following pics.
This is going to take a while to write out over the next few days.
Background
The Urner haute route -- aka "the skiers haute route" -- travels from Realp outside of Andermatt to Engelberg. It is traditionally done in 5 or 6 days depending on your variation.
Here is the variation we ended up traveling on the amazing Swiss Topo site: https://s.geo.admin.ch/8106d95240. More later on these national cartographic treasures.
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We did a 5 day variation (less common, for reasons covered later.) That means 4 nights in "huts". Carry all your gear and some very minor stuff for around the huts. Most days were 1200-1500m of climbing, and in total a bit more descending.
Day 1: Realp to Albert Heim Hut
Took the train to Andermatt with all the BBI folks, then met Dan my guide out front. A quick gear check in which I realized I left my poles at the hotel (which Dan quickly solved at a nearby basement) and then on the train to Realp. Our party for the next five days was 5: Dan, two Dutch brothers, and Martin -- a filmographer friend of Dan's. A 15 minute train, then skins on at the rail station. This is one of the amazing things about Europe -- you jump off a train then walk to fantastic skiing.
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Followed a plowed road for a few thousand vert to lunch on a warm day. Then up a ridge prior to the hut (which you can see perched in the background.)
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Turned around and skied this untouched field as our first line of the trip.
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Skinned back up to the hut. And got some rest. One of the few heated rooms in the hut was one designed just for drying out your stink. After a few days of skiing with mags, and drinking a bit too much, the 4k ft of skinning in sun I was pretty worked.
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This was the only hut in which we were quite sternly advised not to drink the tap water. Non-potable water is pretty common in many huts -- you'll find everything from "do not drink" to "your call, its meltwater" to "we have the purest water in the world." In every hut, large serving of tea can be ordered in 1 or 2L servings. I think this was 8CHF (approx $8) for a 2L, which is cheaper than bottled water as its just melt water boiled plus tea.
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We also met Balz who would join us for a day. Crazy fit dude who is one of the original funders behind Faction. He was on some pretty nice looking prototype fat touring sticks.
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After a 4 course dinner: soup, salad, main, and dessert we had our evening "map time ritual." The Swiss topo maps are truly a work of cartographic wonder. The 1:25000 maps are so fine grained detailed, someone who reads them well can distinguish between small cliff bands of varying steepness. Every evening we reviewed the days route and talked about options for the next. We'd always have a plan and that plan would almost always get altered. Mostly because our guide loved hunting good snow and saw he had a bunch of fit, relatively able skiers.
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At the end, you settle up with the hut keeper old school
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